Buffalo in the ’80s: Radice’s Go-Go Girls on red-light Chippewa

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

It was a different kind of good time on Chippewa Street when this photo of the Root Building was taken in 1983.

According to the signage on the building in this photo from 1983, Radice’s offered go-go girls and topless exotic entertainment nightly.

According to the signage on the building, Radice’s offered go-go girls and topless exotic entertainment nightly.

The black and yellow building to the left was the home of the Fisherman’s Wharf, which made Radice’s look like the Yankee Doodle Room at AM&A’s.

Torn-Down Tuesday: The seediest of Chippewa’s seedy joints

The old Fisherman’s Wharf building was torn down and Soho is now in its place. Emerson Commons, the cafeteria run by Buffalo high school students, is in the place of Radice’s.

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Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.