Emma D. Sapong, Buffalo News, April 5, 2008
When Don Allen Jr. stops in at One Sunset on Delaware Avenue or Cocktails and More on Kensington Avenue, he often spots long-forgotten faces among the patrons, socializing over appetizers or drinks.
“It’s amazing; it’s like a reunion,” said Allen, 35. “I haven’t seen some of these people since high school. I thought they had left the area.”
But they had only left the city’s African-American social scene.
In business for less than a year, both One Sunset and Cocktails and More—though their patrons are not only African-Americans—have been able to bring out local blacks who have long been absent from the city’s night life due to what they consider a dearth of desirable options for professionals.
{snip}
As the word spreads, Cocktails and Sunset are quickly resuscitating the social lives of African-American professionals who want to mingle with their peers. For many, however, two new restaurants don’t solve a glaring problem in Western New York: A relatively nonexistent upscale night life for African-Americans.
{snip}
‘Nothing for us’
While Buffalo’s touted Chippewa and Elmwood scenes have thrived, many young, single black professionals, like Franklin and Maclin, claim that the choices they have for socializing are slim to none. They often stay home to avoid awkward situations where they are the only blacks in West Side clubs and bars, which are frequented by mostly whites and offer entertainment not to their taste.
“This is a pretty white social town, with a lack of a black middle class, so everything is geared toward whites,” said Kelli Daniels, 40, a Buffalo Public Schools administrator. “Chippewa is for white people—the genre of music, especially. There’s really nothing for us.”
On the city’s East Side, the bars and clubs tend to have lax dress codes and subpar decor, often attracting undesirable characters, according to several people interviewed for this story.
“We just need options, places we can go and maybe even get dressed up, instead of walking around in hoodies, T-shirts and Timbs,” Maclin said. “You want to see mature, professional people and you want to be safe, without fights and shootings.”
{snip}
Toronto-bound
Cechon Stepp, 26, and his buddies often spend half of a Saturday at the Eaton Centre on Yonge Street in Toronto, then hit the dance floor for the rest of the night at one of Toronto’s reggae clubs.
Stepp used to party hard at the Groove and other now- defunct hip-hop clubs in Buffalo, until his cousin got stabbed at one.
“Fight after fight gets kind of old; knife after knife gets kind of old; and bullet after bullet definitely gets kind of old,” said Stepp, who works with Pre-Paid Legal Services. He has given Chippewa a try, sometimes checking out La Luna or Subzero, the two nightclubs that have the most diversity, but still finds his trips to Toronto necessary.
About two years ago, Ellicott District Council Member Brian C. Davis organized a monthly after-work networking event to attract more minority professionals to Chippewa and downtown.
“There’s no place that minorities can call their own downtown; we have no black or minority bar owners,” Davis said. “The networking is done to provide an outlet for people of color.”
The networking event has become very popular. Many black professionals said they only go to the Chippewa district to attend these events, and that it’s the one time a month they mingle with their peers in a social environment.
Annual and seasonal fraternity and sorority events, civic organizations’ soirees, birthday celebrations and poetry slams are usually well- attended by black professionals, but they are not held every weekend.
{snip}
New places, old friends
Cocktails and More, on Kensington Avenue, was originally a vision for Irene Melson’s peers, people in their 50s and 60s, the owner said. During the jazz concert series in the summer, Melson ran into countless friends she hadn’t seen in years.
“I hadn’t seen them because they stayed in the house; they didn’t go anywhere because there was nowhere to go,” she said. Melson did a survey of the concertgoers and found there was a need for a place like Cocktails. Her daughter, who is in her 30s, quickly pointed out that her generation was also homebound and needed somewhere to go.
“After talking to my daughter, I realized the professionals kids have no place to go either, so that’s why we opened the doors to them too,” Melson said.
One Sunset has generated much excitement and satisfaction, as a dream come true for black professionals. It’s being hailed for it’s modern decor, fine dining and diversity.
Leonard Stokes, the professional basketball player who owns One Sunset, is quick to say that his business isn’t a “black restaurant.” It caters to everybody, and it’s evident in the turnout—on a recent Saturday, it was evenly mixed, which for many seems to be the draw.
“It’s a diverse crowd, and we come here and feel comfortable,” said Shannon Thomas, a 39-year-old hairstylist. “It’s not like going to Chippewa.”
{snip}
Original article
Email
Emma D. Sapong
at esapong@buffnews.com.
(Posted on April 11, 2008)
Comments
As the word spreads, Cocktails and Sunset are quickly resuscitating the social lives of African-American professionals who want to mingle with their peers.
And as the word spreads, how do they plan on keeping “them” out? Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by Svigor at 7:33 PM on April 11
A local black radio talkshow host was angry about this article because black people were running to the ‘white press’ and complaining about the fact that blacks didn’t have places of their own to socialise. He said if these blacks were concerned about the lack of establishments that cater to blacks that they should be driven to open bars and nightclubs.
He was also angry about the issue of black class-ism; that these blacks had ‘made it’ and have turned their back on the black community.
Ultimately what blacks long for, a sense of community, is what they deny to us.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 7:52 PM on April 11
Well, all of these complainers are “professionals”. Are there no entreprenuers amongst them to start opening up the nightlife venues they seem to be clamoring for?
Posted by Flaxen-headed Strumpet at 7:56 PM on April 11
Let’s see how long this happy scene lasts before it becomes riddled with crime and violence. I’m guessing it won’t last a year.
Posted by Cliff Yablonski at 7:57 PM on April 11
God! Don’t you love it! All the rich Talented Tenth Black folk got affirmative action and free scholarships because they were black and oppressed.
Of course, now that they have THEIR money, they want to get the h*ll away from ignorant black trash, too.
They don’t want THEIR children hanging around with no black gangsta, “oh, no she be too good for that!”
But they want you to keep paying their affirmative action and their children’s affirmative action so they can leave their poor oppressed gangsta bruthas and sistahs behind.
Of course it is embarrassing when they go to a white establishment and find themselves eyed suspiciously by white folks who are also trying to avoid black violence. Somehow white folks are supposed to magically know that their expensive suits came from dealing stocks and bonds and not from some pimpin’ and dope dealin’.
Good riddance, I say. Go to another black club, and when y’all start to shoot it up like y’all shot up all the other clubs y’all had, don’t ack suprised.
You black folks would be better off if you dropped that woman-hating hip-hop and started listening to soft rock. I can guarantee you that a soft rock bar repels gangsta rappers and other hoodlums like the po-lice. But I guess you black professionals know that. Rock and roll runs y’all off, too. Ever wonder why white bars play it?
Posted by Big Bill at 8:25 PM on April 11
If professional blacks feel such a need for entertainment, why haven’t they coughed-up some cash & opened their own bar or whatever? The government would love to give our tax dollars out as grants to minority business owners.
It sure would be a lot easier for a black bar owner to keep the black riff-raff out of his establishment than a white bar owner - who would instantly be sued for (alleged) “racism”.
Posted by at 8:29 PM on April 11
When O.J. {the Killer} was in Buffalo he didn’t have any trouble finding a social life. And I thought all these so called black professional men{is there such a thing} would want to go to club that caters to whites. I mean what better place to pick up white women. If everything about this article was the same, except the people in the article were white, then the article would be considered racist. Read it over again and substitute the word “white” for the word “black”.
Posted by at 8:50 PM on April 11
Big Bill wrote: I can guarantee you that a soft rock bar repels gangsta rappers and other hoodlums like the po-lice. But I guess you black professionals know that. Rock and roll runs y’all off, too. Ever wonder why white bars play it?
I’d heard it was C&W and classical music (and possibley New Age)that blacks react to the way Dracula would react to a cricifix. One thing’s for sure, “Motown” music won’t repel them.
Posted by Strider at 10:17 PM on April 11
“Fight after fight gets kind of old; knife after knife gets kind of old; and bullet after bullet definitely gets kind of old,” said Stepp.
Mr. Stepp, you are welcome to start reading American Renaissance on a regular basis. You might find that this observation marks the beginning of a new awareness about what race means in North America.
Posted by Reader-1 at 11:12 PM on April 11
Hahaha, I happen to be a native of Western NY and the article left something out. There were black bars down on or near Chippewa street, but they got shut down due to violence. When they got shut down, the blacks claimed it was due to “racism.”
Posted by Will Yumsville at 12:52 AM on April 12
Tonight my wife and I will be going to an event involving a band, ballroom dancing and drinking in a fine old building located in the city. Having attended this event before, I will note that it now hosts armed security. I will also see more police cruisers moving around the area than in years past. As we make our way to the car to go home I will be hyper alert, scanning the area and calculating the time and distance involved to get to the car where my gun is stored.
Posted by Drew at 6:35 AM on April 12
“Chippewa is for white people—the genre of music, especially. There’s really nothing for us.”
‘Chippewa’ refers to ‘the Chippewa Strip’ or ‘Chippewa Entertainment District’ (Chippewa Street) in downtown Buffalo, adjacent to the ‘theater district’. Formerly this was a seedy, red-light district of adult bookstores and most notably prostitution. Everyone, even young school age kids, knows its history.
In the 1980’s, city administrators got together and passed laws and resolutions to clean up the place. They organized a heavy police presence and got rid of the riffraff and miscreants. They invested money and turned the place into a ‘George Town’-like hot spot destination for urban and suburban whites.
Blacks have always resented Chippewa because they believe they’ve never been wanted. (The fact is, they would be tolerated and maybe even welcomed, if they could behave). Another reason is because they believe that if their neighborhoods were to get such attention and infusion of financial aid, that they’d be revitalized as well. (I could tell you stories about money being directed to black neighborhoods and black projects and how the money never produced anything but you’ve read those stories countless times).
The fact is that there are black bars in the Chippewa Entertainment District. The problem is that everyone one of them is shut down because of violence; and I do mean every one.
The latest one was called, The Opium Lounge (I believe).
Here’s a piece of the archive story from the Buffalo News:
A shootout in the heart of the city’s Chippewa Entertainment District over the weekend involved a gunman firing shots at a man who returned gunfire with his own weapon, Buffalo police said.
The flurry of shots exploded on Pearl Street, near Chippewa Street, at about 4:20 a.m. Sunday.
When the dust settled, one gunman was shot in his right thigh, while the other narrowly escaped injury. Buffalo police made four quick arrests at the scene. They arrested the two accused gunmen …
These reports go on all the time. When you watch the news and hear about a violent incident in the Chippewa district, the bar or club is black run and filled with black patrons. While there may be bar fights in white bars, I can’t recall any such incidents happening in clubs with white patrons.
Blacks also complain that the police harass them so the police pull back. When the violence turns deadly, they complain their bars don’t get the police protect that white Chippewa bars do.
As with everything with blacks, it’s a no-win situation.
These young black professions want the right to discriminate against some of their own undesirables so they can keep their clubs safe. White establishments want that right as well. Only white clubs aren’t allowed to discriminate the way these black clubs are allowed to do.
These double standards are all to common. Blacks believe they have the right to protect themselves against troublemakers but they deny whites that same right. Blacks can discriminate. Whites can’t. It’s as obvious as black and white.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 8:43 AM on April 12
I came to the conclusion LONG AGO that there’s no pleasing blacks! They hoop and hala about wanting to be intergrated with Whites in EVERYTHING we do. Then they complain that there’s no other black folks around and they feel “alone!” Like when Africans invade White countries after leaving their black run cess pools and then complain that there’s no blacks running anything in their new country! Are they that dumb???
Posted by Tom S at 11:03 AM on April 12
What a joke, blacks don’t have any place of their own? Where blacks congregate in large numbers,will immediately become their own place, because of the obvious reason, that white’s will avoid it like the plague. P.S. What is an “African- American”? I thought you were either an American, or an African. I guess the rest of us, are all some hyphenated something, or another. Sounds like typical racist talk to me.
Posted by The Old Sage at 11:21 AM on April 12
These Black whiners should move to Montreal. Every nightclub, here in this city, caters to them, and their music, and everything else they like to make them feel at home.
Posted by Louis from Montreal at 11:43 AM on April 12
“Blacks like socializing with blacks.”
Like when they are torturing and killing a young white couple in Knoxville, I suppose.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 1:34 PM on April 12
These Black whiners should move to Montreal. Every nightclub, here in this city, caters to them, and their music, and everything else they like to make them feel at home.
Posted by Louis from Montreal at 11:43 AM on April 12
I believe it. I’ve met a lot of tourists from the province of Quebec and almost all were White. They are “escaping” the cold weather, but I’m sure they are escaping Africa as well.
Posted by Howard in Las Vegas at 3:09 PM on April 12
Years ago, Westwood Village, next to UCLA, was the place for young adults to go on dates. No fast food franchises, expensive shops, and lots of movie theaters. Then the Blacks came, taking up the sidewalks on one particular street to do their break dances. That summer, the Blacks killed three Whites and a Japanese in Westwood, and the place dried up. Empty storefronts appeared, a first. All city planners know this, and having a plan to keep Blacks and Cholos out is an essential part of any downtown revitalization program. I think the usual ploy is a heavy police presence, keeping out any businesses that appeal to the slum dwellers, and money in the pockets of local “community activists” to keep their mouths shut. I wonder how many of these Black preachers have become “entrepreneurs” or real estate moguls on public redevelopment funds?
Posted by Schoolteacher at 4:32 PM on April 12
Back “in the day” here in The South, a Sunday “Liquor House” down “in the bottoms” was quite sufficient for Afro “night life”. My, we certainly have made quantum leaps since then, haven’t we?
Posted by underdog at 4:57 PM on April 12
“Fight after fight gets kind of old; knife after knife gets kind of old; and bullet after bullet definitely gets kind of old,” said Stepp.
I’ve been in more bars, nightclubs and other licensed establishments than I care to remember — and for more years than I care to admit to — and yet I’ve NEVER witnessed a conflict that involved anything harder than fists and feet. I have personally seen not one knife, not one gun — and I’m talking about a period not just of years, but of DECADES.
Of course, the joints I’m talking about are WHITE.
Yet this young Mr. Cechon (how do you even pronounce that?) Stepp is only 26, and he’s seen so much of stabbing, shooting, etc, that even the sight of flying bullets has “got old” for him.
If weaponry, wounding and even HOMICIDE are that common in black nightlife that the homies are sick of seeing all the violence by the time they’re in the mid-twenties, well, all I can say is I’m very glad I don’t listen their kind of music (or chase their kind of women) so I have no need to go near their venues.
Posted by Right-Wing Rocker at 5:47 PM on April 12
We are supposed to worry and fret about how blacks don’t have enough places to get drunk after work? Nowhere to get sauced for the arrogant blacks who are too good for the ghetto blacks, and yet too racist to hang out with Whites? This serious problem rates up there on my list of concerns with light pollution and ancient Mayan doomsday predictions.
Posted by at 6:14 PM on April 12
Interesting, Sounds a bit like Chris Rocks schtick about not wanting to be around certain types of blacks.
I don’t blame them. The thing I don’t get is why they don’t run their own places. It seems that blacks don’t start business’. They’re always working for someone else. Very seldom the proprietor. And when they are running a business, they’re usually not doing the right thing. Always cutting corners. I worked in a bad part of Brooklyn once and the only place to get coffee in the morning was a half burnt out store run by blacks that got it’s electricity off the lamppost outside. The wires were running right across the sidewalk. Even the cops had to step over them to get in the door. They didn’t stop the guy though, because it was the only place in the neiborhood to get coffee and a bagel. What I’m getting at is their always chiseling, never do anything on the up and up.
Posted by Tom Iron... at 7:43 PM on April 12
Why, this is the height of enlightened Sunday commentary, unless we do substitute in the word White and European-American in each instance where the word Black and African-American is used.
Posted by the brainwashing wore off me too at 9:54 PM on April 12
this is true for all people, when was the last time you saw white people in a black barbershop?
Posted by enraged at 10:53 PM on April 12
I hate to go to the well twice folks, but something brilliant just occurred to me. Why not have all the Buffaloed in Buffalo black “professionals” submit a proposal to the SBA demanding a new minority urban renewal Federally subsidized “loan” guarantee program targeted towards “prospective black entrepreneureal nightlife service providers” so that they can open up a bunch of “upscale” joints in DT Buffalo. We could call it the Mike Tyson urban gentrification program.
Posted by underdog at 11:03 PM on April 12
Drew, I’d like to suggest that you get whatever permit that is currently necessary in your area to allow you the legal privilege of exercising your constitutional right to carry that weapon of yours on your person.
It’s better to have your weapon at hand, should you need it, than to leave it where you may not be able to get to it in time.
Posted by W.D. at 6:48 AM on April 13
“One Sunset has generated much excitement and satisfaction, as a dream come true for black professionals. It’s being hailed for it’s modern decor, fine dining and diversity.
Leonard Stokes, the professional basketball player who owns One Sunset, is quick to say that his business isn’t a “black restaurant.” It caters to everybody, and it’s evident in the turnout—on a recent Saturday, it was evenly mixed, which for many seems to be the draw.”
I guess the only way to run a successful black enterprise is to limit the number of black patrons. A few years back I was on vacation with my wife in Savannah GA and we’re looking for a place to eat in the Historic District. We came across this place with a menu on the outside of the door and we decided to go in. A White hostess seated us and then a black waitress took our order. It was about 11:00 am and we were one of the first customers in the place. I was engaging in conversation with my wife as people slowly trickled in. Later, I started noticing loud boisterous noises coming from other tables around us and instantly realized that maybe 60% of the people in there were black. I look over towards the bar/kitchen area and maybe 3/4 of the staff is black. Don’t get me wrong, the place wasn’t a dump but the environment in there was uncomfortable. Ambiance is a big part of the dining experience for us. Having to listen to loud cackling laughter, conversations involving words like “dog”, “ummm-hummm” and “girl you fine” and watching women making gestures with their heads and hands wasn’t cutting it with us. I’m surprised there were as many Whites in there as there was.
Posted by at 9:09 AM on April 13
People, people, people! We should be ENCOURAGING this sort of desire for blacks to have upscale nightlife! We should SUPPORT these establishments! (With words,not money; after all we’re not welcome there.)
That would make it possible for me and my wife to go out on a Saturday night to a restaurant and for shopping without me carrying the following items EVERY TIME I LEAVE MY HOUSE:
1. Pistol;
2. 2 extra magazines;
3. Lock-blade knife;
4. Pepper spray.
Since black professionals for the most part are working to earn the money to support that kind of life, I don’t have a problem with them. (Except when they start the “oppression” business while sitting in their Mercedes SL 500 while I’m writing them a traffic ticket for running a red light.) But their kids often think it’s cool to imitate the “thugz.” That’s what ruins things for decent people: Wannabe “thugz” acting the fool on a Saturday night.
Posted by Wild Eyed Charlie at 10:58 AM on April 13
9:09pm:
I have been to a plenty of predominately White clubs where there is loud, cackling noise! Most places where there is an active nightlife and young professional people is going to be acitve with some degee of noise.
What makes you think this would not be the case?
Posted by Fred at 3:30 PM on April 13
Nightclubbing? What’s that?
When my wife and I want to socialize with other couples, one of my ex-bosses and his wife walk over with snacks and the four of us drink my homebrewed cider and play Neverwinter Nights on the household LAN I set up, or we walk over to another neighbor’s house with some homebrew and play rummy, or some of her co-workers come over for a potluck dinner party.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 12:37 PM on April 14
I am an attorney who has incoroporated several drinking establishments and restaurants for a pair of investors I have known for years. We were discussing a recent shooting at a black night club not too far from where they were planning to open another establishment. One of them remarked “It’s always the same with the black clubs. Friday night, grand opening, Saturday night, grand closing.” I got a chuckle out of that.
Posted by at 1:18 PM on April 14
Posted by Fred at 3:30 PM on April 13
Your right there are places like that but generally I avoid them. Fred, I’m a man in my 50s and I like dining in places where people show a little decorum. This was a somewhat upscale place with a pricey menu and the people in there could obviously afford to eat there, but they weren’t upscale. Does “black professional” mean “ghetto with money”? Anyhow, I felt like I was sitting in the bus station in downtown Atlanta and the sight of a few interracial couples made me want to get up and leave. I only stayed for my wife’s sake, so as not to embarrass her.
Posted by at 5:19 PM on April 14
“Well, all of these complainers are “professionals”. Are there no entreprenuers amongst them to start opening up the nightlife venues they seem to be clamoring for?”
Posted by Flaxen-headed Strumpet at 7:56 PM on April 11
- Professional Complainers, = PC for short. Ironic?
Posted by Whiteplight at 6:12 PM on April 14
“These Black whiners should move to Montreal. Every nightclub, here in this city, caters to them, and their music, and everything else they like to make them feel at home.”
Posted by Louis from Montreal at 11:43 AM on April 12
> Does that include chit’lins and white women?
Actually, your post is sad to me.
Posted by Whiteplight at 6:15 PM on April 14
Fred:
How are you defining “ghetto with money”? It has been my experience tha most upscale Blacks are rather sophisticated - save for the professional athletes, rappers etc…
But I can also tell you that a growing number of White upscale and noveau rich are as loud, trashy, risque and crude as they want to be.
In fact, the New York Times did a cover story on class and the sort of people who vacation at different spots. They interviewed this 70 something man who came from old money. He was summer vacationing in the Hamptons.
He was livid as he was telling the reporters how these “new money people” (his term) were coming up here bringing their loud gaudy music, flashy clothes. How the young men and women wore suggestive, revealing clothing (some of the older ones too, I guess),behaved shamelessly on the beach, in the local restaurants etc.. It was clear he was disgusted with what was going on.
The fact that he mentioned “young people of all races” I assume that he was referring to Black, Latinos and Asians as well; however, it is probably safe to say that he was referring mostly to the new money White people.
Even Martha Stewart - classic new money refers to herself as ghetto. And of course old money Paris Hilton proudly revels in her ghetto status.
Posted by James at 12:48 AM on April 15
“How are you defining “ghetto with money”? It has been my experience tha most upscale Blacks are rather sophisticated - save for the professional athletes, rappers etc… “
And it has been MY experience that so-called upscale blacks aren’t much better than their ghetto brothers.
Yes, they appear to be sometimes, but in a tight situation they revert to their lowest common denominator.
I’ll take the crude neuveau rich types any day as long as they’re white.
It isn’t possible to take people out of the stone age and expect to conduct themselves on a civilized level.
Posted by at 12:17 PM on April 15
“How are you defining “ghetto with money”? It has been my experience tha most upscale Blacks are rather sophisticated - save for the professional athletes, rappers etc…”
Put down the remote and venture out into the real world. I’ve worked around a few black “professionals” in my life. There are two groups that I’m familiar with, one is semi-ghetto with a chip on his shoulder and the rest are “pretenders”. The first you have to be constantly using diplomacy with while walking on eggshells around them. The second group is more friendly and agreeable and will even try to act White around Whites. Get them around some bruthas and sistas though, and the real persona comes out.
Posted by at 4:41 PM on April 15
12:17:
“I will take the crude noveau rich types anyday as long as they’re White”
Are you nuts!?
I would rather have civilized, well behaved Blacks and Latinos over wild , crazy, uncouth out of control Whites around me anyday and vice versa!
I am sure that most reasonable race realist Whites would as well. A civil population is first and foremost a priority.
Posted by Brian at 11:04 PM on April 16
Brian:
I agree with you. A civil society is a must. Anyone Black, White, Latino, East Indian , Asian etc… who is uncivilized has to marginalized and if necessary, shunned.
Posted by William at 12:24 AM on April 17
My boss took me to a lawyers convention several years back and of course there were some blacks there sitting in the back, clustered together being louder than the rest of the room. These people were not behaving very professional. They were lounging around speaking that jive adolescent talk that must be universal among blacks. Between the “yo holmes” and the “can I get a what what” and the high fives you’d think they didn’t belong there.
Posted by at 6:13 PM on April 17
6:13pm:
I have to be honest with you, I am have had my dealings with Blacks (and some of them can be rude, as can a number of Whites) but as a lawyer, I really have to question your story.
I find it hard to beleive that you were at a conference where a group of high powered Black attorneys were yelling, screaming, saying “yo” and high fiving each other. I have dealt with a number of Black attorneys and even those that are combative have never behaved in the manner you described.
You know I think sometimes that some posters are so eager to post negative comments about Blacks and other non-Whites that the truth gets exagggerated.
If your story is true I apologize, but it just seems to far-fetched for me.
Posted by Trent at 11:29 PM on April 17
Trent I had similar experience with a black dentist in Orlando carrying on his ghetto rapport with his black patients. I can believe it.
Posted by at 5:39 PM on April 18
