There’s nothing we love more than a cold beer after a fun day in Buffalo. Whether you’re new to living in Buffalo, just visiting, or you’ve been here all your life but want some fresh ideas of things to do, there are so many ways to get out and explore our beautiful city. Redfin recently featured Big Ditch in their “Things to do for new residents of Buffalo, NY” article. Check it out here!
INTRODUCING OUR NEW
SUMMER INFLATION BUSTER Menu!
Big Ditch has always prided itself on our quality. At our tap room, this means quality of beer, food, service, and environment.
While we would NEVER compromise our quality, we also know that discretionary spending is getting tougher for Western New Yorkers due to inflation-related pressure.
We want to continue to provide Buffalo with a place to get quality beer, food, service in a comfortable environment, but also at a relatively affordable price. While we've always worked hard to keep our prices reasonable (there isn't an item on our menu that costs $20 or more), we thought we could still try to do a little more.
Starting today, we’re a offering a series of discounted menu items on different days of the week that will continue to provide the same high-quality products and service you expect from us, but also provide an even better value.
Thanks to all of our loyal customers for continuing to support Big Ditch over the last 9+ years and counting. We look forward to seeing you this summer.
INFLATION BUSTER MENU DETAILS:
Monday - $0.75 wings 3pm to close
Tuesday - $10 all pizzas 3pm to close
Wednesday - $12 all burgers 3pm to close
Thursday - $5 all draft beers and ciders, $10 all shareable plates 3pm-6pm
Monday - Friday 11am - 3pm - $10 1/2 Sandwich and Salad (Turkey Wrap or Shrimp Po Boy + a side salad)
Sunday - $5 Mimosas Brunch 10am - 2pm
All good things must come to end.
We regret to inform you that TODAY (Thursday 6/27/24) will be the LAST Innovation Thursday we plan on running.
Our Thursday combination of innovative beers and wings flavors has been running since March 2023 - that's 68 STRAIGHT WEEKS of new beer and wing flavors! Thanks to everyone that has tried any of our innovative flavors during that time!
The final pairing for today is:
Chicken Fried Chicken Wings - Southern style breaded and battered chicken wings deep fried extra crispy until golden brown. Served with country gravy and baby carrots for dipping.
Grilled Pineapple Sour - We began with the recipe for Pineapple 'Burner, backed off the hops, added touches of smoked malt and milk sugar, and then slightly soured the beer, to result in this liquid testament to barbeque. ABV = 7.0%
Not to worry - Big Ditch is NEVER done innovating. New beers will continue to be out regularly, just not necessarily every Thursday. And - we'll have some fresh tap room programming to be announced shortly. 😉🍗🍻
Afterburner, our flagship American IPA intensified with more malt, more hops, and coming in at 9.0% ABV, was brewed for Hayburner’s biggest fans. This imperial IPA is best described as a citrus bomb, with huge orange flavor and aroma, yet still possessing Hayburner’s classic bitter edge, alcohol bite, and excellent drinkability.
Online ordering for pickup at our tap room or shipping (currently shipping to NY & PA only) will be available beginning Friday, 6/28. Limited distro starting next week.
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!