Entries from Buffalo Chow tagged with 'Coffee'

Starbucks' New Cake Pops: Cloying, Cute Cupcake Lollipops

They're small. Cute. Only $1.50 each (or two for $2.50) at a place known for $4 drinks and snacks. But should you waste your cash trying Starbucks' new Cake Pops, the chain's new cupcake-on-a-stick concept? We'll make it easy for...

Posted on March 17, 2011

Top 10 Great Chain Restaurants Buffalo Should Have

Locally owned and operated restaurants are great - except when they leave big gaps in local food expectations. How many years has Buffalo gone without a truly awesome Mexican restaurant? Considered Burger King or Wendy's to be the pinnacle of...

Posted on December 14, 2009

SoCal Chow Leftovers: Meals + Snacks Worth Brief Mentions

In one week's time, Buffalo Chow's editors ate our way through so many of Southern California's restaurants that friends and family e-mailed to ask how we'd digested everything - the answer: we're not sure, but it worked. Most of the...

Posted on September 29, 2009

Starbucks, Or, On The Destruction Of A Famous Brand

Just as business textbooks will one day include detailed case studies on Apple's unbelievable come-from-nowhere, conventional wisdom-bucking successes with the iPod and iPhone, they'll also likely discuss the rise and fall of Starbucks, a company that seemed to be hurtling...

Posted on September 17, 2009

Chicago Chow: Intelligentsia Coffee & Frango Chocolates

Why would we walk 10 blocks past the Starbucks in our Chicago hotel's lobby for a cup of coffee? Or bypass the hotel's first-floor restaurant to explore the city's culinary scene? The answer is obvious: the taste. We could easily...

Posted on June 28, 2009

D.C. Chow: Blue/bucks & Other Washington Food Delights

By any standard, this past weekend was wonderful - an opportunity to visit family and friends in Washington, D.C., relying both on their expertise and our own past experiences to sample some of the best foods and drinks in the...

Posted on June 8, 2009

Eat & Fly: Dining at Buffalo Niagara International Airport

Planning a visit to Western New York, or a trip outside the area? You might want to know what you can eat at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, and we're here to help. Once very sparsely populated with dining establishments,...

Posted on June 5, 2009

Tantalus & Taste, or, Sometimes One Bad Visit Is Enough

As long-time readers of Buffalo Chow know, we generally prefer to visit a restaurant twice before rating it, but on occasion, we'll feel so lukewarm or disappointed after a first visit that we don't really want to return. This leaves...

Posted on May 30, 2009

Eight Great Local Places Out-of-Town Visitors Should Try

You've probably been on one side of this experience before: a friend from outside Buffalo comes to visit for a few days - maybe longer - and you need to quickly pick some places that show off Western New York...

Posted on May 25, 2009

Hot or Frozen, Spot's Coffee Soothes In Flavor & Freshness

Published statistics suggest that Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day, an average of 1.3 cups per person that accounts for 75% of all caffeine consumed in this country. Of course, not every cup is the same: some...

Posted on May 1, 2009

News: Spot Coffee's Williamsville Debut, 2 Chinese Updates

After many months of waiting and the unexpected opening of a very good competitor just down the street, Spot Coffee has finally announced the grand opening date for its Main Street, Williamsville location: Friday, May 1, 2009. Even given the...

Posted on April 29, 2009

Canada's Coffee Culture Makes a Splash on Main St., U.S.A.

Suburbanites may have been waiting for months to patronize Williamsville's still unfinished Main Street location of Buffalo's well-liked Spot Coffee, but now there's an attractive alternative just down the street: at the end of March, Coffee Culture seemed to have...

Posted on April 26, 2009

Elmwood, I: From Burchfield Penney to Towne Restaurant

Three and a half miles separate the Burchfield Penney Art Center and the end of Elmwood Avenue. We know this because what started as a Saturday morning mission to dine at the Center's Orion Cafe unexpectedly became our weekend quest...

Posted on April 19, 2009

2nd Cup & Broadway: The Road to Dyngus Day Starts Here

Have any plans for Easter? You probably do. But how about the day after Easter? Well, if you're in Western New York, there's a better than average chance that the answer is yes, thanks to Dyngus Day - also known...

Posted on April 4, 2009

News: Coffee Culture Opens, Dan Ackroyd's Vodka Visit

It's not ready for a review quite yet, but there's a brand new coffee chain in town, and it seems to be gunning for Starbucks and Spot Coffee. Seemingly out of nowhere, Coffee Culture appeared in the former Sweet Jenny's...

Posted on March 30, 2009

Cloistered, Cozy: Clarence Center Coffee Company & Cafe

July's Taste of Buffalo was when we first tried and fell in love with the Clarence Center Coffee Company and Cafe's Mango Smoothie, an outstanding summertime drink that we noted in an August taste test was worth driving out to...

Posted on January 5, 2009

You Want to Know: Western NY's Top Cheap Coffee Shop Is...

As a rule, Western New Yorkers love cheap coffee, a fact that has driven the local growth of low-end coffee and donut shops such as Tim Hortons and Dunkin' Donuts during years when Starbucks was rapidly expanding elsewhere. But which...

Posted on January 2, 2009

Coffee-Off: Dunkin' Donuts, Strong on Drinks and Sweets

If there's any business story more improbable than Dunkin' Donuts' two-year-old effort to take on Starbucks as a serious American vendor of coffee, we can't think of it: Seattle's Starbucks was flying high, opening its 10,000th or 11,000th U.S. store,...

Posted on January 2, 2009

Coffee-Off: With McCafe, McDonald's Coffee Gets Serious

We won't mince words: we don't really like McDonald's. Though there are occasionally items that we don't mind on its menus - the McFlurry remains good, the declining McRib was once a standout, and its Indian-influenced U.K. menu items were...

Posted on January 2, 2009

Coffee-Off: At Tim Hortons, Awful Coffee May Await You

Like McDonald's, we've never thought much of Tim Hortons - except, of course, to the extent that it has become a successful business. As a 45-year-old Canadian coffee and donut chain, Hortons is, like Swiss Chalet, a comparatively smaller player...

Posted on January 2, 2009

Coffee-Off: Wilson Farms' Big Savings, With Compromises

The idea that a Wilson Farms convenience store could be a serious player in the coffee business might seem strange to some; unlike many of its current competitors, it doesn't offer drive-throughs, employ coffee baristas, or even attempt to offer...

Posted on January 2, 2009

Can Buffalo's Spot Coffee Leave Its Mark on Williamsville?

Independent shops once dominated Western New York's coffee scene; today, of course, Starbucks is everywhere, with storefronts literally visible or in walking distance from the few indie purveyors left in town. That hasn't stopped Spot Coffee from taking a stab...

Posted on December 28, 2008

Quick Bites: Chow Chocolat, A Candy Shop and Coffee Bar

For a moment, as you walk in the door of a new place you've only heard a little about, it's hard to know what to expect - the menu, the seating, the ambience are momentarily all in the air. That's...

Posted on December 16, 2008

Seattle Chow, Part 3: The Inconsistent Treats of Starbucks

"You paid $4 for that," she said. "$5," I corrected her, grimacing at the watery, less than completely full cup with an icey mint green substance inside. "So you deserve to have it made right," she said, approaching the barista...

Posted on December 6, 2008

A Mango Triple Banger: CCCCC, Taco Bell & Starbucks

If the Summer of 2008 is remembered locally for anything culinary, it should be the rise of the mango smoothie. The one from the Clarence Center Coffee Company and Cafe that came from nowhere to win a Taste of Buffalo...

Posted on August 5, 2008

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