Smith, the mustachioed, Stetson-hat wearing CEO and third-generation president of Rigidized Metals, the architectural steel fabricating company next door on Ohio Street, is a regular at Duende. Owner and founder Rick Smith / Photo: Randy Duchaine The place has hosted festivals, art installations, concerts inside and out of the silos, along with monthly summer poetry readings with the Just Buffalo Literary Center that begin each June. The grounds include three silo clusters and related buildings, including ovens where malt for Genesee beer was once roasted. Owner and founder Rick Smith started Silo City in 2012 when he gradually began to transform this once languishing industrial wasteland. It is an urban refuge surrounded by an evolving park with sculptures, landscape art and architecture and space for arts happenings. The bar, surrounded by silos, is a magical spot for taking in sunset light as it gleams on the silo curves. “Now it’s ‘The Door to Everywhere’ because of all of the possibilities of what can happen at Silo City, what has happened and all the energy that Duende brings to the site.” The Watu Cantina at Duende / Photo: Grant Taylor The Door to Everywhere / Photo: Drew Brown “It’s a mysterious door that originally was ‘The Door to Nowhere’ because there wasn’t a lot around the space,” said Olivia McCarthy, director of arts & culture at the Lyceum at Silo City, the nonprofit site management office. Beyond its doorways, outdoor tables made of funnel-like grain hoppers are on a lawn by a stage and a curious door that functions like fence gate and opens to a wild un-mown urban field. Out in back there’s a second bar in an old garage. Duende, which has an eclectic cozy décor with repurposed elements like the bar top made from old work benches and tables made from grain sifters, opened in 2018.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |