The Buffalo Tourist

The Buffalo Tourist Tour guide, Street art lover, and Foodie in Buffalo, NY. Follow for restaurant recommendations, fun facts, and insider tips on the best Buffalo has to offer.

08/19/2025

Let's dance!

After sampling a bit of their food at A Cooks Tour, we decided to dine at Lago 210 and we were not disappointed. The res...
02/09/2023

After sampling a bit of their food at A Cooks Tour, we decided to dine at Lago 210 and we were not disappointed. The restaurant has a lovely location on Lake Erie and it was a beautiful evening.

We started with the shish*to peppers, nachos, coffee-crusted pork belly, and the mezze board. Although you may find these appetizers at other restaurants, I am pleased to say they were not ordinary or simply good. They were very tasty and distinctive. My personal favorite was the delicious pork belly!

Our main courses were the shrimp jambalaya, duck breast, and the harvest bowl. All hit the mark and were distinctively good. We splurged on dessert after hearing that the desserts were made by their sister restaurant, Sweet Pea Bakery. We ordered the cheesecake and flan. It is definitely worth saving room for dessert or perhaps a trip to Sweet Pea!

The staff was very professional and did a fabulous job with our group of regular diners. I would most definitely return for a comfortable, delicious meal!

Recently while having dinner at Coco Bar & Bistro I was excited to see this new mural across the street! It is called '...
02/06/2023

Recently while having dinner at Coco Bar & Bistro I was excited to see this new mural across the street! It is called 'Traits points taches gribouillage' or 'Lines dots stains scribbles'. It was done by the French artist, Herve Tullet, a multifaceted artist and world-renowned children’s book author. This is his second permanent mural ever installed and it is part of the Buffalo Albright-Knox public art initiative.

The AKG said that Tullet’s work is at its most meaningful when it is activating others and encouraging play. Working with community partners, Tullet shared his design for the mural with the Buffalo Arts Studio, which collaborated with students in the Jump Start program. The students used Polytab, a non-woven material that is easily transported and sectioned, to create the work in their studio space. They arranged, prepared, further developed, and painted the mural over the course of two intensive weeks at Buffalo Arts Studio.

The AKG's website posits that the result of this mural is a shared experience far greater than the sum of its constituent parts. That the artist and his student collaborators used simple elements—primary colors, simple shapes, spontaneous gestures—to create a work of unadulterated joy, brimming with audacious movement that seeks to inspire the creative capacity in all of us.

It certainly is a happy mural and a lovely addition to Main Street!

Canalside in Buffalo has some fun public art thanks to the Buffalo AKG Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox). I am thinkin...
02/04/2023

Canalside in Buffalo has some fun public art thanks to the Buffalo AKG Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox). I am thinking back to a warm summer afternoon when I was walking to meet some friends and stopped, as always to admire Shark Girl. Whenever I have friends visiting Buffalo for the first time I require the Shark Girl picture. Shark Girl is one of the first pieces of public art done by Buffalo AKG. It was done by Casey Riordan Millard. Shark Girl was originally conceived as the artist reflected upon the existential conundrums of life, love, family, and loss. Shark Girl’s yearnings and desires for normalcy and acceptance trigger equal parts laughter and empathy.

Misuta Chows is a restaurant, bar, and arcade. It is a very unique spot located on Main Street, Buffalo. The decor is u...
02/02/2023

Misuta Chows is a restaurant, bar, and arcade. It is a very unique spot located on Main Street, Buffalo. The decor is unique and includes lanterns hanging from the ceiling on the first floor. If you enter from the back you will see the Sudo's Dragon Mural. The back stairs are painted pink and glitter. Upstairs holds an arcade that is one of a kind.
We did not make a reservation for two on a Thursday evening. That was a mistake but fortunately, there was room at the bar to have dinner. We started with drinks, the Karen and the Sake-Toomi. The Karen was done well and was good to look at too!
We shared the Pork Gyozo appetizer. It was very good. I was sad to see that my favorite appetizer, the octopus balls, was no longer served. One of our entrees was the Japanese fried rice, bok choy, and house-made kimchi adding the soft egg and the spice bomb. I had spicy shrimp ramen. It was very good!
The staff was truly entertaining. The food and drink were good. Misuta Chows is an adventure and an experience. It is definitely worth the time to explore!

International street artist Tabby visited Buffalo and created 20 stencil-spray works. Tabby resides in Austria but after...
01/30/2023

International street artist Tabby visited Buffalo and created 20 stencil-spray works. Tabby resides in Austria but after designing one mural in Buffalo he wanted to do a series of small stencil murals in Buffalo. He was scheduled to come in April 2020. But when the plague descended he was forced to postpone. After several months when international travel was no closer to resuming Tabby had someone in Buffalo put up two of his stencils.
It was not until May 2022 that Tabby was able to come to the US. In all public appearances, he wears a costume to mask his look. The street artist was originally brought to Western New York by Jesse Zuefle another local artist. Zuefle, an artist himself (who operates under the pseudonym "BanksyHatesMe") also contributed to the project. After four intense days and almost 50 hours of work, they produced another 18 works around town.
It is kind of like a treasure hunt around town to find the murals. Even with addresses, it is not easy to find them and photograph them.
This piece is located at 437 Ellicott Street. I will post more but feel free to let me know which ones you find as you travel around Buffalo!

There is a new man dancing in the outer harbor of Buffalo. Flat man had the spot for the last five years and now Round M...
01/28/2023

There is a new man dancing in the outer harbor of Buffalo. Flat man had the spot for the last five years and now Round Man has stepped up to dance by the water.

Round Man is a 20-foot steel sculpture. He originated at Griffis Sculpture Park & The Essex Arts Center in East Otto, NY. Round Man, created in 1967 by Buffalo sculptor, Larry Griffis Jr., is an iconic piece that originated at Griffis Sculpture Park. The sculpture stands almost three stories high and weighs close to 2,500 lbs. It was created over 55 years ago and stayed in the park all that time until moving to its new location. Before the move, the sculpture was refurbished at Essex Art Center. The steel that makes up Round Man was designed and donated by Bethlehem Steel. This type of steel is no longer in production today. It came directly from Griffis Sculpture Park to ensure that the refurbishing of Round Man had the same look and age as the existing steel.

A changed look but the same feel. Definitely worth a walk to water by the Bell Slip.

There have been many changes over the years at The Barrel Factory in the Old First Ward Buffalo. There is a unique event...
01/26/2023

There have been many changes over the years at The Barrel Factory in the Old First Ward Buffalo. There is a unique events center, bar, distillery, apartments, and kayak store. Recently the restaurant portion of the business was revamped. On a gorgeous fall Sunday afternoon I enjoyed lunch on the outdoor patio. We started with a beer made there by Pressure Drop Brewing. There were many to choose from, with some distinctive flavors. We were offered tastes before choosing. We shared two samplers - beef on weck and Buffalo wing. Both had an interesting mix of traditional fare with some interesting twists.
The beef on weck had two slider-style roast beef sandwiches as well as "egg rolls" which were filled with roast beef and the outside of the roll had salt and wick on the outside. Both are very good and not just the usual grub. The Buffalo sampler came with 5 wings - your choice of sauce. There was also a play on a spring roll that was prepared like Buffalo-style wings, deep fried and covered in wing sauce. A sampler of these non-traditional items was perfect! We added a small order of their boozle berry chicken wings. The sauce was a little sweet, however if you eat wings correctly, with bleu Cheese, then it became a well-balanced dish.
The staff was pleasant and helpful and seemed to enjoy doing their job. The space is clean, comfortable, and interesting. It's worth a walk around the building. The restaurant and food had that comfortable feel of the Old First Ward, tasty, relaxed, and reasonable. It is a lovely stop for a casual meal.

The sculpture outside of One M&T Plaza was designed by Harry Bertoia in coordination with the architect Minoru Yamasaki....
10/29/2022

The sculpture outside of One M&T Plaza was designed by Harry Bertoia in coordination with the architect Minoru Yamasaki. It is meant to serve as a contrast: a curved structure against the straight line of the building.
With its white marble exterior and narrow windows, the building, built in 1966, is easy to identify on Main Street Buffalo. Minoru Yamasaki is considered one of the leading innovators of the architectural style called New Formalism. He was best known for designing the World Trade Center in New York City. As he was designing the plans for those towers, his plans for One M&T Plaza in Buffalo were becoming a reality. In 1963 the president of M&T Bank chose Yamasaki to build the bank’s new headquarters in downtown Buffalo. M&T liked that Yamasaki’s style was contemporary but that it still reflected the bank’s tradition of classical ornamentation. Construction on the tower began in1964 and the building officially opened in 1966.
The main entrance has columns interspersed with arches. Yamasaki used green trim marble imported from Italy on the base of the building on the north and south sides. White marble is used on the exterior except for the green marble on the base. The white and green were intentionally used together as they are the brand colors of

Kyle Holbrook is the artist that painted this mural called 'Peace Buffalo'.Holbrook has lost most of his friends from ch...
10/24/2022

Kyle Holbrook is the artist that painted this mural called 'Peace Buffalo'.
Holbrook has lost most of his friends from childhood to gun violence, forty five (45) total victims. The murals are meant to be a place of healing for himself and the families of the victim's remembrance of lost loved ones.
The Mural is also intended to bring awareness and serve as a constant reminder so the victims and families are not forgotten. By being so visible the mural hopes to encourage people to develop solutions to Gun Violence such as changing Gun Laws.
‘Peace Buffalo’ is part of a national mural tour to all 50 states.
The mural is meant to be simple so the message is easily attained directly in the heart of downtown Buffalo. The mural is located in the 500 block on Main Street Buffalo.

Roosevelt Plaza is a small urban park between Gold Dome Bank (now M&T Bank) and the Electric Tower. The statute is calle...
10/22/2022

Roosevelt Plaza is a small urban park between Gold Dome Bank (now M&T Bank) and the Electric Tower. The statute is called the Hiker. It is 7 feet tall and the soldier is dressed in a uniform from the Spanish American War. It was completed in 1920 and was done by Alan Newman.
The park is small and you might miss the statute and unique nature of the little park if you don't slow down and look up. You should definitely do that the next time you take a walk up Main Street!

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