Work at the former New World Record location has finally begun. How can you tell? Anytime you see Jeff Gabriel (Jeff Grabriel Designs) walk into a building, you can pretty much bet that something is being constructed or destroyed on premise. In this case, Jeff was busy removing the steel upper deck from the interior of the building. Thankfully he’s going to turn around and sell the deck – hopefully to a restaurant that is in need of an elevated patio (send me an email if you’re interested). Removing that piece should free up a lot of room for Spot Coffee’s plans to turn this space into a kick ass coffee shop. I tracked down Luke Goetz (GM) who had this to say:
“The whole front of the shop will be a raised area with seating along it. Brad Wales is designing the interior. There will be a small stage for live performances (!). We want to incorporate some of the rock and roll aspect that New World had. Hopefully we’ll have some open mics and small-scale combo performances. The stage will revert to seating when not in use. Our goal is to bring some live artists back into the coffee shops. The far wall will be used to feature local artwork. As far as the rest of the space goes, we’re going to double our seating capacity and make room for additional cooking. Like the Williamsville location, we’re going to be serving gourmet pizzas. Customers will be happy to hear that we’re doubling the size of the men’s and women’s bathrooms. It’s taken a while, but we’re finally growing into the size that we need. I forgot how big and gorgeous the window space was. I think people are really going to like what they see. WiFi will also be available in the new expansion. We want to open the first week in October.”
Wow. I really missed seeing those live music performances at that corner. There were times that the kids were lined up around the corner to catch some of the acts. I haven’t spent too much time at that Spot location recently, mostly because it’s always so hard to find a seat. That and the lack of WiFi. But all that is about to change. Luke tells me that they will be expanding their patio presence down the line as well. I can’t wait to see what architect Brad Wales pulls off – his sister, Nancy, was the one who placed all of the colorful ceramic tiles in the original Elmwood space. It’s good to see some more creativity go into the build-out. Now can The City put a crosswalk in at Elmwood and Cleveland? This is the epicenter of the entire district and needs some traffic calming measures introduced so that people don’t have to play Frogger all day long.
Spot Coffee
765 Elmwood Ave
Buffalo, NY 14222-1567
(716) 332-4564