How to Walk in Buffalo and Beyond: An Elderly Couple Walks into an Old Bar… (Part I)

Continuing the series on Buffalo walks, with the intrepid couple who walked every day, no matter the weather, during the early years of Covid. They believe (but are not systematic) that they walked every street in Buffalo, and many other cities and towns, taking some 25,000 photos, shared in this series. While these are not itineraries, we hope to encourage others to “walk the path,” to see, observe, and appreciate Buffalo—and beyond. William Graebner and Dianne Bennett are also the film critics for 5 Cent Cine, here.

Photo Essay of the Day: An Elderly Couple Walks into an Old Bar… (Part I)

What is an “old” bar? We are flexible. It’s old if it looks old, if the building is old, if the bartender says it’s old, if it’s been renovated but tastefully, or if it’s a “dive bar,” another flexible category, and one we have a soft spot for. You know it when you see it.

Buffalo’s East Side isn’t particularly well served by old bars, as many of its Polish and German drinkers have left the city for the suburbs. It seems likely that much of the current population drinks at home (a version of “bowling alone,” as Robert Putnam’s book is titled) or not at all. Still, we found more than one place to enjoy ourselves as we finished our late-afternoon strolls.

We knew the Twilight Grill, located on the corner of Thomas and Howard Streets, because we parked on Thomas Street many times on our way to Central Terminal, just north. The Twilight’s mural of an owl is a beautiful work of art. We recently went there for the first time. There are no draft beers, but you can see where they used to be. When we ordered bottles of Pacifico and Amstel Light, we were politely told that “you know you’re on the East Side.” We opted for Labatt’s. The bar is celebrating its 100th anniversary soon, as the woman behind the bar, one of the owners, told us. The current family bought the place in the 1940s. The kitchen (and other rooms besides the main one) have been closed for some time, the kitchen since her mother died. What remains is colorful and undeniably authentic. Twilight’s customers come mainly from the neighborhood.

From the outside, Smokey’s Tavern (South Lord Street, just outside Larkinville) is unassuming, so much so that we wondered if it was still a bar or had been converted into housing, even though we’d seen and talked to guys hanging out there. Yes, it’s a bar, and an interesting one, with a few bucks on the walls (and a sign that says “Real Hunters Bowhunt”) and a notice of the upcoming Smokey’s Men’s Club meeting. The camouflage clothing stands out. The women and the men. Almost everyone was drinking Labatt’s ($3) or Bud Lite.

One of our favorite walks takes us along the railroad line that separates Lovejoy (part of Buffalo) and Sloan (an independent jurisdiction). We usually pass by Nowak’s Tavern, at 1458 Lovejoy Street (in Sloan), and one afternoon last February, we made the tavern a destination. We’re not sure how long it’s been around (despite an internet search), but even after a Covid-related renovation, it’s clear it’s been around for a while. $2.50 draft pints (they wouldn’t believe that in L.A.) and a full menu (our takeout fish dinner was excellent). Polish motifs abound. A Bills “Fu*k Your Team” banner is prominent. A woman sitting on the adjacent stool said that crime in Lovejoy and Sloan was about the same, but that the car break-ins in Sloan were the work of the Lovejoy people. Across the street, a guy in a Poland jacket told us that taxes in Sloan were much higher than in Lovejoy. Two guys left the bar to smoke outside and left money and their cell phones on the bar, a sure sign of a neighborhood bar with a trusting clientele.

Another dividing line, the Cheektowaga-Buffalo border, marks the site of Papa Joe’s Sports Bar and Grill. At 1011 Walden Avenue, the address is Cheektowaga, just steps from the Buffalo city line. Papa Joe’s is a neighborhood staple, the building having housed a bar since at least the 1970s. It’s been on our minds since 2020, when we first explored the neighborhood. Masked for Covid, we went inside for bottled beers and a burger, which we enjoyed on the covered side patio, despite the chilly October weather. The interior, as we remember it from that first encounter, is dark and intimate.

Nearly four years later, in talking to two longtime customers, we learned that the bar used to host pig roasts in a wooded area out back. One of the men lamented that young people were going to clubs instead of bars and instead of Papa Joe’s. There was talk of turning the place into some kind of “store”—perhaps a tire store, one joked, noting that Walden Avenue was full of tire stores, including Lil Moe’s.

The mirror above the bar at the Clinton Lounge on Clinton Street in Kaisertown suggests that the tavern front is new, dating to 2018. The date could refer to new ownership or a renovation (the curved ceiling with recessed lighting). The wooden bar itself looks like it was built decades ago. When we stopped in mid-afternoon one day in March 2023, what we found unusual was that the couple next to us at the bar were completely engrossed in a 1970s TV sitcom.

Head to the busy North Buffalo neighborhood. JP’s Checkers, on the east end of Hertel Avenue, has a pleasant atmosphere, even when we’re the only ones inside: hardwood floors, a classic curved bar rail for elbows, backs on stools, canned wine (not bad), tin ceiling, and a mural commissioned by the owner of the Grand Island Bridge, the Ralph, and a bunch of weirder stuff. There’s a certain elegance to the place.

Murray’s Tavern, on Delaware Avenue north of Hertel, doesn’t look old from the street, and maybe it isn’t, depending on how you look at it. Murray’s has been there for only 10 or 12 years, having moved from Colvin/Hertel (the yellow, cigarette-smoke-stained ceiling tiles date from the old location). The long, narrow building where the tavern now sits has housed bars since the 1950s, we’re told, when Holiday House served beer. According to the sign above the door, Murray’s has been around since 1978, though Murray sold the bar and moved to Florida, according to the friendly bartender, a woman who was a longtime Murray’s friend. Aside from a prominent leprechaun, the walls have a democratic feel, with several dense collages of regular patrons of the bar, rather than “celebrities.” The collage photo is of Murray in the green cap.

On the day we visited, the large rectangular bar, with its soft elbow cushion, was lit mostly by late afternoon sunlight. The neighborhood was well represented, mostly by older men who knew each other, chatting about renovations and the recently deceased Shelly Duvall, the screaming star of “The Shining” (1980). Pints ​​$3.75 (we had three), with chips and pretzels. Apologies to Kelly’s Tavern, just up the street, which is on our list of must-see restaurants!

Although some of the bars that once supported the city’s grain elevator workers are now closed, the First Ward still has a few welcoming taverns. Among them, at the foot of Hamburg Street, is Gene McCarthy’s Old First Ward Brewing Company, with its charming patio warmed by the late afternoon sun. One of our favorites, and within walking distance (although we do cross “active” railroad tracks) of some of the city’s most impressive public art, resembling ancient cave paintings (below). A sign above the bar reads: “Be Nice or Leave.”

On Louisiana Street, at the other end of the neighborhood, you’ll find the Buffalo Bar & Grille, where we stopped for a few beers on a chilly early November evening after walking through one of our favorite Buffalo neighborhoods. The exterior looks like a regular house, but it’s decorated with a logo in the window (left) of a pretty girl riding a bull sidesaddle, and the parking lot sports a big sign that says “Hollyward.”

Two motorcycles were parked outside. Inside, the walls of the front room were covered with photos and historical memorabilia, from the Rat Pack to the Beatles and a paean to what it means to be a “Buffaloian.” The men’s room was somewhere beneath all that history. The bar itself was well stocked with alcohol, including Aperol (not Campari, as we could see), a curious variation of the famous Italian cocktail. An old cash register and one of the old photos suggested that the building was a restaurant 125 years ago.

A sign that says “You can leave, but you can never leave!!”, a somewhat truncated version of the Eagles’ lyrics to “Hotel California”. Who wants to leave?

Coming in Part 2 of An Older Couple Walks Into an Old Bar…: Black Rock/Riverside, the West Side, LaSalle (Niagara Falls), Old Town, Woodlawn, Grand Island and North Tonawanda.

Click here to see more of “Walks and Thoughts” by © William Graebner.