By Nora Kowalczyk
BUFFALO — Nietzsche’s, the Allen Street bar where Ani DiFranco got her start at an open mic and the Tragically Hip, Phish and the Goo Goo Dolls all played, is in line to become a city landmark.
The Common Council receives a proposal on Tuesday to designate the building at 248 Allen St. as a local landmark, item 26-000868 on the 2 p.m. agenda. The item comes from the city’s Office of Strategic Planning, whose staff runs the Preservation Board, and is based on an application filed by Fillmore District Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski.
Landmark status would put changes to the building’s exterior under Preservation Board review. The application, included in the Council’s agenda packet, indicates the owners are aware of the application and in favor of it.
From shoe shop lot to speakeasy
The two-story masonry building went up between 1884 and 1891, replacing a small wood-frame cottage, according to the application. Its ground floor held shops, including Brigham’s, which sold imported linens and embroidery, and later a women’s furnishings store and Star Grocery. Two apartments were upstairs.
Its life as a bar began during Prohibition. In 1931, the operator of the Balcom Social and Athletic Club at the address, Clarence Smeader, was accused of running an illegal drinking establishment after a raid. In August 1933, months after Congress legalized low-alcohol beer, a man named Michael Giallella was licensed to sell beer and wine there, the application says.
The Jamestown Tavern followed in 1934, advertising dining, dancing and nightly shows, then the Jamestown Grill, with jazz bands, big bands and burlesque. By the 1950s it was the Jamestown Bar and Grill.
The application says the bar later became what Joe Rubino, who bought it in 1982, described to The Buffalo News as an “old man’s bar” that opened at 8 a.m. Mr. Rubino renamed it Nietzsche’s and built it around live music, the application says, “often citing a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, ‘Life without music would be a mistake.’”
The case for designation
The application argues the building meets four of the city’s nine criteria for landmark designation, including its cultural value, its link to Prohibition enforcement and its familiarity as part of the Allen Street streetscape.
“248 Allen Street has significant cultural value because it has served as a place of entertainment, nightlife, performance, and social gathering for more than ninety years,” the application wrote.
It lists performers including blues singer Koko Taylor in 1986, the Tragically Hip in 1989, and Phish and the Goo Goo Dolls in 1991. It credits folk singer Michael Meldrum’s Monday open mic, which ran for 28 years, with giving a start to Ms. DiFranco, and says 10,000 Maniacs co-founder John Lombardo met Mary Ramsey, later the band’s lead singer, when both of their groups were booked at Nietzsche’s on the same Sunday afternoon in 1988.
“Nietzsche’s provided a stage for emerging local musicians while also hosting performers such as Koko Taylor, The Tragically Hip, Phish, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Lowest of the Low,” the application wrote.
A sale that kept the music going
Mr. Rubino put the building on the market in January 2023 for $650,000, amid talk that a buyer might turn it into an Airbnb, the application says. In January 2025, a group of bartenders and musicians — David Arakelian, Kelly Weber, John Weber and Sam Marabella — bought it for $400,000, Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported. Mr. Marabella has since left the ownership group, according to the application.
At the time of the sale, with Mohawk Place closed and fires having destroyed the Old Pink and Mulligan’s Brick Bar on the same street, Mr. Marabella told BTPM the venue would not change course.
“One of the best parts about Nietzsche’s is that it’s just so unassuming. You can come and catch a jazz band on a Sunday,” he said then. “We’re just wide open when it comes to all different genres and all different days of the week.”
The Council is expected to refer the designation to committee. The Buffalo Chronicle has asked Mr. Nowakowski’s office and the owners for comment.
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