20s Glamour in Buffalo

Parkside Candy 1927 interior

Parkside Candy on Main St. in Buffalo, NY

Meatball Sandwich lunch at Parkside

I drive up and down Buffalo's Main St. twice a day.  Parkside Candy catches my eye as a place that time has passed by.

Faded facade hides historic beauty:

The outside is rundown and in sad need of maintenance.  The wooden sign is weather worn, decayed and hanging by a nail.  The awning is tattered beyond existence.  And the brick and concrete of the entrance is crumbling.  The store displays are 4th of July, Christmas and graduation all at once in late April.  I thought Parkside Candy was out of business decades ago as their facade suggests.
(Plus the apparent abortion clinic on the second floor does not fit with the falsely 1950s cheery attempts of Parkside Candy's window displays.)

But my Buffalonian friends told me that Parkside Candy is a historic Buffalo landmark that is well worth a visit.

So finally I stopped in for lunch today.  And my friendly Buffalistas were right!

The inside is a tribute to 1927 with original floors, booths and woodwork.  There were few customers but the lunch was fun if a little white bread traditional.  The ice cream sundae was old fashioned and deluxe.

It really is the decor and beaux arts design here that is the story.  The oval room with the frieze work ceiling in plaster and the original mirrored oval wooden doors are outstanding.  You can easily imagine yourself as a patron from a past decade at Parkside Candy.

I cannot understand why the building is not maintained.  I understand preserving the beauty of its past and not marring the historic design.  But crumbling superstructure, a tattered awning and the weathered sign all give me the signal that the owners are not concerned with preserving the appearance or reputation of this long standing Buffalo tradition.

There is much here that is worth preserving and restoring.  The broken neon sign that fronts Main St. alone is worthy of a Buffalonion restoration.