Frequentem Brewing Company opens Buffalo taproom 

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Canandaigua’s Frequentem Brewing Company will become the third — and youngest — Rochester-area brewery to expand into the Buffalo market, setting up a taproom in the city’s Old First Ward, a neighborhood that reopened for development in 2014 and has been expanding since.

The brewery’s new taproom will open on Saturday, Feb. 3 inside the Barcalo Building on Louisiana Street, a city block-spanning former manufacturing plant which has since been converted into retail and residential spaces. The brewery follows in the footsteps of Avon-based Mortalis Brewing Company and K2 Brothers Brewing Company, both of which opened taprooms in Buffalo last year on Niagara Street and Tonawanda Street, respectively.

Frequentem husband-and-wife owners Dave and Meagan D’Allesandro said plans to expand west began about a year and a half ago when the space first came to their attention.

“Buffalo is first and foremost a great beer city, people like beer here,” Dave said. “And secondly, they’ve been putting a lot of money and development, specifically (in) the Old First Ward where we are, and the waterfront, making it sort of a destination.”

Frequentem opened on Main Street in Canandaigua in 2020 and quickly gained a deserved reputation for its eclectic offerings. Yes, the typical mandatory mix of sours and New England IPAs flow from its taps, notably its viscous, gluttonous Just Fruit series and its impeccable numbered IPA series.

But under-the-radar are the brewery’s masterful clean offerings. Make no mistake, the Australian Pilsner and Schwarzbier are not tacked onto the tap list as some sort of peace offering to puritanical beer gods. They are among the best the region has to offer, the latter being a divine balance of roast and toast overtones balanced by a crisp, clean finish.

Frequentem’s Buffalo taproom will not be producing any beer onsite. All beer will continue to be brewed at the 10-barrel Canandaigua brewhouse. That facility is planned to also expand its fermentation capacity soon.

While the Buffalo taproom is largely a carbon copy of what’s offered in Canandaigua, it brings with it a new brewery scene for out-of-towners to explore. The facility is a 10-minute walk from Queen City staple Resurgence Brewing Company on Chicago Street and about a mile from both Sad Boys Brewing Company on Exchange Street, BriarBrothers on Elk Street, and Pearl Street Grill and Brewery.

“We’re excited to be right in the hub,” Meagan said, "we found this nice little pocket of breweries within, like, closer than a mile of each other.”

Gino Fanelli is a reporter for WXXI. He can be reached at [email protected].