Opening a food shop in Buffalo New York...what shall it be??

I have transplanted myself and family to Buffalo, New York, (next stop New Mexico), and wish to open a cool food shop. The Belgian waffle at Beadoche sounds intriging, so do pomme frittes, so does the quintensential Chicago Hotdog, .Garrett popcorn anyone.

I want to start small and simple.

We do not have the foot traffic here as Chicago does...obviously...anyone out there have any opinions on this idea of mine? please try to keep the sarcasim and laughter to a minimum...

Thank you.

Not that I know anything about anything, (and it's unlikely that I'll be in Buffalo to try it out) but my favorite restaurant concept is the dessert bar/coffee shop done by Cafe Intermezzo on Peachtree in Atlanta.

Basically, you go for dessert and fouffy coffee drinks with alcohol. If you haven't eaten, they have some bar food and soups. What I like about the idea is that you can have a nice, decadent date experience fairly inexpensively. It makes the place a destination, so foot traffic isn't as necessary, but it does require some square footage and specific equipment.

I wish we had something similar here. Evanston (with it's crowd of college kids hungry for sweets and romantically darkened rooms) would be a perfect location.

I appreciate your insight, Buffalo has a cofffee shop with wonderful desterts...Butterwood on Main Street in Williamsville and just opened the Chocolate Martini Bar on Chippewa Street downtown. the idea of destination vs. stop, shop and go is quite the crux...

Have you ever been to Julius Meil (spelling) on Southport..? Vienna coffee shop with one location outside of Vienna...SOuthport Avenue..

I was intrigued by the Baladoche Belgium Zucker waffle shop newly opened on Clark Street

Given that Baladoche is expected to go out of business within a year of opening (by most people here, I think), I'm not sure a similar concept would survive in the smaller and more culinarily conservative(?) buffalo.

If you don't have a particular concept in mind, I think you should talk to an expert and do a tiny bit of formal or informal market research to see what people in Buffalo are really craving.

Mhays wrote:I wish we had something similar here.

You mean like Hot Chocolate?

I guess so, but less expensive...(at least it used to be)

As a Buffalo resident and frequent restaurant diner in the city, I would have to say that capturing a market that hasn't been captured yet is tough. As far as strictly vegetarian places, I'm not sure that we have a truly vegetarian place here - and there are lots of vegetarians who live in the city. Many restaurants offer vegetarian options, but none of them, I believe (and please correct me if I'm wrong because I am NOT a vegetarian), are strictly vegetarian or vegan.

You're right...we've got plenty of coffee shops, and the Chocolate Bar is an amazing dessert bar/martini bar...

I think if you do an informal poll - utilizing the many web forums (BRO or wnymedia.net), you could find what part of the market hasn't been saturated as of yet...I'd be happy to help...you can reach me at amy@revitalizebuffalo.org...and of course, good luck and thanks in advance for opening a new business in the city!