By Justin Karter
Point Park News Service
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Buffalo Blues, a local Shadyside bar, has been named one of the best sports bars in North America by ESPN.
The well regarded bar, located at 216 S. Highland, was the only Pennsylvania bar in the competition this year, following the 2011 win by Chickie’s & Pete’s Bar in Philadelphia.
In this year’s competition of over 5,000 nominees, Walk-On’s Bistreaux in New Orleans was named the winner, but Michael DiFiore, owner of the B2 Restaurant group which runs Shadyside bars Buffalo Blues, Bites and Brews, 1947 Tavern and Elbow Room, was still excited about the nomination.
“We were the smallest place among the finalists and [we] are really a local, neighborhood bar while others are centered in major sports campuses,” DiFiore said.
DiFore went on to explain the competition in terms of sports metaphors.
“We talked about it around here in terms of Hickory versus South bend from Hoosiers,” he said.
Buffalo Blues originally opened as a live music venue for blues acts in 1996. The menu featured southern comfort food, and in its second year in business, won a Pittsburgh wing cook off. A year later, Buffalo Blues was selected to host the first season of “The Jerome Bettis Show” live every week.
“’The Jerome Bettis Show’ brought the whole Pittsburgh sports community right into our bar,” DiFiore said. “We had guys like Franco Harris and Hines Ward in here, so after that we kept converting spaces to accommodate our growing sports crowd.”
While Buffalo Blues prides itself on showing every single game each week, it has also been home to a large group of Buffalo Bills fans from the very beginning. The bar originally received its name from the blues music it played and the Buffalo wings it served, but some took it as “Buffalo’s Blues,” referring to the Buffalo Bills string of four consecutive Super Bowl losses in the early nineties. The bar began to attract Bill’s backers, a growing group of expats from upstate New York, explained manager Jennifer Carter.
“We have 34 TVs and we show every single NFL game, but when Bills backers fill the bar we are happy to accommodate them,” Carter said.
Joe Fellows, a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh from Little Valley, N.Y., sat surrounded by blue and white jerseys at one corner of the bar.
“I saw this bar listed on the Bills website and came as soon as I moved here. It has tons of TVs, it’s packed with football fans and I plan on coming for every game,” Fellows said. “It’s great that this bar is getting some recognition.”
On Sundays the bar fills to standing room only with the jerseys of different NFL teams, a large contingent of which don black and gold for the hometown team. However, the stories of most of the fans are similar, regardless of the team they support. Most sports buffs start coming to the bar when they move to Pittsburgh for school or work, and it’s the kind of place where one can find fellow fans from everywhere, according to DiFiore. Many enthusiasts befriend a group of likeminded fans huddled around the game they want to watch and then come back every week.
“So far, most of the people I know [are people] I’ve met at this bar on Sundays,” said Pitt graduate student Hilary Scherer, a Washington, D.C. native.
Rochester born Dave O’Brien moved to Pittsburgh in 2004 to start school at Duquesne, and after he heard about Buffalo Blues from a friend, he began watching football there every week.
“I heard there was a great football bar in Shadyside so I came and there were 100 other fans – it seemed – so I’ve come every time since,” O’Brien said.
Carter added that she already noted a bump in attendance after the ESPN poll.
“We are hoping that next year we will drum up even more support,” DiFiore said.
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