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An Urban Explorer's Guide to the Buffalo-Niagara Region: Unique Landmarks, Historic Gin Mills, Old World Neighborhoods, History and More!

Welcome

Experience the Tour

Departure Board

Arrival Board

Tour Polish Buffalo

Buffalo Ethnic Tours

Tour German Buffalo

Tour Italian Buffalo

Tour Irish Buffalo

Last Fine Time Tour

Buffalo Brewery Tour

Classic Taverns-Awards

Classic Taverns-Buffalo

Dill's Tavern

Top Hill Grill

Talty's

Daren's Tavern

Scharf's Schiller Park

Pristach's

G&T Inn

Gene McCarthy's

Ulrich's Tavern

Artys Grill

Dick's Eastside Inn

East End Tavern

Sportsman Tavern

The Malamute

Taverns of Polonia 1910

Dalys

Eddie Brady's Bar

Ten-O-Won Grill

Classic Taverns-Travels

The Concertina Bar

Mels Bar

Club 505

Steve's Lounge

Classic Taverns-Last Call

Felong's Tavern

Billy O's Golden Swan

Big Joe Dudzick's Tavern

The Broadway Grill

Bramer's Grill

Concord Restaurant

Messner's Aero Bar

Ray Flynn's

Kutas Warsaw Inn

McBride's Pub

Strusienski's Restaurant

Private & Ethnic Clubs

Adam Mickiewicz Library

American Serbian Club

Corpus Christi AC

Croatian "Cro" Club

Dnipro Ukrainian Center

Dom Polski - N Tonawanda

Eldredge Bicycle Club

Polish Cadets

St. Stan's Athletic Club

Third Warders Club

Ukrainian-American Center

FBTV Video

Historic Polonia District

Central Terminal

Polish Home Museum Project

Broadway Market

St. Stanislaus Church

Corpus Christi Church

St. Adalbert's Basilica

Superman Corner

Polonia Views

Eckhardt Department Store

Polish Union of America

PPS Broadway Mkt Report

Polskie Kolo Spiewackie

Lucki Urban

Buffalo's Polonia History

A Polka Moment In Time

Vintage Polka Posters

Pulaski Parade 1962

Pulaski Parade 2006

Pulaski Parade 2008

Broadway Fillmore

Polonia Stories

1910 Maps of Polonia Buffalo

Buffalo Polonia - 1910

Preserve a Polish Home

Kaminski Meats

Polonia Scrapbook

Polonia On Parade

1965 Polka Convention

Polish Paintings

Power To Polonia

Beer Murals Nielsen

Forgotten Bflo Features

Kids & Wigilia Traditions

The Simon Pure Brewery

Lost Bflo Train Stations

New York Central at War

Pennsylvania RR at War

Talkin' Proud!

Buffalo Union Station

Bayliss-Oshei Residence

Niagara Falls Steak Sub

Buffalo Heights

The Statler Hilton

Metro Rail 1973

Bflo Before & After

Retro Chip Collection

Melody Fair - N Tonawanda

Buffalo Courier Express

History in Your Pocket

Corner Store Experience

The Fair

Most Endangered Sites

Re-Light the Rand

Pierogi @ St. Nick's

Whammy Weenie

Skateland - East Ferry

Jimmy Griffin 1929-2008

Jack Kemp 1936-2009

Sattler Theater

Masonic Lodge #846

Broadway Grill Reunion

Vintage Xmas Cards

Bocce Club- Clinton St.

Smiling Ted's

Buffalo Snow

Edsbyn, Sweden

Buffalo Drive-In

Buffalo 1969

Ray Bennett Lumber Co.

Ray H. Bennett Home

Ultra Cool: 70s Buffalo

Buffalo Bowling Shirts

Great Northern Elevator

Pullman / Wagner Complex

Pierogi Capital of US

North Park Theater

Zywiec Brewery

Buffalo Beer Trays

1964 Campaign For Pres

Heritage Discover Ctr

Tale of Two Roundhouses

Brand Names Catalog

Trolley Lobby BCT

Mentholatum, Hyde, Smythe

Chez Ami 311 Delaware Ave

Schreiber Brewery

Forgotten Buffalo Sounds

Sounds of Buffalo Beer

Sounds of Buffalo

Sounds of the Hound

Utica Club Beer Song

Forgotten Buffalo-Lost

Gramza's Cigar Store

Burczynski Bakery

St. Gerard's Parish

The Polish Village

Rudas Record Store

Tondrowski's Shoe Store

The DL&W Terminal

Buffalo Gas Works

S.S. Aquarama/Marine Star

Aquarama - Final Chapter

Sattlers 998

Rivoli Theater - Broadway

H-O Elevator

Riverside Men's Shop

Mastman's Kosher Deli

Crystal Beach

Department Stores

CLASSIC PHOTOS

Bevador/Beerador Coolers

Parkside Candies

Buffalo's Last Roundhouse

Wildroot Factory

Buffalo Stockyards

Chicago Iron Works

Spolka Clothing

Forgotten Ontario

Tim Hortons #1

TH&B Train Station

Ivor Wynne Stadium

Canadian National Station

Minojijikum Island 1076

Forgotten Rochester

Retro Wegmans

Polonia Rochester

Spittoon Water Troughs

Forgotten Buffalo & Genny

Genesee Brewery Tour

Forgotten Bflo Roadtrips

Perreca's Bakery

F.X. Matts - Utica Club

Forgotten Buffalo-Media

Ch. 2: WGR & WGRZ-TV

Rocketship7

Commander Tom Show

Dialing for Dollars

Ed Tucholka

Polonia Media

Greg Chwojdak, WXRL

Tour of Bflo Broadcasting

WKBW Radio

WKBW Top 40 Celebration

KB Goes Kaboom! WKBW

1430 Main St - WKBW RADIO

A Thing of the Past 2006

WKBW's Tommy Shannon

George Hound Dog Lorenz

1420 Main St - WKBW TV

Forgotten Bflo Orchestra

R & L Lounge, 23 Mills St

Union Stock Yards Bank

The Think Bank

The Natural Tour

Preservation Corridors

Broadway

Fillmore Avenue

Lombard Gibson Mktplace

Project Paderewski

Forgotten Buffalo News

Despensata Corporation

Marketplace Kitchen

Buffalo Broadcasting

Bar Toast Raised To The End Of Prohibition
By Harold McNeil
12/07/07
Buffalo News

About 40 patrons of a far East Side bar hoisted a glass or bottle Thursday in commemoration of the repeal of Prohibition 74 years ago.
It also provided those on the “Forgotten Buffalo” tour, organized by Martin Biniasz and Eddy Dobosiewicz, to sample seldom-acknowledged relics from the city’s past — like Daren’s Tavern at 514 Howard St., one of three old-style neighborhood taverns where Thursday’s festivities were held.  

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are here on this 74th anniversary to salute our freedom as Americans to drink what we want,” Biniasz said to whoops from the small crowd. “This tavern was founded in 1900. It was part of the [Magnus] Beck Brewing Co.’s chain of taverns, and it has been in continuous use as a tavern since then,” he told those packing the tiny bar. 
 

The tour attracted an eclectic assortment of folks from across the greater community — history buffs, factory workers and college students, among them — who were bused into a neighborhood that a few generations ago was home to the city’s bustling meat-packing district.
 
Daren’s Tavern, according to Biniasz, represents one of the best-preserved, pre- Prohibition bars in the city and still maintains its original features, including a finely carved woodwork behind the bar and turn-of-the century tin ceiling.

“They were selling alcohol during Prohibition out of a back room during those 14 years when you couldn’t get a legal drink. There’s a speak-easy door that’s still there,” Biniasz said.
 “Seventy-four years ago [Thursday], a shipment of alcohol left the Larkin warehouse, and it made its way to bars and restaurants and private clubs all over Western New York. Although Prohibition was repealed the day before, booze didn’t really hit Buffalo’s market until the day after, Dec. 6,” Biniasz added.
 

Dobosiewicz said he and Biniasz founded “Forgotten Buffalo” to highlight those remaining architectural and cultural aspects of Buffalo that contributed to it being “one of the most unique urban environments in America.”
 “It salutes working-man neighborhoods, our blue-collar past. We’re a city of churches, neighborhood taverns of hardworking, blue-collared men and women,” he said. Dobosiewicz and Biniasz are collaborating on a book that will showcase some of the city’s turn-of-the-20th-century taverns.

Patrons on Thursday’s tour also stopped at two other historic taverns in Polonia: the R&L Lounge on Mill Street near the Broadway Market and the G&T Tavern across Memorial Drive from Central Terminal.
 “I actually love what Eddy is doing,” said Caitlin Love Crowell, an Allentown resident. Gary Lachut of Kenmore also said this was a tour he could not pass up. “I’m enamored with the ‘bar-back,’ the carved wood,” he said. “I’m a big collector of Iroquois Beer stuff.”  

As Crowell and Lachut marveled at the bar’s features, Biniasz stood atop the bar, raised a glass and proposed a toast: “From bootleggers to blackjack, Buffalo is on the right track. The politicians may lie, the slumlords may keep on flipping, but as long as the river flows, we’ll keep on sipping.”

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