The craft beer movement continues to plow forward in Buffalo. Big Ditch Brewery held its soft opening to the public yesterday, and officially opens its doors at 3pm today.
Up until this point, the larger than life brewery has been hosting a series of privately held events, which has allowed the operators to test out the service, kitchen, and the general flow of the space as it pertains to staff and customers.
The first floor of the tap room is exceptionally spacious, while the second floor loft area provides a cozier place for people to gather. The colossal windows allow plenty of natural light inside, and also include overhead doors that open up to the street.
I’m a big fan of the beehive style green glass insulator pendant lights that hang over the door. The shovel tap handles look sharp, as does the eye-catching “Strength, Pride Ambition” mural leading up the stairs. I also like the way the glass exterior extends to the brewing operation – it looks great from the street and creates a nice atmosphere for brewery tours.
““The opening of the Big Ditch Brewing Company tap room is the culmination of years of work put in by our ownership, our staff and large number of supporting local businesses,” says co-owner Matt Kahn. “We took our time to get this job done right, in order to provide a high quality drinking and eating establishment that we think Buffalo will be proud of for years to come.”
The menu features plenty of burgers and sandwiches, including an excavator battered grilled cheese, a T-Meadow bratwurst sandwich, baked pretzels, spicy beer shrimp, and a lot of other pub-style options.
As much as Buffalonians should be happy to have another brewery in its midst, we should especially be thankful that this once bland, dead and frankly embarrassing corner building has been converted into an attractive, vibrant hotspot. There are a number of other brutal single-story structures nearby that could benefit from similar reuses. Let’s raise a pint to Big Ditch and Iskalo Development, for investing in this awesome project in Downtown Buffalo.
Big Ditch Brewing Company | 55 E Huron St, Buffalo, NY | (716) 854-5050 | Facebook
Lead image: Big Ditch