Surreal happening at Buffalo Tap Room & Grill

So the day before I went on vacation, I did my normal vacation ritual – I went shopping for some fresh clothing and some other stuff. I got a new pair of shoes too. I had decided to head out right from work, so I didn’t get a chance to eat, and started to get a little hungry. My wife was hanging out with a friend for dinner, so I decided to stop for a drink and a quick bite – at the Buffalo Tap Room & Grill, near Eggert and Sheridan.

I was by myself, and I always feel a little weird when I drink alone, but thought what the heck. I walked in, and there was a pretty good crowd around the bar, and some of them seemed to be nice and tipsy given the time of day – 7pm? Come to find out that the daily happy hour special starts when they open and goes until 6pm. The drinks are very affordable – but the degree of loud, tipsy conversation seemed excessive for that time of day – regardless of the happy hour practice. I sat down at the bar and started soaking up the conversations happening around me. I took a look at the beer selection.

I was surprised to see that they had their own options! I had no idea! I happily ordered the double IPA and started swilling. About half way through the beer, I mustered up the courage to ask the bartender if they made their beer on site or if their brewhouse was off the premise. I was a little shocked to hear that Custom Brewcrafters out of Rochester brewed all of their beer. Custom Brewcrafters aka ‘CB’ are the ones responsible for ‘Caged Alpha Monkey’ – one of the more memorable IPAs from my IPA discovery period. Kind of bummed that I didn’t find a brewery that had been hiding under my nose this whole time, but cool to find an outlet for yummy treats. I shook it off, and ordered some Pork Belly Tacos.

They were pretty good, but I would have really liked a hot sauce on them, and probably should have asked, but I felt out of place amongst all the action happening around me, and really played 2nd fiddle to the existing crowd at the bar.

It was about half way through my 1st taco that I finally was able to deduce that most of the people at the bar, had come from a wake or funeral. Once I established that fact, things started getting crazy. They started talking about the person, who’s name was Jeff – which is also my name. When your name is said, you have no choice but to hear it and think ‘Me?’ that’s what happened.

“Jeff was a great guy”

“Jeff was a bigger guy”

“Jeff would come here alone, I wasn’t sure if he had friends or not”

I was there alone. I don’t have a ton of friends, but I have a couple, but they wouldn’t know. Then conversation kept getting deeper – eventually I found out that this Jeff guy was a regular at the bar, and had committed suicide. Jeff never struck any of these people as the kind of guy that would do such a thing, he always seemed happy, etc.. etc..

It was really freakin me out!!!

I kept wanting to interject and say ‘I’m Jeff’ I have been here once before, and that was about 2.5 years ago, the one night I come in, and this is the conversation I get? WOW. I was too timid. I wanted to buy some of the stragglers a drink, but I was too timid for that too. I just sat there, eating tacos and drinking beer, and pretending like I knew what was going on, on the TV.

Weird.

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