When you enter New York Beer Project in Victor, the first
thing you’ll notice is the two enormous glass chandeliers suspended from the
beer hall’s lofty 45-foot ceilings. Look a little more closely and you’ll see
representations of hops, barley, yeast, and water woven into the metalwork of
the staircase that leads to the upper level. The eye-catching decor is all part
of NYBP owners Kelly and Kevin Krupski’s vision of
celebrating New York State beer, served with a side of Big Apple flair.
Located
across the street from Eastview Mall, New York Beer Project is the sister
location of the popular Lockport brewery of the same name. The massive grey
limestone building encompasses a brewery, a tap room, three bars, an indoor
beer garden, a rooftop terrace, and an event loft with room for 150 people. The
brewery, which held its grand opening on February 14, offers a rotating
selection of beers on tap, plus a full gastropub menu of appetizers, soups,
salads, pizzas, sandwiches, burgers, and seasonal plates.
The Krupskis acknowledge they took a somewhat unconventional
route to brewery ownership. Kelly is a former music teacher and Kevin is a
certified public accountant. The couple fell in love with brewing culture on a
trip to Colorado, where Kelly says they were struck by the inclusiveness of the
breweries they visited.
“There were
families, there were kids, it was for everyone,” she says. The Krupskis wanted to bring that sort of atmosphere to their
area, so they hired consultants and began learning all they could about
brewing. “The learning curve was straight up,” Kevin says.
The original
New York Beer Project (“the mothership,” as Kelly calls it) opened its doors in
Lockport in November 2015. That cavernous, 15,000 square foot space draws inspiration
from several sources: From the lively, convivial beer halls popular with German
immigrants living in New York City during the late 19th century; from New York
State’s long brewing history; and from Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal. The
brewery even has reproductions of the terminal’s distinctive chandeliers.
Kevin says
that although the Lockport location on South Transit Road was a little off the
beaten path, the business became something of a “destination brewery,” attracting
beer lovers from all over Western New York and even from Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In late
2017, the Krupskis were approached by developer Fred Rainaldi Jr. about opening a sister location in Victor. Rainaldi Brothers, Inc. is the developer behind the High
Point project off Route 96 in Victor, as well as other developments such as the
Culver Road Armory. Rainaldi thought New York Beer
Project would be a great fit at High Point, which already includes retail businesses
The North Face and Alex + Ani, plus several new businesses yet to be announced.
As Kelly
tells it, she and Kevin were sitting in a Victor restaurant after some
last-minute holiday shopping when they got the call from Rainaldi
Brothers, asking whether they would consider opening a second NYBP. The
proposed location was right across the street from where the Krupskis happened to be sitting. “It was just serendipity,”
she says.
The Victor
New York Beer Project is similar to the Lockport original in terms of its size,
scope, and menu, but the two have very different personalities, Kelly says. The
Victor brewery’s look and feel takes inspiration from the Atlantic Garden, a
beer hall that was popular in Manhattan during the late 1800s. The new brewery’s
palatial scale, gleaming chandeliers, and imposing staircase evoke Gilded Age
splendor against a modern backdrop of exposed brick walls and steel beams. The
overall effect is grand and yet approachable, ambitious yet down-to-earth.
On a recent
Thursday around 5 p.m., New York Beer Project was buzzing with professional
types fresh from the office. While we waited for a table in the indoor beer
garden, my group ordered beers at the tap room bar. I ordered “The One” New
England IPA, a cloudy, citrusy brew with a wonderful yellow-orange color. I
also begged a few sips from my drinking companions, sampling the Superfunk Sour (refreshingly fruity, not mouth-puckeringly sour); the Lockport Lager (mild and pleasantly wheaty); the Destination IPA (one of the brewery’s
flagships, for good reason); and the Cherry Blonde (for the drinker with a
sweet tooth). For the time being, all of the beer at New York Beer Project is
brewed at the Lockport location. Krupski says the
Victor location will brew its first test batch in early March.
When a table
became available, my party and I settled ourselves at a long high-top and
ordered several appetizers for the table. The place was getting busier by the
minute –probably the reason our food took nearly 45 minutes to arrive.
The Brooklyn
mozzarella logs, were, true to their name, formidably sized. If you don’t want
to get scalded by molten cheese, I recommend fork and knife. The Destination
Flight consisted not of beer but of sliders, miniature versions of three
different burgers on the menu. We paired the burgers with an order of
parmesan-truffle fries hot from the fryer, which quickly disappeared down the
other end of the table before I could nick more than a couple. But it was the Biergarten Bavarian pretzel that was most popular with our
party: a massive, salty masterpiece that arrived with three different dipping
sauces. As far as beer pairings go, there’s really no beating a classic.
This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2019.
