By Robert J. McLennan

(This is the first in a series of stories on the structures that have housed the cultural history of Western New York. If you have a suggestion for a story, contact us.)

Buffalo, New York: the eighth largest city in the nation, a manufacturing and industrial powerhouse after the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, a major port city on the Great Lakes, the first city to have widespread electric street lights, leading to Buffalo’s nickname, “City of Light,” at The Pan-American Exposition in 1901. 

One of the world’s first skyscrapers was built in Buffalo, The Guaranty Building, and the world’s largest office building opened at Ellicott Square.  And in 1902 a building was erected at 49 Illinois Street, in what is now known as The Cobblestone District, to serve as a small manufacturer and ironworks facility. 

That building is now Buffalo Iron Works, a music club that is one of the premier venues for live music in Western New York, owned by Josh Holtzman and Grace Vesneske.  This is an incredible story of two big-time music fans getting involved with the business side and turning a historic building from Buffalo’s golden age into an amazing, welcoming live music venue that is well placed to be part of our city’s next golden age.

Buffalo was less than 100 years old in 1902 and now it’s been 123 years since 49 Illinois Street was built.  Who would have predicted that the building that was in the center of a booming industrial section of the city in 1902, the Queen City Engineering Building, would be such a vibrant and exciting live music destination in 2025?

Holtzman and Vesneske walked me around the building recently, talking about all the history of the district and showing me the third floor where there is a large apartment and offices for the artists and staff and the green room for the artists to prepare for the show.  And it’s all decorated with many hundreds of record album covers.  There is even a balcony to hang out on when the Buffalo weather is cooperating.  In the bar/music room, the concrete and brick ambience with the original pulley system overhead and the large, classic black and white photos of steelworkers give the room its feeling of industrial charm.  

The Cobblestone District, including Buffalo Iron Works, was designated by the National Parks Service on the National Register of Historic Places in February 2014.  There are even older buildings in the district, such as 110-114 South Park Ave. at the corner of South Park and Illinois, built in 1852 and operated for many years as Mugridges Bakery; they served their bread to feed Civil War units in the 1860s.  At 16, 18 and 20 Elk Street, now 118-120 South Park, was Alexander Brown’s Brass Foundry from 1864-1899 and then the Queen City Manufacturing Company, employing blacksmiths for most of the 20^th century.

49 Illinois lasted until 1967 as Queen City Manufacturing and Phoenix Hardware, and then became a day care center in the 1960s and 1970s. For most of the next few decades the building sat empty except for 2008-2013 when it was used as storage by an industrial business on Perry Street.   

It finally reached its destiny as a music venue in September of 2013 when new owner Sam Savarino opened with a show from the horror-punk band The Misfits. In December of 2013, they booked the touring band from the UK, The English Beat.  They were off and running as a live music venue but not to the extent they would take off in the very near future. 

Holtzman had been managing and touring all over the country with the band Aqueous for the previous few years and in September of 2014, he got them booked at Buffalo Iron Works.  That was the start of frequent bookings of Aqueous and other bands in the jam band genre that became quite successful at Iron Works throughout 2015.  But at that point Holtzman wasn’t just an outsider booking the bands, he started working at Iron Works in December of 2014. 

Holtzman described his first impression of Buffalo Iron Works: “When I first came here with Aqueous, my initial thought was that this is a really great venue with all the right aspects that a true music venue needs.  It just needs a little better direction and identity between being a sports bar, restaurant and music venue. So, when I started here my goal was to fully identify Buffalo Iron Works as a music venue and put concerts at the forefront of the business model.”  

He moved up quickly to general manager in 2016 and partner in 2019.

Now let’s shift to Vesneske.  She had been working at the Rapids Theatre in Niagara Falls and was busy running all over the place to learn the music business. When she first interacted with Buffalo Iron Works, she had two thoughts:  “I fell in love with this place” and “They need my help” were her first impressions. 

With Holtzman as a managing partner, Vesneske became the general manager in 2019.  Ultimately, they became the co-owners of Buffalo Iron Works in September of 2022.  Vesneske added, “All my dreams came true.” 

Currently they have 20-25 people on the Buffalo Iron Works staff, including managers for operations, production and marketing, sound techs, bartenders, etc.  Iron Works serves food, basically pub food at this time, but they are considering expanding the menu.  They also want to be as receptive as possible to the loyal, enthusiastic fan base that keeps them going.  There are not a lot of seats in the venue but they will try to accommodate your needs if they can, and they have a link on their website concerning parking.  Feel free to contact them with concerns or questions at hello@buffaloironworks.com   

And in the past four years Holtzman and Vesneske have also branched out to start Twenty6 Productions, an events management company.  They have curated event experiences for the Buffalo Bills and Sabres, Coca-Cola, M&T Bank and others.

From 2016 to the present the venue has branched out to include all kinds of music and events in their live schedule.   They present an average of four shows per week, usually around $20-$25 admission, and they have that special kind of vibe where the bands are close to the audience. 

As Vesneske said, “Where you can reach out and touch the artist.”  They can hold up to 500, which presents a lot of opportunities to book bands on the way up the live music ladder.  Two of this writer’s favorite shows were seeing Billy Strings at Iron Works.  

Vesneske said, “For Billy’s show in 2017 we only had 71 people buy tickets.”  Now Billy Strings is a huge star selling out much bigger venues.  The lesson is, don’t sleep on Iron Works calendar and don’t forget to stay on top of who is coming to the Cobblestone District.

Over the years, they’ve had Steve Earle, Marcus King Band, Rusted Root, Sabrina Carpenter, Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band, Keifer Sutherland, Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Sloan, Donna the Buffalo, The Struts, The Town Pants, The Cure vs The Smiths Dance Party and many, many more, including Aqueous and many Buffalo bands like Workingman’s Dead, Funktional Flow, Organ Fairchild and the annual Leroy Townes Band tribute to Tom Petty.

The goal of Vesneske and Holtzman remains to make Buffalo Iron Works feel like a family hangout.  As Holtzman said, “We want you to feel like you’re coming over to your best friend’s house.”  Holtzman and Vesneske say their staff is also committed to that, and they also feel that loyalty coming from their customer base.  Holtzman emphasized, “Our mission is to build this venue for Buffalo; built for Buffalo by Buffalo.”