“I like to say that Buffalo is the most interesting city in the U.S. that no one talks about,” said Chris Hawley, a local city planner and preservationist.
“We still have a well-known brand with our sports teams and inclement weather,” he added, “but there is a new story in Buffalo that folks are just now becoming aware of.”
That new story centers on the energetic rebirth of an upstate city once very down on its luck. Millennials and young entrepreneurs are moving back to Buffalo as “re-pats,” staking their claim by helping revitalize a place they once fled. Thanks in part to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s controversial Buffalo Billion economic development program, this once downtrodden Rust Belt town is transforming into a lively destination with startups, microbreweries and distilleries.
Much of Buffalo’s progress can be chalked up to what Hawley calls beer-oriented development. A local beer and distilling revolution has helped remake the city and introduce a welcome influx of new craft breweries. In just the last couple of years, nearly 20 breweries and distilleries have opened here, including the new Big Ditch Brewing Company downtown and Resurgence Brewing Company, which is helping breathe life into what had long been a rougher part of town.
Many similar establishments are under development, such as Buffalo Brewing Company, as well as a facility at the waterfront RiverWorks complex that’s billed as the first fully functioning brewery to be retrofitted into an existing grain silo.
Ironically, Buffalo used to be one of the nation’s largest brewing cities because of a huge malting industry and its location on the Erie Canal. But in more recent years, Buffalo lagged behind other cities when it came to opening microbreweries. That began to change when New York passed legislation in 2012 supporting the state’s craft breweries by giving them certain tax credits and other perks pegged to the use of locally grown ingredients.
“The thing about a brewery is it’s not just a production facility anymore,” said Ethan Cox, one of the founders of Buffalo’s Community Beer Works, a so-called nanobrewery built around small-batch production.
Cox gave a TED Talk in 2011 about the potential for craft breweries and taprooms to help rejuvenate distressed neighborhoods. Community Beer Works has been doing just that in the West Side ever since serving its first beer in 2012. Other entrepreneurs have followed in its foamy footsteps. A few years later, just a couple of blocks away, Resurgence Brewing Company opened in the same neighborhood.
“I do believe the brewing scene is having a positive impact on the city and individual neighborhoods,” said Resurgence owner Jeff Ware. “Buffalo is now a brew-tour city. You can easily plan a day or even weekend around visiting all the different breweries.”
One of the biggest success stories is visibly evident in the rapidly transformed neighborhood of Larkinville. Just a few years ago, the heart of the neighborhood — Larkin Square — was home to abandoned Larkin Soap Company warehouses and pothole-filled parking lots. Today, it’s been rehabbed into modern workspaces with a huge, parklike front yard with stages for music, food trucks and outdoor eateries.
“The Larkin District is one of the greatest examples of how beer-oriented development has visibly helped transform, in combination with other factors, a once forlorn neighborhood,” Hawley said.
Across the street from Larkin Square is Hydraulic Hearth, a restaurant and lively beer garden that serves brick-oven pizzas and beer from a satellite brewery of Community Beer Works. And just around the corner is Flying Bison, the first brewery to open here since the last one closed in the early ’70s. Flying Bison bottles and kegs its own beer and brews some traditional styles like Maibock and porter.
“Just a couple years ago, you could not say ‘ale’ or ‘hoppy’; Buffalonians in general were so conditioned to major, national-style beer,” said Flying Bison founder Tim Herzog. “(Now), more and more people are interested in trying new flavors, exploring traditional European styles and becoming unafraid of the dark styles.”
Beer aficionados will tell you that none of this, of course, is unique to Buffalo. What’s “new” is that it’s happening here now and not five years ago, when other big cities were hopping on the craft beer wagon.
“It seems to me that the residents of Buffalo have stopped looking for a silver bullet project to fix the economy,” Herzog said. “Entrepreneurs have dug in and started opening local businesses to serve and support the local economy. Developers have started fixing up and re-imagining architectural and historically significant buildings. Small brewers are leading that charge. We’re locally owned. We buy locally made boxes, bottles, malt and hops. We create three times more boost in the local economy than a franchise or chain business.”
“For people of my generation,” Hawley said, “all we see is possibility rather than a lost greatness.”
Lisa Lubin is a freelance writer.
