Pour Taproom Coming to EVL
Pour Taproom Coming to EVL
Lincoln Boutique Motel Welcomes Restaurant Partner to Route 219 Location
Photos / Dawn Hogan & Pour Tap House
With each passing day, the members of Route Two Nineteen LLC are closer and closer to welcoming their first guests to The Lincoln Boutique Motel at 6089 Route 219 in Ellicottville, the former Telemark Motel. As their fall opening date approaches, the group is thrilled to welcome Pour Taproom of Buffalo as their restaurant partner. This will be Pour Taproom’s second location, and owners Joe DiCenzo and Matt Prime couldn’t be happier about serving new customers in the space formerly known as Cadillac Jack’s. Dawn (Barczak) Hogan of Route Two Nineteen LLC said, “We’re excited to have them! They have a great idea for the space, and it’s just a great fit.”
When Route Two Nineteen LLC purchased the property several months ago, they were eager to find a tenant to bring the former motel restaurant back to life. DiCenzo and Prime were familiar with the property and knew that it’d been for sale. “We always dreamed of opening a second location somewhere in the surrounding area,” said Prime. “Being skiers, Ellicottville always piqued our interest. When we heard about the group that bought it, we reached out to them to see if they were willing to have a conversation with us about the restaurant. After several meetings and them checking out what we do downtown (in Buffalo), we were able to strike a deal!”
Hogan is looking forward to working with DiCenzo and Prime, who are from Springville and have been friends for many years, much like Hogan and the other members of Route Two Nineteen LLC, including her sister-in-law, Kathleen Hogan O’Neil. “We’ve known each other since we were three-years-old,” said Prime of his friendship with DiCenzo. When the friends turned 30, they embarked on a week-long backpacking trip, which led them to a self-serve taproom in South Carolina. Prime recalled, “We spent a couple of hours there just observing and saying, ‘Man, if we ever had a chance to do something on our own, this seems like something we could handle!’”
The friends kept the conversation going, and their idea quickly gained momentum. They were fortunate to secure a downtown Buffalo location in January of 2020 and signed a lease… for April 1, 2020. “So we went from an opening of July 2020 to finally getting the doors open on July 2, 2021,” said Prime. While there were many challenges that first year - not the least of which was a global pandemic - the pair was thrilled to see the business grow.
Prime said that the new Ellicottville location will be like the Buffalo taproom. “We’re planning on having 30 self-serve taps that will hold beer, and then we are going to keep a portion of the bar and have regular bar service as well,” he explained. “We’ll be able to provide cocktails and drinks involving liquor, which we don’t have downtown, which we’re pretty excited for.” Prime noted that they will be offering a very similar food menu to their Buffalo location, which features American pub-style fare. Learn more about Pour Taproom and stay up-to-date on the new location by following Pour Taproom Buffalo on Facebook and visiting pourtaproombuffalo.godaddysites.com.
Pour Taproom is planning for a late September opening in Ellicottville, just in time for Fall Fest weekend. This aligns well with the motel’s projected fall opening. Hogan said, “We’re really going to try, by the Taste of Ellicottville weekend (August 10-11th), to have an open house. We’d love to have people come and walk through and see a couple rooms we will have finished by then.”
The motel will have seven king-size suites and five queen-size rooms. At this point, the owners are working on the finishing touches, including selecting the furnishing and light fixtures. “We’re going to use a lot of natural wood in the decorating - that’s all being made,” she explained. “My husband’s a carpenter, so he’s planing all the boards. It’s a labor of love!
For those who can’t wait to book their rental, Hogan recommends checking out the property’s two Airbnb rental units, which have been operational since January. The “Honest Abe-Frame” (A-frame chalet) sleeps two, and the “Six Pack Suite,” a two-bedroom suite, accommodates up to six guests. Both units are a short distance from Holiday Valley and can be booked on Airbnb; links are available on The Lincoln Boutique Motel’s Facebook page, and direct booking will soon be available online at www.thelincolnevl.com. For more information, email thelincolnevl@gmail.com or call 716-984-1128.