The Husband and I came up to Buffalo for the Bills playoff game (which I’m still not ready to talk about) and decided to spend a few days in Ellicottville. I wanted to ski, which ended up being a disaster, and The Husband wanted to check out Ellicottville Brewing.
The Ellicottville Brewing was originally established in Ellicottville in 1995, after the owner was inspired by a trip to Vail, CO. The original location was expanded in 2013 into a brewpub with a German beer garden. There are now multiple locations in WNY.
The original location has dark wood with lots of interesting lights, and feels very much like WNY. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t been here, but there is certain feel in a lot of places, like an antique, creaking dark wood, cozy, old house feel.
We met some friends there for dinner on our fist night in Ellicottville. In addition to their delicious beers, they also have a great wine list for the non beer drinkers. One slightly annoying thing-the flights are preset and can’t be substituted. They have two options and you can’t make your own. We love getting flights and trying things we wouldn’t usually, but not if it means having to try something we know we don’t like.
I don’t drink much beer anymore but I will always get an Ellicottville Brewing Blueberry Wheat when it’s available. It’s so smooth, so flavorful, and all around delicious. It’s the kind of beer that even people who don’t like beer would like. We also tried the blackberry kolsch, and it was so good. I love a good kolsch and this one was right up there. The orange chocolate beer was surprisingly delicious. It tasted like oranges when you were drinking it and left a sweet chocolate aftertaste. The blueberry maple pancake beer was also interesting, but tasted too much like breakfast for me to want a whole pint.
I started with the French onion soup. It was just okay, nothing special. Maybe if I hadn’t just had Gabriel’s Gate amazing French onion soup earlier in the day it wouldn’t have seemed so average.
I also had the fish fry. I love a WNY fish fry, but it’s usually only available on Fridays. I was excited that they offered it everyday so I had to get it. They use haddock, which is the only acceptable fish for a WNY fish fry. Instead of the usual beer batter, they used Japanese bread crumbs. It wasn’t the fluffy WNY fish fry I wanted; it felt more like a Japanese katsu. It was delicious, but a little disappointing since I was so excited about a WNY fish fry. The portion was huge, even with sharing I didn’t finish half of it.
The Husband ordered the grilled chicken caprese. It was grilled chicken with pesto and mozzarella on a toasted naan. He enjoyed it and it was a nice break from deep fried chicken wings. I somehow didn’t take a picture of it.
Our friends ordered the grilled romaine salad with chicken and the chicken parm. They both really like their meals and, just like my fish, the portions were large, especially the chicken parm.
Everything was really good. The beer alone is worth going for but the food is just as good. Ellicottville is a great spot for a weekend skiing getaway, and Ellicottville Brewing is a must-d0.