The Calumet Building, the cornerstone of downtown Buffalo's thriving nightlife, is going through another reincarnation. The 94-year old landmark, nestled on Chippewa Street, has housed many art-related businesses including the Calumet Arts Caf?(c). Most recently, it housed the Restaurant at the Calumet, a good solution to the neon-colored nightclub strip surrounding the structure.
Currently, building owner Mark Goldman plans a conversion of the first floor into an upscale dining room run by local restaurateur Steve Calvaneso. He also hopes to convert the second and third floors into unique office suites that utilize the 1950s motif that they feature. Finally, the idea of widening Chippewa's audience beyond the drunken college crowd is taking effect.
This announcement comes with the news that future fine dining establishments will be constructed, such as plans for the Buffalo Chop House and a restaurant on the former grounds of the Empire Brewing Company. Collectively, the plans are adding a new dimension of nightlife to a city desperately working to regain the former popularity and affluence of the early 20th Century.
Buffalo is a historic and culturally vibrant city that boasts the Elmwood shopping district, world-class museums, the booming theater district and the continually growing nightlife that, up to now, was Chippewa's main focus of development. The exuberance of Chippewa and its cross streets revolve around clubs and a few coffee shops. The exception always was the Calumet Arts Cafe, which hardly qualified as a bar so long as its neighbors were Soho, The Crocodile Bar, and The Third Room.
Part of the problem is a lack of fine dining within the Chippewa district. Granted, there are a handful of truly excellent restaurants in and around downtown. Oliver's has a Sinatra-esque atmosphere that attracts an older, more loyal following and Hutch's is an equally popular restaurant catering to a younger, more professional society. Still, the current plans for the Calumet building represent a change that will revitalize the downtown area from its very core in Chippewa.
It's no secret that outside of the weekends, downtown is a ghost town. The city's core district seems to shut down whenever it's inconvenient for the college crowd to go there. By attracting an adult clientele, the Calumet building is giving Buffalo the chance to grow as a major commercial sector that will extend beyond its Bourbon Street-like atmosphere. This change can spur the development of a shopping and business district that will provide a reason for suburbanites to venture into the city. It also makes downtown more than an attractive place to visit - it makes the area an attractive place to live.
The statement the city makes with a low roster of classy dwellings and an increasingly larger group of clubs and attractions is that the population doesn't want something special to eat and experience. What has made similar industrial cities like Cleveland and Pittsburgh successful, besides the many economic business plans, is the thriving dining and entertainment communities they proudly house. It has become clear, through the expansion of Chippewa's occupants and the heightening success of entertainment downtown, that Buffalo can easily move into another sphere of excellence, pride and distinction.
