It’s been several months since we announced our intention to open a tap room and brewery in Lockport. We provided a bit of background around that decision in December. We thought it was time (overdue in fact!) for an update on the progress we’ve made since then.
The time since our last update has mostly been consumed with completing a mountain of paperwork. We’ve completed all the drawings of the space. This includes important pieces like plumbing, electrical, flooring, build outs of the kitchen, bars, and brewery, and important changes to the site like the installation of new staircases that allow for guests to go between the upper floor, where the main tap room will be, and the lower floor, which will be where the private event space, the brewery, the keg cooler, and the offices will be located.
We’ve applied for our federal brewing permits, our New York State alcohol manufacturing permits, as well as our liquor license.
The brewery design is completed and we’re just about ready to order equipment. We’re working with Blichmann to order our 2-barrel electric brewing system along with five 2-barrel fermenters. The kitchen design is complete as well. The Lockport kitchen equipment will be similar to our downtown kitchen equipment except for a new conveyor pizza oven which will ensure our pizzas are cooked evenly and perfectly every single time.
We’ve also completed the orders for our front-of-house furniture and audio/video equipment. We’re currently in the process of finalizing the interior design of the space. Once this is done, we hope to share a rendering of the new space with all of you, so you get an idea of what it’s going to look like when it’s ready to open.
The best news is that we finally began construction to turn the space into our tap room this past week! The fact that construction has started means that we now have a better idea of the timeline for opening… don’t worry, we’re getting to that.
Most importantly, we’ve made the first hire for our Lockport location in June, which is our General Manager. Our new GM Chelsie will be spending several months training at our downtown tap room before working full time on opening our Lockport location. At that time, we’ll probably start to hire other employees for the new location, starting with managers (expect see a job posting shortly for the Kitchen Manager position), and then moving on to bartenders, servers, line cooks, etc. We’ve had several inquiries about employment already – please be patient with us! We will definitely let you know when we’re ready to hire the rest of our staff. We’re excited to meet all of you!
The other exciting endeavor that will start shortly is developing the menu. As we told you in our last post, the Lockport location will have its own spin on our downtown menu, and will likely offer a few new dishes, as well as a few unique beers brewed on site, that might not be offered at the downtown Buffalo location. This work will start shortly. We’re not sure which items will make it to the menu yet, but we’re sure they’ll be delicious!
Finally, the question that everyone is thinking: “That’s great and all, but when are you going to be open?” Yes, the opening dates that we originally hoped for have slipped a bit. It’s now looking like a late 2024 opening for our tap room – that’s an educated guess. We’re working hard to get it open as soon as we can! Believe us, it will be worth the wait.
The Lockport community has been incredibly welcoming. We’ve been humbled by the number of “Can’t wait until you open!” and “So excited you’re coming!” comments we’ve already received. We really aim to be more than just a place to get food and beer – there are so many great bars and restaurants in and around Lockport that already do this extremely well. We’re just tremendously excited to be a part of Lockport. We’re already planning partnerships and sponsorships with many different Lockport businesses and organizations, because at the end of all this, we’re just hoping to help make Lockport an even better city than it is today. We still have so much to learn about Lockport, we really can’t wait to get started!
We hope to see all of you there when the tap room opens. We’ll do our best to provide more updates shortly. Until then – cheers!