Club Watch: Riley Street Station is on the right track
Riley Street Station successfully transforms railroad landmark into a classy pub
BY TOM WATERS - Special to The News
Updated: 05/23/08 8:07 AM
- Enjoying Riley Street Station are, from left, sitting, Chrissy Marchetta, Brittany Gagliardo, Kelly Dudek and Jon Derr; standing are Andrew Wheeler and Stephen Mura
Bartender John Deibel works the taps in Riley Street Station.
There’s a certain gulty pleasure to be had in sitting at the rail of a bar on a Sunday afternoon. While others were out flying kites with their families or washing their cars while the weather held up, Lindsay and I were holding down the bar at Riley Street Station.
A trio of folks was waiting for the kitchen to open when we breezed in at 2 o’clock. Another older couple took turns smoking cigarettes out front and sipping glasses of soda at the bar. A kind, older woman took our order and, feeling kooky, I opted to go with a mysterious-looking brown bottle of Irish whiskey. A plain-looking bottle can either be a sign of something really good or deplorably awful, but my double was smooth and potent. A pitcher of Bud Light, the aforementioned double and a plain iced tea rang up to a shockingly cheap $10.50. Lindsay was flattered that she got carded for proof of age. I was neither surprised nor emotionally devastated that I wasn’t.
The bar area was swank and lavish with a black and tan horseshoe-shaped bar, stained dark brown support beams overhead and a light pink and black motif on the walls. An antique model train took a permanent pit stop above the bar. A regulation pool table sat near a far wall under an oil portrait of W. C. Fields and Al Pacino. Keeping in line with the railroad theme, a neighboring wall featured a conductor’s hat and a red bandana. A row of railroad emblems lined the wall over the entrance. A vintage black-and-white photo of the building back when it was an honest to goodness railroad station hung from the far wall. The overall impression was a strange yet functioning blend of Irish pub and railroad bar.
Not content to have just one patio, Riley’s has a nonsmoking patio in the front with a black, cast-iron border and a patterned awning and a smokers’ patio in the back with plastic lawn furniture and a wooden fence. We grabbed a smoke out back and admired the plywood outdoor bar while marveling at the concrete steps that led up to the railroad tracks, the old lamp posts that they’d painted green for decorative purposes and a boarded-up elevator shaft that must have served as an elevator for handicapped passengers. It gave us a strong sense of how much the area — make that the world — has changed in the last 150 years.
Dave (my future father-in-law) showed up and ordered a can of Genesee “premium beer,” his lager of choice. A separate whiskey bar beckoned to me from the left of the building like the lure of a siren, but we were told it was only open on Fridays, Saturdays and during booked events. A shiny copper beer at the front of the bar stood as an example of the management’s recent rebeautification efforts.
For 4 in the afternoon, there was a respectable crowd lining the bar with nary a spare stool in the house. After perusing the menu, Lindsay ordered the loaded french fries for $5.99. It was a generous plate of fries topped to the hilt with sour cream, real bacon, cheddar cheese and fresh fries that I was more than happy to help her with.
By the time the conductor in my head was shouting “Last call,” I had concluded that Riley Street Station was like no other bar I’ve been to. What a novel idea it was to convert a historic landmark into a classy pub.
Riley Street Station
27 Riley St., East Aurora
825-2244
Scene: Folks in their 30s to 60s with a yen for great food and cheap drinks.
Music: Open mic on Tuesdays, live bands every Saturday featuring Sky, the Riley Street Band, Teardrop and the Whiskey River Band.
Dress Code: Anything goes.
Drinks: Bud Light and Yuengling on tap and bargain-basement drink prices. Whiskey bar access on Fridays and Saturdays.
“It was like no other bar I’ve been to.”
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