Life is good at Pizza Plant at Canalside. Actually, life is great now that the have added Pod City Beer Labs, a 3 and a half barrel system, with three 7-barrel fermenters. I spoke to co-owner Dan Syracuse about the new brewery addition. He was over the moon about the setup, especially considering that the restaurant (at Canalside) almost closed its doors during the pandemic.
“The idea has been brewing since the early 80’s,” Dan told me. “To make a mini brew pub at Pizza Plant. But we got sidetracked, and then decided to just feature good craft beers. We set out to feature beers that Buffalo didn’t have, such as Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada – we were the first to carry those, and many others. We developed quite a reputation for our beers, and won awards for our beer lists.”
During the pandemic, the Canalside Pizza Plant location took a big hit. Unlike the Transit location that has a drive-thru window, the downtown location depended on office workers, tourists, and events. With no one around, the owners (Dan, and his brother Bob Syracuse) thought about pulling the plug.
“We lost our staff too, like everyone else,” said Dan. “You don’t just lock the door and walk away though. And now things are starting to look up. A couple years back we started pursuing the idea of the brewery, with equipment and funding. We ended up knocking down two walls in a space that was originally going to be a take-out area that never panned out. So far, we’ve introduced Patsy’s Pilsner (named after Dan and Bob’s grandfather, Pasquale Bucaria) and Inferno Pod Ale, which are flowing and quite tasty.”
Dan told me that it was Matt Redpath who helped set up the system. If that name sounds familiar, he’s the brewer that is attempting to open a microbrewery called Sentient Brewing. The head brewer at Pod City Labs is Evan Flurry (from Sato Brewpub) who is just finishing his Brewmaster degree.
Along with Patsy’s Pilsner and Inferno Pod Ale, a third beer called Lupulino New England IPA is now on tap. Altogether, Pizza Plant has five dedicated taps to toy with.
“The local taps are now really local,” said Dan [laughing]. “But we’re going to be doing collabs with other regional breweries as well. One that we’re working on right now is with The Other Half – they’re looking for some food, and we’re talking about a possible collaboration beer. Then we would carry one or two of their beers on tap. Something like that.”
So far, the initial reports that are coming in are all positive, according to Dan.
“We’re getting a lot of thumbs up considering that this is our initial batch,” said Dan. “This one is already well past the drinkability stage, so I’m pretty impressed with where we’re at. We owe it to Evan, and a good system. We’ve already had some bigger brewers tell us that they are interested in coming over to play around with the system. I think it’s going to lead to a number of local collaborations. And that’s what we’re all about.”
Pizza Plant | Pod City Beer Labs | 125 Main St #110, Buffalo, NY 14203 | (716) 626-5566