Ellicottville Brewing Restaurant in Fredonia, NY

Over the summer, I got to fulfill a months-long wish when I visited the Ellicottville Brewing Company’s restaurant in Fredonia, NY. My wife and I arrived early afternoon on a Saturday, and in this college town, that meant a quiet day in downtown Fredonia.

EBC’s Fredonia restaurant is small, but long, and didn’t feel claustrophobic when we were there, but I imagine, when that bar is hopping, it’s quite the crush. However, as noted, it was quiet, and there were only a few other patrons at the time.

The food was better than any small bar’s tiny kitchen had any right to prepare. We had an order of the perogies and some of the spicy African peanut soup. These alone made the trip worth it, but this is a blog about booze, so I’ll only incidentally insist that EBC Fredonia is a fantastic place to, you know, actually eat.

I’ll admit that their Blue Berry Wheat Beer, while excellent for a fruit-flavored beer, wasn’t something that I would put into my beer rotation. But I hope that some of the beer offered at the restaurants is available in 6-packs downstate—for instance, EBC’s Peppercorn Rye Pale Ale, a wonderful rusty-colored rye ale with a touch of peppercorn spice. It’s bitter and biting in just the right ratio to the savory malt. I could have had several pints, but there was a long drive ahead after lunch, plus, hello!—I’m unemployed, so I moved on. I tried Black Jack Oatmeal Stout, a stout poured with nitrogen, smooth and delicious. It has toasty undertones of rich coffee, and a nice high note of sweetness that is often missing in micro-brewed stouts. The highest praise I can offer a stout is whether I would order it over a Guinness Draught, and, yes, EBC’s Black Jack Oatmeal Stout reaches that pinnacle.

My wife enjoyed the Raspberry Beret, which is darn close to a lambic, but not as sweet. It starts out as a “blonde” ale but EBC adds over 80lbs of raspberries to flavor it. It wasn’t so sweet that I wouldn’t enjoy it, and it was not so beery for my wife. Honestly, though, I was so blown away by the Black Jack Oatmeal Stout that my notes kind of stopped with the first sip of that.

How often will I get to an EBC location? I don’t know, but any excuse and I’d drop in. More importantly, I’ll buy their beers when I see them. If I’m lucky, maybe a distributor around here has the limited-release Hey Guy Rye Pale Ale or not-so-limited Nut Brown. See, EBC? Your decision to advertise your restaurants on your beer got you one more customer, and hey! your restaurant got you another customer for your beer!