My parents grew up on the East side of Buffalo, just off of Broadway, in between Filmore and Bailey Avenues. From the memories my family has illustrated, the image that sits in my head is the quintessential 1950’s, Leave it to Beaver kind of neighborhood, only…“citified”: concrete playgrounds filled with laughter; boys in button-up t-shirts and high socks dodging girls in their knee length dresses running back and forth across the street; the milk-man just finishing up his morning deliveries paving way for the man with the popcorn stand to start pushing around his cart; lovers walking hand and hand headed towards 998 Broadway to Sattler’s 3rd floor jewelry department; shoppers going about their business in and out of the bakeries, butcher’s shops, five-and-dime stores, you name it, all within a matter of blocks. This is the kind of neighborhood I wish was still in existence; I think everyone does.
However, the once cheerful, family-tight neighborhoods have deteriorated through the years into empty, condemned houses and buildings, shattered glass and barren blocks of empty lots where businesses and houses once stood.
And yet, hope remains. Driving onto Ashley Street to see my grandmother’s old house, amid the graffiti, overgrown hedges and boarded up doors, abandoned daffodils blossomed. Being one of the first flowers of spring, the daffodil symbolizes rebirth, new beginnings, respect and unrequited love. Less than a half a mile down the road sits the Broadway Market, a meeting place for business and community that is now over 120yrs old. The Broadway Market is the daffodil of the East Side; just when it seems that there is no life, spring springs and the Broadway Market is reborn.
And yet, hope remains. Driving onto Ashley Street to see my grandmother’s old house, amid the graffiti, overgrown hedges and boarded up doors, abandoned daffodils blossomed. Being one of the first flowers of spring, the daffodil symbolizes rebirth, new beginnings, respect and unrequited love. Less than a half a mile down the road sits the Broadway Market, a meeting place for business and community that is now over 120yrs old. The Broadway Market is the daffodil of the East Side; just when it seems that there is no life, spring springs and the Broadway Market is reborn.
Though this used to be an everyday market where vendors would sell exotic fruits, meats and delicacies from their homelands and shoppers would flood to stands to buy the freshest catch, the Broadway Market has now become a “Mecca” for Eastern European traditions during the Easter season. Proudly selling the essentials including the “baranek” (ba-(d)RON-ick, lightly roll the “r”) – buttered lamb, cross bread, kielbasa, zesty horseradish along with Easter chocolates and pastries (including “ chrusciki” – croos-CHEE-ki) , the market also offers wines, plants (pussy willows), meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, Easter and year-round gifts, Polish, Italian, German and Ukranian knick-knacks and clothing…really, a lot of unique, sometimes silly, items.
A special characteristic that separates the environment of the market from department stores or chained grocery stores is the people who work there. The vendors of the Broadway Market are the kind of people that want to talk to you. They want to hear your stories and your traditions just as they are willing to tell you theirs. Monika Poslinski, owner of the Pol-Gifts Market, will tell you how she was ordered to take Russian as a schoolgirl and left Gdansk right before the fall of communism in Poland. She came to the United States not knowing a bit of English and yet has come to own her own shop with hardly any trace of a Polish accent! Mike Hnat, detail artist and illustrator of thousands of eggs, will tell you how he’s been keeping the art of pisanki alive since learning the skills from his mother and continues to pass down his techniques to his family. These people are ordinary people, just like you and me, but their passions have made them extraordinary.
If you want to take a step back in time and get a glimpse as to what market life was like for a time, I suggest taking a trip to the Broadway Market. Be it an afternoon with friends, family or loved ones, its sure create a memorable experience. Time may have changed the landscape of the East side, but the traditions of the past live on through the families who care to protect their culture and celebrate their heritage. Like the daffodil, hopefully the Broadway Market will continue to grow for generations to come.
A special characteristic that separates the environment of the market from department stores or chained grocery stores is the people who work there. The vendors of the Broadway Market are the kind of people that want to talk to you. They want to hear your stories and your traditions just as they are willing to tell you theirs. Monika Poslinski, owner of the Pol-Gifts Market, will tell you how she was ordered to take Russian as a schoolgirl and left Gdansk right before the fall of communism in Poland. She came to the United States not knowing a bit of English and yet has come to own her own shop with hardly any trace of a Polish accent! Mike Hnat, detail artist and illustrator of thousands of eggs, will tell you how he’s been keeping the art of pisanki alive since learning the skills from his mother and continues to pass down his techniques to his family. These people are ordinary people, just like you and me, but their passions have made them extraordinary.
If you want to take a step back in time and get a glimpse as to what market life was like for a time, I suggest taking a trip to the Broadway Market. Be it an afternoon with friends, family or loved ones, its sure create a memorable experience. Time may have changed the landscape of the East side, but the traditions of the past live on through the families who care to protect their culture and celebrate their heritage. Like the daffodil, hopefully the Broadway Market will continue to grow for generations to come.
 Monika Poslinski of Pol-Gifts Market: European Cards, Gifts & More |  Mike Hnat, of Our Traditions, designer and illustrator of pisanki, strabanki and other styles of egg decoration. |
 Milder horseradish relish with beets (ćwikła - ch'VEEK-wa) and white horseradish (chrzan - kruh'ZJAHN) |  Get your chrusciki (croos-CHEE-ki) at the market or at various locations around WNY. |  Butcher stand in the back of the market |
NOTE: given that there are only a couple weeks until Easter, be prepared for the crowds. Yes, you will have to wait in line to be served. Yes, you may be pushed around by other customers. In circumstances like this, just smile. There’s no point in getting anxious or upset. Strike up conversation with your neighbor and learn something new about them. That’s what a market is – an exchange goods and knowledge.
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