Passport to Hispanic Culture along Niagara Street
Tastes of Puerto Rico, Columbia and Latin America welcome visitors to Buffalo’s Hispanic Heritage Corridor
The welcoming warmth of Buffalo’s Hispanic community shines through in the food of Niagara Street, the heart of the city’s Hispanic Heritage District.
Taste Puerto Rico in the rich roast pork and the yellow rice and pigeon peas at the Niagara Café and in the flan and guava pastries of La Flor Bakery. Sample Colombia’s unique flavors at Sabores de mi Tierra where traditional arepas, thick cornmeal and mozzarella cheese tortillas, are toasted on the griddle.
These three iconic restaurants beckon from a portion of Niagara called Avenida San Juan, stretching from downtown’s City Hall to Porter Avenue. The neighborhood is abuzz with restaurants, shops and taverns.
Celebrate the places of the people of Buffalo’s Hispanic community, which grew in the 1950s when people came to take factory jobs, said Casimiro D. Rodriguez Sr., president and founder of the Hispanic Heritage Council of Western New York. As Hispanic Heritage Month unfolds from September 15 to October 15, he shared some of his favorite delicacies.
Sabores de mi Tierra
247 Niagara St., Facebook
The name of this restaurant translates to “flavors of my land,” and it is known for Columbian, Venezuelan and Cuban specialties. A favorite of Rodriguez’s: the grill-toasted thick cheesy arepa tortillas and the pollo a la plancha, or chicken cooked on the griddle. Try empanadas, pernil sandwiches of shredded pork, a “bandeja Paisa,” or a regional platter, of crispy pork belly, plantains, rice, beans and a fried egg. Stuffed arepas with avocado, plantains and salsa verde mayo come vegetarian style with beans or meat.
La Flor Bakery
544 Niagara St., laflorbuffalo.com
This beloved spot shares Puerto Rican fare in its savory and sweet forms with rotisserie chicken, rice and beans and sandwiches, like a Cuban style ham and cheese. The bakery makes a traditional style loaf bread and tropical sweets – guava pastry, rich, custardy flan, rice and bread puddings, and a special “tembleque” coconut pudding.
Niagara Café
525 Niagara St., niagaracafe.shop
Comfort food with Puerto Rican roots is at home in this diner known for its seasoned, softly chewy yellow rice with pigeon peas and roasted pork, soupy beans in a cup, a moist, crispy-skinned roast chicken and pastelillo turnovers with savory ground beef filling. Pro tip: Dip fried plantains in the mayo ketchup sauce. Rodriguez loves the crunchy, toasted skins from the pork roast.
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Rodriguez, whose parents settled in Buffalo in the 1950s, looks forward to celebrating more of Buffalo’s Hispanic community, which makes up about 13 percent of the city, when the $26.5 million Hispanic Heritage Cultural Institute opens in the summer of 2026. Its museum, art gallery, theater, media lab and café will help share the heritage of the people and cultures – from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to Columbia, Venezuela and Mexico. “We plan on having a culinary program and cooking classes,” said Rodriguez, “so we can share with the community how to make these specialty plates at home.”
