Wicked Warren’s turned Jamestown’s empty brewery into a wood-fired pizza hall. Here’s what the record shows

By Angela Russo

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — For nearly four years, the brewery building at West Third and Washington streets sat empty. Since July 2024 it has been Wicked Warren’s, a four-floor brewpub built around a wood-fired pizza oven, house beer and an ambition its owner has never been shy about.

“Our goal is to make 119 West 3rd St, Jamestown’s premier entertainment destination,” owner Rob Roth said in a January 2024 Chautauqua County release, when the county’s industrial development agency approved a $950,000 loan toward the purchase.

This column isn’t based on a visit. Nobody from The Chronicle ate there for this piece. It draws on the menu and prices on the restaurant’s own online-ordering page, the owners’ on-the-record interviews, coverage in The Post-Journal, The Villager, WNY News Now and WRFA, state health inspection records, and a read of public diner reviews.

A Pennsylvania brewpub crosses the state line

Roth, a Frewsburg native who once ran cigar stores in Buffalo and Rochester, opened the first Wicked Warren’s in Warren, Pa., in January 2021, The Villager reported. The Jamestown version took over the former Jamestown Brewing Company building, which Wicked Jimmy LLC bought for $1.75 million in a $2.35 million project backed by county and city loans and a 10-year tax break, according to The Post-Journal and WRFA.

The plan was always bigger than a pizza shop. The plans Roth laid out to The Villager and WRFA included a brewery in the basement, dining on the main floor and mezzanine, a 1920s-style speakeasy, a 400-person banquet hall and an eventual rooftop bar, plus an area called Pizza Towne where diners can watch the dough being thrown.

“We recently purchased a new wood fire pizza oven. The Jamestown location has a huge kitchen with all the amenities that any chef could ever want,” Roth told The Villager’s Darlene Brace before the opening.

Head brewer and vice president Drew Erlandson, who came over from the Warren location, pitched the range. “We have such an eclectic menu of both food and beer that I think it’s really going to be great for the community,” he told WNY News Now.

What’s on the menu

The heart of the menu is pizza, offered in 7-inch and 10-inch sizes with a choice of regular or “Brewers Crust.” On the restaurant’s online-ordering page, reviewed Nov. 11, 2026, specialty pies start at $13.50 for a Margarita and run to $16 for the Blue Rooster (garlic butter, blue cheese, chicken and balsamic glaze), the Chicken Diablo with Mike’s Hot Honey, and a chicken wing pizza. A build-your-own 10-inch starts at $15.

Some of the pies lean into the bar. A Bacon Pickle pizza layers ranch, mozzarella, pickles and bacon. A Beer Cheese pie is listed as “Beer Cheese, Bacon, Mozzarella, More Bacon, Cheddar, Caramelized Onions.”

Around the pizza sits a pub menu: pretzels with IPA beer cheese ($11), pepperoni balls ($10), poutine with “wicked ale gravy” ($9), meatloaf sandwiches and stuffed flatbreads the kitchen calls panuzzos ($15 to $18), and a $16 smash burger. Entrees run from a $15 wood-fired meatloaf dinner to a $22 haddock fish fry and a $32 New York strip. Prices on third-party delivery apps run higher.

The drinks are the other half of the pitch. The Villager reported plans for 18 taps, mostly house beer, plus house sodas and a neutral seltzer that customers flavor themselves, sold as “Wicked Elixirs.”

What diners say

The public picture is good, with a pronounced split. Restaurantji, which compiles Google ratings, showed a 4.2 average across 163 ratings as of its Nov. 4, 2026 update, with 69 percent five-star and 12 percent one-star. Yelp’s listing, as displayed in Apple Maps on Nov. 11, showed 4.1 stars from 51 reviews.

The praise centers on the beer, the pizza crust and the staff. “Craft beer is great. Samples provided upon request,” wrote a Yelp reviewer listed as Cara B. in a review dated last month, adding, “Pizza crust delightful.”

Another review displayed on Restaurantji credits the place with changing downtown’s reputation: “Nobody can say that Jamestown ‘has nothing to do’ anymore.”

The complaints are about consistency. One Restaurantji-displayed reviewer who called the pizza “usually very good” wrote that a pickle bacon pie came out raw in the center, adding, “I’m not sure if this was a new cook, but it was very disappointing.” Restaurantji’s summary of reviews also notes slow service, long waits and confusion over orders.

The inspection record

Wicked Warren’s is inspected by the Chautauqua County Department of Health, and the results are posted in the state’s food-service inspection database. Critical violations, under the State Sanitary Code, are the ones more likely to contribute to foodborne illness, such as improper food temperatures or cross-contamination.

Since Wicked Warren’s opened, the database shows no critical violations. A Nov. 25, 2024 inspection recorded five non-critical violations, including items on dishwashing technique and protecting stored food, and the inspector noted, “All temperatures were good.” Inspections on Sept. 30, 2025 and Nov. 4, 2026 recorded no violations. In the most recent visit, the inspector discussed with chefs how to thaw vacuum-packed fish safely. Earlier entries filed under the same facility, from 2019 and 2020, predate the current owners.

Still building out

The big-room ambitions are a work in progress. In May, the county IDA agreed to defer part of the restaurant’s tax payments so Roth could “free up some cash” for the banquet floor, The Post-Journal’s Gregory Bacon reported. Jamestown Development Director Crystal Surdyk said the owners want to “really be able to activate that third floor space.” City officials said then the business had 27 employees.

The verdict

Wicked Warren’s is for a casual night downtown: a pizza and a flight before a show at the National Comedy Center or a game at the Northwest Arena, or a group that wants beer, a burger and a seltzer all at one table. Most of the menu is priced under $20 before drinks, and the inspection record since opening is clean of critical findings.

What stands out is the wood-fired oven and the house-brewed tap list, the two things diners mention most often in the reviews we read. What to expect: a big, busy room where the kitchen is still being judged on consistency. It is not a quiet date-night spot or a destination for fine dining, and it doesn’t claim to be.

If you go

Featured photo: Wicked Warren’s at West Third and Washington streets, September 2025. Photo by G. Edward Johnson via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Sources: Wicked Warren’s website and online-ordering menu, accessed Nov. 11, 2026; Chautauqua County, Jan. 2024; WRFA, Jan. 24, 2024; WNY News Now, April 9, 2024; The Villager, June 20, 2024; The Post-Journal, June 11, 2024, and May 1, 2026; New York State Department of Health food-service inspection data, accessed Nov. 11, 2026; Restaurantji listing updated Nov. 4, 2026; Yelp reviews as shown in Apple Maps, Nov. 11, 2026; Tripadvisor listing.