As promised, here is another ‘Brew View’ post. While visiting my mom this weekend and attending a family reunion picnic we toured a few breweries in the Larkinville area of Buffalo. My brother Ed scouts the new places and plans the outings, no small feat as we are usually a large group. Ten of us (3 of us sisters, Christine, Theresa, and me, Greg, Terry’s sig other Jim, Christine’s fiance Shaun and his daughter Emily, brother Ed and his son Eddy and girlfriend Gina) hit 3 breweries and 1 distillery, all within 5 minutes drive of each other. Buffalo is experiencing a rebirth from it’s decades-long recession and decline of the blue collar factory economy. There is obvious pride in the local industrial history and the new vibe is edgy and hip. I’m impressed because my memory of this whole area was of derelict buildings and empty streets. Now there are offices and loft condos, food truck pavilions, zip lines crossing from abandoned grain mill to abandoned grain mill, and twisted metal wreckage art adorning the canalside bars. Tesla has built a factory here on what was the Republic Steel Mill. The formerly abandoned Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Larkin Building is filled with offices. Appropriately, we started the evening at Resurgence brewery, their second site named ‘The Cooperage’. It’s located in an old foundry, a huge brick building complete with old steel and wood beams, leftover steel pulleys in the former sand pit, and stylish contemporary chandeliers. Next door is a huge new climbing gym. Several IPAs led the menu. Greg had the eponymous Resurgence IPA and I had the lager. No complaints here from anyone in our group. The food looked delicious but we decided to eat at the next place.
Last fall we visited Gene McCarthy’s in the Old First Ward, that section of Buffalo originally settled by Irish families. We returned to their beer garden shared with the adjacent Old First Ward Brewery. Greg had an IPA that he said “grew on him”. I had a diet coke, anticipating ‘designated driver’ responsibilities. We also had dinner: I had the famous Buffalo ‘beef on weck’, piles of shaved roast beef on kimmelweck rolls (kaiser rolls topped with salt and fennel seeds). Greg had a good looking reuben. Shaun, our resident Irishman in the family, opted for their delicious corned beef and cabbage. Even better, a great band was entertaining us, the Leroy Townes band. We then moved onto brewery #3. Not far from the OFW, we headed to the newly opened Belt Line Brewery which was crowded so we passed and hit the nearby Flying Bison Brewery instead. I again abstained and Greg had a couple of good IPA’s. This brewery was fairly empty so we ruled the cornhole court until my other brother Dave showed up. By now a few of our group were feeling pretty happy so there was continuous laughter all around.
Just around the corner was the Buffalo Distilling Company One Foot Cock distillery which had a band, so we headed in. We all had a Polish Smash, a mixed drink with Krupnik, a Polish liquer distilled from honey. Afterwards we headed home making it to FranCeil’s, our favorite hometown ice cream stand, just before they closed at 11pm. Despite the nearby Macedonian church festival playing music til midnight, we all slept well.
On Sunday we attended the Klubek Family picnic, an annual event for my Mom’s family. My Aunt Betty and her committee of daughters and aunts and cousins have been organizing this picnic for 50 years. My grandfather was one of 16; my mom was one of 8. I have LOTS of aunts, uncles, and cousins. This was a special 50th anniversary event and was even more well attended than usual. Family from Germany, Texas, Florida, Maryland and the Adirondacks were in attendance. I estimate over 200 family members were there.
Every year, a King and Queen are selected, This year I was unexpectedly selected Queen! My sisters had advance notice so Christine was ready to toss rose petals ahead of me as I approached the throne (a folding camp chair) to be crowned. It was a great day.
My new reality 