Editor’s Note: “My Happy Place,” a CNN Original Series following celebrities on deeply personal journeys, airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. CNN also tapped its anchors and correspondents to share their happy places. Wolf Blitzer’s hometown of Buffalo, New York, is where he finds contentment.
Buffalo, New York (CNN) — “Go Bills!” is the standard exchange here. I quickly surmised that there’s only one acceptable reply when someone says to you, “Go Bills!” And that’s, “Go Bills!”
“It’s more than just a rallying cry during football season, it’s become a kind of regional shorthand for pride, camaraderie and shared identity,” explained Shawn St. John, age 31, who I met in a Buffalo bar. “You’ll typically hear it used as a farewell, or a salutation.”
A visit to Buffalo feels like being in a play about a small town where everyone knows each other, and they bond over the local sports team. Only, it’s a reality, and it’s the Empire State’s biggest city outside the New York City area, and the local team is in the NFL. Apparently, none of this has gone to their heads.
Buffalo is an instantly charming blend of big and small, of cool and old school. Its restaurants and bars range from foodie and fancy to messy (see: Buffalo chicken wings) and quirky. It has an art museum with works by the Old Masters and also a soda fountain attached to a still-working chocolate factory. And it’s just a short drive out of town to skiing, Canada and the largest waterfall (by volume) in North America. It’s also friendly and surprisingly youthful.
“Lucky Day,” said the young man sitting next to me on the 90-minute flight from New York City, when I asked him where I should go while I was in town.
He followed that bar recommendation by sharing his favorite places for Buffalo wings, which prompted an eavesdropping young couple in the row behind us to share their favorites. Then others weighed in on what became a good-natured debate among them as we disembarked. (Contenders tossed around included Cole’s, Gabriel’s Gate, Doc Sullivan’s and Anchor Bar, which makes claim to being the origin of the fried, spicy wings).
Those 30-something passengers represented a surprising demographic distinction for this city mainly known for its long winters, spicy chicken wings and proximity to one of the most popular honeymoon destinations in the country. Nearly 38% of the population is under age 24, and the median is 34 years old. By contrast, the median age for New York City is 38 and for the whole state, it’s 40.
As Buffalo approaches its bicentennial in another seven years, young people not long out of college are moving here like it’s the hot new destination, or staying after they graduate from one of its several colleges. The attraction includes affordability, access to nature, and the growing food and drink scene — all of which benefit visitors, too. Not bad for a town that emerged originally as the terminus of industrial traffic along the Erie Canal in the early 1800s.
After checking into the affordable luxury of the Curtiss Hotel downtown, I searched for the location of Lucky Day and it was two blocks away. “Must be my Lucky Day,” I said to myself and walked there through the compact center of the city.
Downtown is marked by the inspiring beauty of Art Deco, Beaux-Arts and other classical design styles. The magazine Architectural Digest even named Buffalo one of the 23 Top Places to Travel in 2023. A light rail train smoothly beeps through it. Giant posters in the stately, gold-domed M&T Bank building read, “Billieve.”
Lucky Day Whiskey Bar lives up to the potable half of its name with warmly illuminated bottles that stretch from bar to ceiling. The whole space looks the part, with its wood paneling, fancy gold-infused wallpaper on one side, and urban exposed brick on the other. A taxidermied, not-so-lucky buffalo head looks out over the bonhomie.
Beyond the encyclopedic whiskey menu, the bar’s excellent beer selections include Kilkenny’s nitro-infused Irish ale, from the old country, and a local lager from Woodcock Brothers Brewery.
The bartenders, in their spiffy vests and hipster facial hair, shake hands and chat with the customers they know by name. “Your regular or something new tonight?” they ask from behind the beautiful, dark wood bar.
Sitting there, I introduced myself to Shawn and his significant other, Krystina Lucas, 32. He manages a local cannabis dispensary and she’s a grade-school teacher. If one conversation with a random local on the plane landed me at Lucky Day, another one at Lucky Day should net me more, I reasoned. They enthusiastically gave me a long list of places to eat, drink and shop to get a feel for their evolving city, particularly its nightlife and culinary scene.
Krystina recommended the four-story Pearl Street Grill & Brewery located downtown by the water, where I had a Peanut Butter Vibes lager at a bar with views of giant, gleaming beer tanks. Don’t knock it till you try it. But if that’s outside your comfort zone, the Sabre’s Edge is an award-winning double IPA. And you can enjoy it in the large first-floor bar, which was recently renovated.
There’s also a swanky wine lounge in the Black Rock neighborhood called Waxlight Bar à Vin that opened in 2019 in the revitalized Chandler Street factory building, part of a trend of breathing new life into old industrial spaces. Waxlight was a 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist.
The Curtiss Hotel has a rooftop bar and a circular first floor one that slowly revolves. But I was on the elevator when I was reminded of what really led me to pick the hotel in the first place. An elevator button labeled “Hot Springs” leads guests to an enormous, outdoor hot tub with powerful jets — an effective last stop before sleep.
Buffalo is famous for its eponymous wings, of course, but there’s also local pride for a meal-of-a-sandwich called a beef on weck (translation: roast beef on a kümmelweck roll). Ask 10 people in Buffalo the best place to go for wings and/or a weck and you’ll get 10 different answers, and then have fun figuring out your own answer. Two local chains to also add to your Buffalo classics bingo card are Ted’s Hot Dogs and Anderson’s Frozen Custard.
But newer spots such as Lucky Day, which opened in 2017, are expanding beyond Buffalo’s traditional menu offerings. Lucky Day’s signature mac & cheese is served in a cast-iron cauldron with an inspired Goldfish cracker-crumble crust, alongside a hearty salad made with brussels sprout leaves.
For a different milieu only a few blocks away, Misuta Chow’s specializes in Japanese street food, such as tasty sesame noodles, miso-spiced deviled eggs and ramen. Faux roofs and real lanterns inside give the place the feel of a Tokyo alleyway. Above the bar is a cartoon version of Bill Murray from “Lost in Translation,” pitching a Japanese whisky. “For a relaxing time, it’s Suntory time!”
Instead, I ordered a pink, crunchy sugar-bottomed Hello Kitty cocktail with my meal. I happened to arrive on “Family Feud Night” and was recruited by two friends sitting next to me at the bar to be on their team. In the middle of the game, the bartender carried around a large golden Buddha for contestants to tap on the head for luck. “It’s a tradition,” he explained to me, the only newcomer.
One of my teammates, Garrion Sirman, never left Buffalo after graduating college, citing the appeal of its big city vibes and “mix of affordable and cool shit.”
The converted Chandler Street factory is made up of two adjoining red-brick warehouses in the Black Rock neighborhood north of downtown. The buildings are home to the kitchens for multiple culinary start-ups, and in addition to the Waxlight, two other anchor tenants are the popular Crenshaw’s Chicken and Waffles and a mushroom farm. Yes, farm.
Flat #12 Mushrooms sells mushroom varieties as well as mushroom-infused products such as coffee and cream cheese. But they are growing the goods in the back. The Chandler Street developer has plans for an outdoor swim club with a bar and poolside restaurant, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
If chocolate is more your kind of souvenir, head to the 98-year-old Parkside Candy, a landmark-of-a-shop, lined with ornate ceiling trim and glass display cases full of handcrafted chocolates, located just north of Delaware Park. A visit is a portal back in time, maybe to the early 1940s – the time period in the 1984 Oscar-nominated film, “The Natural,” whose diner scenes were filmed at Parkside.
My server, wearing a throw-back uniform of black apron and red bowtie, served me a grilled cheese and a glass bowl of ice cream while I sat next to a beautiful, solid walnut wood soda fountain. When I asked if she knew about Parkside’s big-screen moment, she told me she had been an extra in the 40-year-old Robert Redford film. The factory where the chocolate is made is next door.
Walking into the Talking Leaves…Books, I was greeted by The White Stripes on the speakers, which set the tone for an enjoyable browse, as do shelf categories such as ”Belles Lettres” (for poetry and miscellaneous literary subjects), and the laidback but helpful staff. I bought a quirky postcard and wrote to a friend from the inviting Caffe Aroma next door while enjoying an expertly executed cappuccino. Aroma is Buffalo’s longest-running locally-owned coffee shop.
North of downtown, on the edge of Delaware Park, the world-class Buffalo AKG Art Museum has the usual suspects when it comes to great artists, including Rothko, de Kooning, Pollock, Lichtenstein, Warhol and Picasso. But a hands-on space for adults and kids allows you to create your own sculpture with the classy medium of black-and-white-only Legos. After a massive expansion, the 160-year-old art institution, formerly known as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, reopened as this modern museum in 2023.
Another master’s artistry is on display and open to tours at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House, located about two miles east of the museum on the other side of the park. The cantilever design is considered one of the architect’s greatest works; Wright himself described the Prairie-style home as a “domestic symphony.”
The Wright house is just off Delaware Park, the crown jewel of the city’s system of parks and designed by another genius: Frederick Law Olmsted, of Central Park fame. Delaware Park is flanked by lovely Edwardian-style homes and contains statues from the Pan-American Exposition of 1901.
Back in the heart of downtown Buffalo, the Canalside park benefited from a recent $300 million waterfront revitalization and hosts hundreds of waterside concerts and events every year. It has a huge ice rink in the winter. And it’s also the launch pad for river cruises or kayak rentals on Lake Erie.
Like Flagstaff, Arizona’s proximity to the Grand Canyon, Buffalo could mistakenly be overlooked as the last stop before visiting Niagara Falls, just a half hour’s drive north on Interstate 190. There’s a city bus from downtown to the Falls for only $2. Beautiful if touristy, Niagara Falls make for a memorable day trip from Buffalo. Unlike the Falls, however, you need more than just a few hours in the city to soak in all it has to offer.
There’s a small (39 runs), inexpensive ski resort with a long season about 45 minutes south of Buffalo called Kissing Bridge. It was acquired at the end of last year, and investment in the resort and in off-season activities, such as additional mountain biking and hiking, are planned.
Then there’s Canada. The small town of Fort Erie, Ontario, lies just across the Niagara River, accessible by the Peace Bridge – and your passport. From there, it’s only a couple more hours to Toronto, with the Canadian side of Niagara Falls as a stop along the way. Toronto is a fitting sister city to Buffalo; they share a reputation as low-key cool.
I made one last stop before heading to the airport. One of the Buffalo wings destinations debated on the plane was Betty’s, and I was eager to try its vegetarian version made with seitan (but missing none of the hot, tangy messiness). I got a lunch serving, to-go, for the midday flight back to New York.
After I arrived at the airport rental car drop-off, the young man behind the counter thanked me when I handed him the keys. As I turned away, something felt missing in the exchange.
“Go Bills!” I initiated for the first and only time, then started to walk away.
“Go Bills!” the rental car attendant called back, grinning.
