Within These Walls: Buffalo’s Iconic Venues

By Robert J. McLennan
(All photos by Robert J. McLennan unless otherwise noted)

Allentown in Buffalo is a very distinct, historic neighborhood with interesting architecture, parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Kleinhans Music Hall, art galleries, restaurants and lots of shops and bars.  

There have always been lots of bars, taverns, watering holes, night clubs, and some in recent years have burned down.  But the building at 248 Allen Street, known as Nietzsche’s since 1982, has been a mainstay on the Allen Street strip for nearly a century.  And right about now, it’s going through its most significant transition in over 40 years.

Joe Rubino was the long-time owner of Nietzsche’s, from 1982 until this year when it was purchased by John and Kelly Weber, David Arakelian and Sam Marabella (who has since left the ownership group).  

Rubino said that when he first considered buying the bar, by his second visit, “I was obsessed with the place.” 

Rubino had been a partner at a bar in West Seneca, Frodo’s, that had a bit of live music, but he wanted to run his own place and have live music as much as possible.  For the past four decades that has usually meant seven days per week. That amounts to many thousands of shows over the years.

Here’s the thing about Nietzsche’s that makes it unique among Buffalo venues: it’s not just music.  They have also presented comedy, drag shows, poetry readings, stage plays, art showings, open mics and all different kinds of music, and it’s been a staple in the Allentown artistic community.  From the annual Infringement Festival to Mardi Gras parades, from the Allentown Art Fest to post-St. Patrick’s Day parade parties, Nietzsche’s has been in the center of it all. 

But that’s not the bar Rubino bought back in 1982. 

“It was an old man’s bar, opening at 8 in the morning and by the evenings, 70% of the customers were native Americans from Buffalo’s west side,” Rubino said.  

Going farther back in history, Rubino thought it might have been a shoe repair business in the 1920s, but it became the Jamestown Grill, owned by the Gaglione brothers, after the extension in the back of the building was added in the early ‘30s.  In the ‘30s and ‘40s it was a night club with jazz and big bands and burlesque shows, so the building has at least 90 years of being a nightclub.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, the Grill remained a bar, but it appears to have become mostly a hangout for bikers, gradually turning into the aforementioned old man’s bar.

 It took a few months to fix up the place, but then the music started.  Michael Meldrum, The Thirds, Phil Dillon, and by 1984 the great Stan Szelest and the Ravens were playing every Friday night.  Ani DiFranco started her career at Nietzsche’s.  Shakin’ Smith used to play there.  Live music seven days a week will give a lot of local bands an opportunity to be seen and heard.

Rubino was always open to bringing national acts into the venue as well.  Some of the highlights are the Tragically Hip, Phish, Suzanne Vega, Stan Szelest’s old bandmate Rick Danko of The Band, Townes Van Zandt, Blue Rodeo, Koko Taylor, Michelle Shocked, Lowest of the Low, Doug Sahm and 10,000 Maniacs.  I’m sure some of you reading this could add to the list.   But Joe told me, “I’m the worst booker in the world,” so he needed help. 

One of the people who helped for a while was Jack Hunter, a renowned actor in the WNY theater community who also tended bar at Nietzsche’s before he started doing some of the booking.  Hunter has a lot of stories to tell. 

“Joe Rubino had a vision when he took the place over. I mean, he had a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, ‘Life without music would be a mistake,’ Hunter said. “He wanted music seven nights a week and there were not that many other people doing that.  I thought it was great that I found a place with music and I could tend bar and make some money that was good for me at that time, and shortly after I started working my daughter was born, so I needed the money.”

Hunter described his first booking experience: “Joe came to me and said he didn’t have the upfront money, the guarantee for a singer. He said Cuckoo somebody, and I said, ‘Koko Taylor?’  He said, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’  ‘She’s great,’ I said. ‘How much is the upfront money, and he said $100. I thought, what, nobody’s got $100 to bring in one of the greatest blue singers in the United States?  I said “I’ll come up with $100 and we’ll do this,” and that was the first time I’d ever promoted anything with music just because nobody else had the hundred bucks.  So, we did it. I did a lot of work and we actually made some money on it. Most of the rest of the blues bands shows I did, I worked with Joanne Sheridan.

“We brought in Li’l Ed and the Blues Imperials for their first time in town. I think it was his first album and I suspect it was on Alligator Records.  Li’l Ed tried to party with Joanne after the show and that didn’t work out so well ‘cause Little Ed had to sleep in the car on the way to the next gig the next day.

“We brought Blue Rodeo down for their first US gig.  And we did that because I heard them on the radio from Toronto.  So we brought them down and I remember that we had seen somewhere they had just been in London, so Joanne, who is also an artist, put this mural together of London Bridge and Big Ben on a big poster that said,  ‘Welcome Back from London’ and the guys in Blue Rodeo came up and said “We weren’t in England, it was London, Ontario.”  It was fun and they packed the place.  They had a guarantee, but we gave them some extra bucks and they were a little stunned.” 

So what was the guarantee way back then?

“I think it was $500, and back then we were charging five bucks a ticket for people to get in the bar, so you know 500 bucks is a lot, especially for band that never played in the U.S.”

I asked Hunter if Canadian bands were a good resource.  

“One of the bands we brought in from Canada was the Shuffle Demons,” he said. “They were a band with either three or four saxophone players and an upright base. I don’t think they had a drummer.  But the first time they came, the paperwork did not get to the bridge on time so we had to go to the bridge and beg customs to let them across. So Joanne starts crying and saying people are waiting and they’ve already paid for tickets, and the guy finally said all right, go. And as soon as she turned her back, she looked at the band and said, “All right you, guys let’s go. We got across now,” and the tears were gone.”

Hunter continued, “So we put them down in the basement.I don’t know if you’ve been in the basement at Nietzsche’s, but it’s not very nice and that’s where they started their set. They started playing in the basement. People are upstairs at the bar and you can hear these saxophones going and they’re getting closer and closer to the steps that come up into the bar, and they played from the basement all the way to the back stage.   It was one of the greatest entrances I’ve ever seen down there.”

Hunter went on to name several memorable bands.  

“We brought in Evan Johns and the H-Bombs, Mamou and Chubby Carrier from Louisiana, the Satellites from Toronto, Ploughman’s Lunch from Pittsburgh, Southern Culture on the Skids and Stan & the Ravens.  

“I started Stan playing every Friday night.  I remember one night, oh my God, Stan shifted the order of the songs this week … and it all sounded new because he played the same songs every week, but they were great.”

I mentioned the Jacklords because their signature on the ceiling of the bar is notable.  The band included Buck Quigley (future Steam Donkey), Yod Crewzy and Casino El Camino (both former Splatcats) and Adam Smith (AKA Blue Aggie). 

“Well, I booked them out of town for about a week. I got them some great deals. Down around Binghamton somewhere I got them a night, and they got paid two cases of beer. That’s how good a booking agent I was,”  Hunter said, laughing at the memory, “They wanted me to be their manager, but they were unmanageable.”

Hunter recalled the legend of Ani DiFranco getting her start at Nietzsche’s.  

“She did a couple of Mike Meldrum open mics. I remember she already had that style where she would strum and drum and strum the strings and drum the guitar body,” he said. “This kid wasn’t old enough to drink here and she was great already.”

The music went on every day through the ‘80s and ‘90s. Every Saturday night was reggae and Afro-pop, Tom Stahl started presenting his songs at Nietzsche’s … everybody who was anybody played at the Allentown stage.  

This writer spent a lot of nights at Nietzsche’s during this time, seeing incredible bands in that back room, jammed with people having fun.  My favorite nights were when the Outer Circle Orchestra was playing.  

The variety of music and the diversity of people was what made Nietzsche’s great.  Joe Rubino said, “Everybody was welcome, as long as they didn’t encroach on others.”

Rubino added, “Live music is a tough way to make a living, sometimes it draws, sometimes it doesn’t, you just never know.”  

He explained that it was important to him that if someone were to buy the bar, he wanted the music to keep going because what he created at Nietzsche’s was now part of a community.            

And that’s where Rubino got lucky.  He wanted to retire, he was going to sell the bar, and he wanted to sell to someone who would keep the vibe going.  And that’s where John and Kelly Weber and Arakelian come into the story.  

Arakelian has worked at Nietzsche’s for about 20 years, doing a variety of jobs: security, bartending, whatever needed to be done. When some prospective buyers came around talking about knocking down walls and converting to an Airbnb, he said, “There’s no way I’m going to let this happen, that’s what put a fire in my butt, I got to do something.” 

Arakelian said that after talking to John and Kelly Weber, “We put together an offer and Joe took it.”

Now, he said, it’s time to take Nietzsche’s to the next level. 

Arakelian said, “Personally I just want to do it just a little bit better.  Joe Rubino was great, he had great vision, and he loves a dive bar, and I do too, but you can be a dive bar and still have nice bathrooms.”  

He continued, “I like it here. Actually I’ve never met more people than in this neighborhood that I enjoy being around.”

“I guess to me one of the most important things is not that we’re just a bar or live music club, but we’re kind of a hub in the neighborhood, whether people are drinking or not.  I think that is something that’s really cool, you don’t find that in a lot of places.  I love the bar and the music industry, I love watching musicians play, and I enjoy watching other people’s happiness.”                           

John Weber has a different story but a similar attachment to Nietzsche’s.  He’s been a musician for many years.  

“Well, I know when I first saw Elvis on TV, I think it was the Aloha show from Hawaii, that’s when I knew what I wanted to do,” he said.  He has been in New York to Paris, the Surfivors, Dan Harper and the Designated Hitters, Suns of Memphis and the Smoking Jackets. In recent years John has been in The Steam Donkeys and A Band Named Sue, and all these bands have played Nietzsche’s over the years.

“Joe really put you through the ringer before he booked you,” Weber said. “you’d have to give him a tape of your music, a bio, photos, start with a weekday to show people would come out to see you.”

In addition to playing there, Weber has also spent time helping with the sound at Nietzsche’s for the past 20 years.  

“I did help facilitate the sound in the front room for years,” he said. “There were bands every day and every single band would have to bring in their own PA system, and once I started getting to know most of the bands that played there, I thought “We should all just chip in and get a PA for the front room,” so that was a major step forward.”

John Weber’s attachment to Nietzsche’s is “a huge reason why I moved to Allentown,” he said. “It always felt like my living room when I played there. But I’d never in my entire life ever thought that I would own a bar.  Of course, any bar owner will tell you it’s a roller coaster because you’re dealing with literally hundreds of personalities.  But man, the music and some of the conversations that you have with people is so enlightening and so satisfying that I really enjoy that.”

I brought John back to a comment he made about drawing stages when he was a kid.  

“Yeah, I was always doodling, you know the different stage set ups from stadium shows to, you know, small stages, there was always an attraction to that.  I just had so much fun doing it and I’m not a very good artist, but I took my time with that stuff,” he said.   That could be a skill that John will find useful in the coming years.

Weber expressed the same sentiments as Rubino and Arakelian:  “Everybody is welcome here; we want to let artists express themselves. and we’re open to all.

One of the reasons Kelly Weber was interested in becoming an owner of the bar, John told me is, “Kelly was passionate about her friends who work here, and that Nietzsche’s has always been a safe haven for all kinds of people.”  

When I finally spoke with Kelly, she emphasized that point: “Absolutely, you know the people who work at Nietzsche’s, they’ve been there for so long. I mean, I put in more than a decade myself, and I’m sure you remember the older bartenders, Nancy and even PJ at the door and Kenny Maggs doing sound. It’s not like people just work there for a year or so, people work there for many years.  And they care about it, they really do, and as an owner we generally feel comfortable not being there on some nights because we know that the staff has been there for as long as they have. And they know how the shows should work and payouts should work. They’re loyal. They take care of each other.

“That’s paramount, everybody is welcome at our table. It is so great. That’s the wildest thing about that place. You know you can walk in for your happy hour show and then sit and watch the turnover of the show between happy hour and the late show. It could be a totally completely different crowd coming in. I just think that’s so awesome.  There’s so many different walks of life coming in, and I feel comfortable here.” 

Regarding the neighborhood, Kelly said, “I would have to say the same as John.  I grew up in South Buffalo and then I lived in New York City for a couple years, but when I came back to Buffalo, I got the job at Nietzsche’s so that was probably my first Allentown apartment as well.”  

After tending bar at Nietzsche’s from ’97 to 2007, Kelly took a different path and became an art teacher in the Frontier school district in Hamburg for sixteen years.  Coming back to Nietzsche’s feels like she’s come full circle.

When Rubino mentioned that he was looking to sell, this group of employees banded together, as Arekelian said, and they were aware that Joe didn’t want to see the place disappear.  “

“Joe wanted to keep it kind of the same way it was.” Kelly explained, “He worked so hard for years to keep it going so he offered it to his employees, hoping that it would stay the same, and I think that we’ve honored that. We’ve tried really hard to upgrade what needed to be upgraded, but really kept the charm and the character of the place; that’s really the major goal.”  

This is a good spot to add that this writer feels they have done that; when you stop in, it’s still like going into Nietzsche’s but the renovations and upgrading have made the place more comfortable without diminishing the Nietzsche’s vibe.

I asked what could have happened to Nietzsche’s, echoing Arekelian’s concerns. 

“It’s been a bit scary and exciting to see all these new developers come in, but when it comes to Nietzsche’s,” Kelly said. “It was just such an anchor to the west end of Allen Street that we needed to do whatever we could to hang onto it.

“I think the coolest thing about it is now that John and I are not the ones staying out until 3 or 4 in the morning, it’s really great to see the next generation appreciate it as much as we did when we were their age. That is really the most satisfying thing for me.  You know there aren’t that many cool live music dive bars anymore.  It’s lots of hipster bars so we have to hang on to places like this. We’re happy to carry the torch as long as we have to, this is a really important place not only to us and the staff but the wider community.  I think it’s so important to keep places like this going, but we’re also excited to know that the next generation is on board.”

Kelly and I discussed their current events manager, Kyle Yagielski of The Brass Machine, and the job of booking the music seven days a week, often more than one show per day.  

“We have shows every night, so it’s a lot to manage.  It’s a fast-moving train that doesn’t stop.  It’s rare to be closed or even to reduce our hours, but I think that’s what makes us unique.  People always know that there’s going to be music when they walk through the door and they might not know what it is, but they know it’s gonna be quality because they know we care about it so much.”

As her husband, John, stated earlier, Kelly Weber is passionate about Nietzsche’s. 

“We just want people to know that we did this for all the right reasons. It is such an honor to preserve and carry on Joe’s legacy and to give back to the people and community that have helped to keep the ship afloat for so many years.  Places like this are worth preserving,” she said. 

Nietzsche’s is not just a business to make money.  Yeah, they have to make money to keep operating and stay open for the benefit of all.  But how do you put a price on a business model that puts people first and walks the walk of “All Are Welcome Here.”

I’ll close with two more quotes from Nietzsche that are applicable to Nietzsche’s, its clientele and its operating philosophy:

— “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”

— “We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche