The Bar Towel

Im planning my first trip to Buffalo, Im going for beer , the girlfriends going for shopping, I know you guys talk about premier a lot, was wondering whats close to it, is it a good area for shopping? Also are there any other stores like it in buffalo?

There's a good (albeit old) guide to Premier located here;
http://www.bartowel.com/premier.phtml

You'll also find many threads with lots of advice about other places to buy beer and drink beer by simply typing "Buffalo" in the forum search.

As for shopping...haven't a clue. Once your better half sees the "fashion sense" of the locals she might lose all hope of finding great places to buy clothes in Buffalo. Acid wash is still a fashion staple in the northwest of New York State.

Try Beers of the World in Rochester, you might get some better prices than at Premier Gourmet.

For Shopping if your wife likes malls then this (in)famous place is 15 min away from the Premier Gourmet.

http://www.waldengalleria.com/

I usually drop my wife off there and go to the PG and pick her up after.

Taking her I get a 90L limit instead of 45L.

StevenThrasher wrote: I usually drop my wife off there and go to the PG and pick her up after.

Taking her I get a 90L limit instead of 45L.

You must pay a hell of a lot of duty and have the bank account of a sultan. Don't you mean 9L and 4.5L?

The Walden Galleria mentioned earlier has a lot of stores but they're the same cookie cutter garbage you can get at any number of malls in Toronto. Unless things are significantly cheaper down here I don't see the point.

As Jon rudely pointed out, Buffalo isn't all that when it comes to fashion. Your wife may find some interesting things along the Elmwood strip or in Allentown, both in Buffalo. Barring that, she might be interested in some of the boutiques in the Village of Williamsville, a suburb of Buffalo. I've never explored the Williamsville stores so I can't really say. No matter where she goes, if high fashion is her goal she's going to have a hard time doing better than she would in Toronto.

Premier is your best bet for selection but Consumers will have better prices. Premier will do singles of everything, consumers will only do singles of large bottles or extremely expensive brews (such as Dogfish Head Worldwide Stout) Its probably logical to hit consumers first, get whatever you want there and then go to Premier. I can't think of a single bottle that will cost more at Consumers than Premier.

There is a Consumers beverages located on Elmwood, a few miles away from the strip. Different Consumers have different levels of selections. The one on Elmwood is good but the one on Transit Road in Williamsville is much better.

If you end up on Elmwood, you should check out Cole's, a restaurant/bar with a great tap and bottle selection (~30 taps, 15 or so bottles.) Next door to Cole's is Mr. Goodbar, a college divey kind of bar with a serious beer selection (think 30 taps including Rogue Imperial Stout, Kulmbacher Eisbock, Grotten Bruin, Victory Hop Wallop.. and so on.) Don't know what time you'll be in town but don't expect Goodbar to be open before 3 or 4 on weekdays. Cole's should be open by 11 or 11:30. Goodbar is cheap. Dirt cheap. $3.50 pints of Rogue Imperial Stout

If you head out to Williamsville for your wife's shopping you'll be right near the Main St. Pizza plant. 8-10 solid taps. If you end up at the Transit Consumers you'll be near the Transit Pizza Plant. Again, 8-10 solid taps. Both Pizza Plants have cask ale.

Some URLs you can check out
http://foreverelmwood.com/
http://www.consumersbeverages.com/
http://www.meetmeatcoles.com/ (the beer list is quite out of date)
http://www.pizzaplant.com/

-rudy

There's a fair bit of shopping along Transit Road near the Consumers and Pizza Plant. The Eastern Hills Mall and a lot of big boxes are along Transit, so she should find something to her liking. The Buffalo Brew Pub is a little farther south at the corner of Main and Transit and is worth stopping by for a pint or two and a beef on weck. Also, the Transit Consumers has about a dozen micros on tap for filling growlers, if you're so inclined.

thx guys for all the info, I plan on dropping the gf off at the outlets on military rd and hitting up premier. Anyone been to premier recently? is the beer list on their site pretty up to date? Also anyone have a definitive answer on how much beer you can bring back on a day trip, I keep getting so many different answers.

thx again

sweetback wrote:thx guys for all the info, I plan on dropping the gf off at the outlets on military rd and hitting up premier. Anyone been to premier recently? is the beer list on their site pretty up to date?

thx again

I was at PG last Sunday. The beer list on the site is a rotating list. They don't have all of the 700+ beers listed at one time, (I don't think) but they always do have a ton of stuff. They have all the great standbys on hand (Stone, Rogue, Victory, etc) but the best part is walking through the aisles and seeing what you can find!

Since these "planning a trip to Buffalo" threads have been getting more frequent, I've made this thread sticky so it will be easily available for any newbies that might come along.

(Cass, if you have any objections, feel free to un-sticky it...)

one more quick question, does premier carry anything from 3 floyds or Great Divide, I've been to the web site but dont see them listed.

thx

Jon Walker wrote:

StevenThrasher wrote: I usually drop my wife off there and go to the PG and pick her up after.

Taking her I get a 90L limit instead of 45L.

You must pay a hell of a lot of duty and have the bank account of a sultan. Don't you mean 9L and 4.5L?

Sadly this big lush means 45L and 90L. Yes I pay a lot of duty. About $250 on $900 worth of beer.

But the bonus is I have drinking not sampling quantities of the best Victory, Stone, DFH, Great Divide beers and a decent amount of recently acquired Three Floyds Dreadnaught, Alpha King and Bells Expedition stout. This with all the Belgians I get from Peter and I get to drink fine beer whenever I want.

I tell my wife its not how much beer I buy, the real cost is in how quickly I drink it. I told her recently I have enough beer in the cellar to last me a year . I don't think she buys that. Probably because after I told her that I bought a bunch more.



Yes I spend far too much on beer and I shouldn't sign a liver donor card.

sweetback wrote:one more quick question, does premier carry anything from 3 floyds or Great Divide, I've been to the web site but dont see them listed.

thx

Great Divide yes.
Three Floyds no.

StevenThrasher wrote:

Jon Walker wrote:

StevenThrasher wrote:
But the bonus is I have drinking not sampling quantities of the best Victory, Stone, DFH, Great Divide beers and a decent amount of recently acquired Three Floyds Dreadnaught, Alpha King and Bells Expedition stout. This with all the Belgians I get from Peter and I get to drink fine beer whenever I want.

.

where did you pick up the 3 floyds?

I was there about a month ago, the selection was quite good. I recommend you load up on American micros since the Belgians are too expensive. I loaded up on ipa's and imperial stouts. Also, if you buy a 24 of 1 brand at PG, you gets a 10% discount. I look at it like this, I pcked up a case of Brooklyn Choc stout for $40 less $4 discount plus $11 duties so $47 usd for a case of great stout with 10.6% alcohol is about $10 more than you'd pay for a case of Guinnes here. But when you start paying $5-8 bottle for Belgians plus duties it gets pricey.