The Bar Towel

Blue Monk Belgian Pub Opens in Buffalo -- With Local Beer
By Julia Burke, Beer Editor

To the delight of a very thirsty crowd of Buffalo beer lovers, Blue Monk finally opened its doors this week after months of agonizing delays. The newly renovated bar on Elmwood Avenue was bursting with patrons almost immediately when it opened on Saturday evening, and as the joyful assembly of Belgian beer lovers took in the warm, friendly vibe of the city’s newest gastropub, one drinker said it well. “This is a great night for Buffalo.”

After months of crossing fingers while Blue Monk dealt with liquor license frustrations and massive renovations, the successful opening of a new business in western New York was definitely something to celebrate.

It was a great night for New York beer as well.

Though Blue Monk is decidedly Belgian in theme and will feature a Belgian menu to match, the pub features no fewer than six New York beers by the bottle and three more on tap amidst its phenomenal 30-beer tap list. Owner Mike Shatzel, of Cole’s (the best beer list in town) fame, shows clear support for New York brewers with his outstanding local selections at both bars.

Blue Monk’s debut beer menu features beers from Southern Tier, Ommegang, Brooklyn, Ithaca, and Flying Bison – and they’re not just the old standbys. In addition to favorites such as Ithaca Flower Power and Flying Bison Rusty Chain, Blue Monk offers harder-to-find selections such as Ommegang Cup o’ Kyndness and Southern Tier Unearthly. As a Belgian-styled brewery, Ommegang is a perfect fit for Blue Monk, and the bar currently offers three of their brews (Witte, Chocolate Indulgence, and Cup O’Kyndness) alongside world-class Trappist ales, lambics and stouts.

When Blue Monk’s kitchen opens, serving their take on traditional Belgian fare, it’s likely to be the hottest new restaurant of the year.

But in the meantime, there’s enough good beer to drink to keep everyone busy – so here’s to the success of a new local pub with a commitment to local beer!

By the way, the full opening night tap list was as follows:

Ithaca Super Friends IPA & Flower Power IPA
Bear Republic Racer 5
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
Nogne Imperial Stout
Cantillon Iris
St Bernardus Apt 12, Prior 8 & Tripel
Maredsous 6
Duchess de Bourgogne
STier UnEar...thly IPA & Pumking
Ayinger Brau Weiss & Marzen
Unibroue Maudite & Blanche de Chambly
Delirium Tremens
Kwak
Strubbe Pilsner
Wells Bombadier
Youngs Double Chocolate
Guinness
Flying bison Rusty Chain
Houblon Chouffe IPA Tripel
Stone Arrogant Bastard
DFH Burton Baton
Affligem Blonde
Ommegang Witte
Victory Saison du Buff

Yea, we need to plan a BarTowel bus trip to the Blue Monk!

Good to know that we have a second great bar to go to in Buffalo, just down the street from Coles.

Unfortuntely for me, I am not really in to Belgian beers, and the rest of the tap list looks largely similar to what Coles regularly has available...

biegaman wrote: Yea, we need to plan a BarTowel bus trip to the Blue Monk!

Was thinking this very thing. Stay tuned!

Cass wrote:

biegaman wrote: Yea, we need to plan a BarTowel bus trip to the Blue Monk!

Was thinking this very thing. Stay tuned!

Yeah, why don't we have actual bartowel gatherings? It is high time. Provided we don't have to watch the leafs that is.

This was a great place.
The prices are reasonable. The atmosphere is great. Unfortunately the kitchen wasn't open on the opening night. But, Cantillion Iris was pretty wild.

I'll be back there again soon.

SteelbackGuy wrote:

Cass wrote:

biegaman wrote: Yea, we need to plan a BarTowel bus trip to the Blue Monk!

Was thinking this very thing. Stay tuned!

Yeah, why don't we have actual bartowel gatherings? It is high time. Provided we don't have to watch the leafs that is.

There's so many beer events happening nowadays that many BT guys are just going to those!

I'm looking into some bus charter quotes and see about a bus trip down to Blue Monk. I think that would be a nice little Saturday. Would there be interest from the gang here?

bartle wrote:This was a great place.
The prices are reasonable. The atmosphere is great. Unfortunately the kitchen wasn't open on the opening night. But, Cantillion Iris was pretty wild.

I'll be back there again soon.

Its looking like maybe the kitchen will open this Wednesday. I'll post an update here when it does.

Cass wrote:I'm looking into some bus charter quotes and see about a bus trip down to Blue Monk. I think that would be a nice little Saturday. Would there be interest from the gang here?

I would support this great initiative Cass. It will be fun telling the border control guy "Hell, we're going to bars on Elmwood to get f-cked up!" I mean it's completely legit so what can they do...

Cass wrote:I'm looking into some bus charter quotes and see about a bus trip down to Blue Monk. I think that would be a nice little Saturday. Would there be interest from the gang here?

There will be expressions of interest from 12-15 people, who will then spend 2 weeks bitching about the price of the charter, then complain when it gets cancelled at the last minute.

tuqueboy wrote:

Cass wrote:I'm looking into some bus charter quotes and see about a bus trip down to Blue Monk. I think that would be a nice little Saturday. Would there be interest from the gang here?

There will be expressions of interest from 12-15 people, who will then spend 2 weeks bitching about the price of the charter, then complain when it gets cancelled at the last minute.

Perhaps I'm just an optimist. Well, we'll see if we can do something, it would be fun. We did pull off a user-paid bus trip many years ago.

If not, I've got my own car

Cass wrote:

tuqueboy wrote:

Cass wrote:I'm looking into some bus charter quotes and see about a bus trip down to Blue Monk. I think that would be a nice little Saturday. Would there be interest from the gang here?

There will be expressions of interest from 12-15 people, who will then spend 2 weeks bitching about the price of the charter, then complain when it gets cancelled at the last minute.

Perhaps I'm just an optimist. Well, we'll see if we can do something, it would be fun. We did pull off a user-paid bus trip many years ago.

If not, I've got my own car

If the bus falls through, I call shotgun.

biegaman wrote:Ithaca Super Friends IPA & Flower Power IPA
Bear Republic Racer 5
Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
Nogne Imperial Stout
Cantillon Iris
St Bernardus Apt 12, Prior 8 & Tripel
Maredsous 6
Duchess de Bourgogne
STier UnEar...thly IPA & Pumking
Ayinger Brau Weiss & Marzen
Unibroue Maudite & Blanche de Chambly
Delirium Tremens
Kwak
Strubbe Pilsner
Wells Bombadier
Youngs Double Chocolate
Guinness
Flying bison Rusty Chain
Houblon Chouffe IPA Tripel
Stone Arrogant Bastard
DFH Burton Baton
Affligem Blonde
Ommegang Witte
Victory Saison du Buff

Cass wrote: Would there be interest from the gang here?

Yes.

Bobsy wrote:

Cass wrote:

tuqueboy wrote: There will be expressions of interest from 12-15 people, who will then spend 2 weeks bitching about the price of the charter, then complain when it gets cancelled at the last minute.

Perhaps I'm just an optimist. Well, we'll see if we can do something, it would be fun. We did pull off a user-paid bus trip many years ago.

If not, I've got my own car

If the bus falls through, I call shotgun.

Bullsh-t. I say we all rent our own Harley Davidsons to ride down gang-style, get completely smashed on Elmwood, and then have a drunken motorbike race over to Pizza Plant.

They don't care about that sort of thing at all in the USA.

OK, I think we're going to go ahead with this and see if we can get enough people, Groupon-style.

Watch out for the announcement on the weekend.