Buffalo Brewing Getting New Taproom in The Heights

Buffalo Brewing will take the former Painted Pig storefront between White Goat and Burge's on R Street in The Heights.

We’ve got an update on Buffalo Brewing Co.’s plans to open a taproom next to longtime neighborhood favorite Burge’s in the Heights in Little Rock: July is the scheduled opening month.

That’s according to founder an downer Nolen Buffalo. The 1,750-SF Buffalo Brewing taproom, at 5622 R St. in the former Painted Pig, will seat about 60.

“We will have all of our normal beers and special releases,” he said. “Everything that we serve will be on tap there. That will be our main way to interact with the public. That’s where we want our customers to go.”

Buffalo is excited about the project. “I feel very certain that we’ll be more successful than where we are right now. I think the sky is the limit. We’ve been getting a lot of good feedback from not just residents of the Heights area,” but from residents of Cammack Village, the River Ridge, Riverdale and points beyond.

Buffalo Brewing is currently at 106 S. Rodney Parham Road, inside Buffalo’s separate business, the Water Buffalo, a retailer of supplies for beer and winemakers, cheese makers and gardeners.

Buffalo hopes to do a “soft opening” the second Thursday of July. “By the time we get to mid-month, we’ll be ready for regular business hours,” he said, though he’s still working through those.

Brewery Move

In related news, Buffalo Brewing’s brewery operations are moving to 1021 Jessie Road, Suite B, in Riverdale.

At 2,500 SF, the location is almost 10 times bigger than the microbrewery’s current space inside the Water Buffalo. The new location will allow Buffalo to increase the brewery’s production, and he plans to use it for “special events, private rentals, concerts, beer festival, food truck festival. Lots of options down there.

“The bike trail goes right behind the brewery,” Buffalo said. “We have plans to put a deck in the back and invite in the cyclists.”

The brewery location won’t be open to the public every day, he said, but instead will be used for specially planned occasions.

Buffalo hopes to have the brewery site open in the fall or early winter.

In 2018, Buffalo Brewing produced about 60 barrels (a barrel is 31 gallons) of beer. “This year, we’ll probably do three times that,” Buffalo said.

“We weren’t operating at capacity before,” he said. “We’re going to ramp up to capacity and see what that does.”

Like many in Riverdale, Buffalo has been affected by the Arkansas River flooding. The space itself is staying dry, but the road has been flooded. “It’s mostly just kind of a hassle,” he said. “It’s slowing things down.”