Downtown Buffalo Adventure
- elambranam06
- Dec 29, 2025
- 5 min read
On Thursday, December 11th I decided that it was finally time to see what a day in a big big city would look like. For most of my stay in the Buffalo area, I had actually been staying in Williamsville near Depew. However, since I was so close to a giant New York City, I decided I had to go into it's heart to see what it would feel like. Overall, I was a little underwhelmed with my trip into Buffalo-but not in a bad way.
I had done some research a few days prior and decided the cheapest way to get into downtown Buffalo was to ride the bus. Despite the relatively long bus ride, I didn't take any pictures, because I figured you guys have gotten enough bus selfies from my other posts. After about an hour of travel time, I arrived in Lafayatte Square-right in the middle of downtown Buffalo. Unfortunately, my toes were freezing from waiting for the bus, so I decided to take a pit stop at the central branch library to warm up. After about an hour of lazing about and enjoying the warmth of the library, I began my first mission: walk down to and check out Canalside.
Since I was finally warm and my cold toes weren't driving me nuts, I was able to soak in the surrounding area better. The first thing that struck me was how few people were walking about. When I think of any major city in New York, I think of crowded streets and busy roads. While the streets and roads certainly weren't empty during my time in Buffalo, they were surprisingly easy to navigate. Part of this can be chalked up to the fact that it was winter and really freaking cold, but I still imagined more people would be walking around. After all, Buffalo is the second biggest city in New York by density. When I said Buffalo was underwhelming, this is largely what I meant. I was actually glad that I didn't have to wade through a crowd of people, but I had definitely set my expectations way too high.
After about a 15 minute walk, I made it down to Canalside. Obviously it was dead and no waterfront businesses were open, but I still found it cool looking out over Lake Erie. And although it was closed, I still got to walk by a cool battleship and some planes at the nearby Naval Park.
Eventually, I started to get pretty dang cold, so I decided to check out the Elicott Square building and warm up in the meantime. At that point, I had also noticed that most of the buildings nearby were either restaurants or hotels. This didn't break my heart, but I was kind of hoping for more shopping centers that I could check out. After about a five minute walk, I made it to the Elicott Square building. I was expecting more shops inside the building that I could check out, but it was still nice to warm up. At this point, I decided it was time for my second mission: explore the Buffalo City Hall and check out the observation deck.
As I made my way over, I stopped to take a picture and appreciate the McKinley Monument. With that out of the way, I entered City Hall. After checking out a couple of the floors, I decided to go to the very top and get a glimpse of Buffalo from the observation deck. The elevator didn't take me all the way to the top, but the stairs leading up to the deck were filled with history and figures that came from the Buffalo area. It was fun seeing Buffalo from one of the highest places in the surrounding area and gave me a new perspective on the whole place.
By the time I had gotten my fill of City Hall and the observation deck, I was pretty hungry and the time suggested it was time to eat. That meant, I was on my final pre-planned mission of the day: try some authentic New York style pizza. To accomplish this task, I headed to "Gino and Joe's NY Pizza". Overall, it didn't blow my mind, but I still have great respect for it. As I've said before, it's really hard to mess up a pizza, but very few places make a great pizza. The main detracter from Gino and Joe's was the sauce. It was super strong and really tomato-y. While it certainly wasn't for me, I really respect the establishment for taking a risk and actually trying something interesting with their pizza. And aside from getting some nice grub, it was just a nice place to hang out for a little bit.
Now that I was full and ready for more adventure, I decided to head to the nearest bookstore, Evening House Books. The bookstore itself was quite small and had a pretty limited selection of books, but I really liked the interior design and atmosphere of the establishment. They may not have had a lot of books, but they had some unique and un-popular books, so I appreciated them for that. Additionally, the bookstore was part of a larger complex that had a couple more small businesses. While only a few of them were open, I really liked the atmosphere of the whole place. It felt like a really cool place to just chill and take a breather.
At that point, I had pretty much seen everything noteworthy within walking distance. However, I saw on my phone that there was a shopping mall called "Market Arcade" not to far from where I was. Feeling like I had one more adventure in me, I decided to check it out. It was actually pretty lame. Most of the storefronts were completely empty or closed, with only about three businesses actually open. Even though it's current state was disappointing, I felt like the building itself had a lot of potential. If more businesses had been open and if there was actually something to do there, I could have seen it being a really neat place. I honestly think if someone was willing to put the work into sprucing it up, it could be quite a profitable business venture.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I found my time in downtown Buffalo underwhelming, but not in a way that ruined my day there. In fact, after spending a day exploring downtown Buffalo, I actually feel excited for more adventures to come. Sure I didn't have any crazy experiences, but just the act of getting out and seeing new things was definitely worthwhile. I definitely didn't have any notable interactions in downtown Buffalo, but it did it's job of revitalizing my adventurous spirit
Elam, you are a unique adventurer in the most complimentary of terms. You are the first person I've known to visit Buffalo intentionally, much less in the middle of winter in the coldest major city in the states. Your writing is so good that sometimes I feel like I'm cruising along with you for a slice of pizza and tasting it.