CBW, Thin Man, Smoldered Society opening combined taproom in Buffalo

Three brands all share the same owner and will share a taproom on Chandler Street

Buffalo’s beer scene is bracing for a major transformation with the announcement of Chandler Street Breweries, a collaborative new taproom from Community Beer Works, Thin Man Brewery, and the recently launched Smoldered Society Beer Co.

Slated to open later this summer in Buffalo’s historic Black Rock neighborhood, this new venture is both a physical consolidation of three distinct brands and a symbolic milestone in an industry that’s increasingly defined by volatility, creativity, and survival strategy. All three brands are owned by CBW, so placing them all under the same roof with a shared taproom is overdue and makes a ton of sense. It provides a public-facing gateway for so many of the brands.

Located at 166 Chandler St. in the former Riff City space and the original second home of Thin Man (after its original home on Elmwood Avenue closed), the taproom will feature 24 draft lines, wood-fired pizza, and on-site brewery small-batch offerings. All of the beer served will be brewed on-site at the adjacent production facility, which CBW took over from Thin Man as part of a broader acquisition announced early last year. The new space is still under renovation (check out the attached renderings for an idea of what it will look like — sleek), but when it opens (hopefully later this summer), it will offer a unified, collaborative experience that showcases the full range of what each brand brings to the table.

Photo: Architectural rendering shows the interior of the new 6,000-square-foot Chandler Street Breweries taproom.

While the press release paints a picture of optimism and creative synergy, it also confirms what we’ve seen playing out across the region: consolidation, reinvention, and a need to adapt quickly in a market that’s grown crowded and uncertain. Last year, I broke the news that CBW was acquiring the brand rights, recipes, distribution footprint, and physical assets of Thin Man Brewery—one of Buffalo’s most recognizable craft beer outfits. This came on the heels of Thin Man shuttering its original Elmwood Avenue brewpub and CBW scaling back its own operations, announcing that its Seventh Street taproom would only be open for special events going forward. (Seventh Street is now closed. CBW has also moved on from its earlier announced plans to open a taproom on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, too.)

All of this follows a much larger pattern playing out in real time. The Finger Lakes saw a similar shake-up with Other Half’s acquisition of the Young Lion Brewing space in Canandaigua. And we’ve seen the same thing in the Rochester region, where Spencerport’s Brindle Haus Brewing recently closed and will reopen with a new identity, Bones and Barley Brewing, in the coming weeks. Industry-wide, growth has stalled, consumer preferences are shifting—especially among younger drinkers—and the days of explosive taproom expansion seem like a hazy memory. This is not a Buffalo-specific story; this is the beer world in 2025: creative, chaotic, and often precarious.

The soon-to-open Chandler Street Breweries

Still, this new venture appears to be seizing the moment rather than running from it. The Chandler Street facility offers the brewery a chance to drastically scale up production—by as much as six times, CBW co-founder Chris Smith told me earlier—and gain access to Thin Man’s well-established distribution network. (Smith also hinted that CBW plans to use the space to support new contract brewing partnerships and potentially launch a community brewing center—an incubator of sorts that could help nurture the next wave of local beer talent.) That kind of long-term thinking is encouraging, especially in an industry where the average brewery lifespan is shrinking.

There’s also a smart storytelling component to the project. The three brands at Chandler Street Breweries each offer something different. CBW has long been known for its reliable flagships—The Whale brown ale, Frank pale ale, Let’s Go Pils, and Single Order IPA—and has earned solid recognition, including medals at the Great American Beer Fest and New York State Craft Beer Competition. It’s a legacy brand in Buffalo, founded in 2012, and was one of the first modern breweries to make a mark on the city’s rebounding beer scene.

Thin Man, meanwhile, brought a completely different energy when it opened in 2016 under the direction of Buffalo beer patriarch Mike Shatzel and the Termini family. With eye-popping can designs, a huge number of collaborations, and widely loved beers like Minkey Boodle and Pils Mafia, Thin Man quickly made a name for itself both locally and nationally. But behind the scenes, things were shifting. The Terminis had been looking to sell or restructure for over a year, and CBW ultimately emerged as the ideal buyer—not just in terms of operational alignment, but also community values.

Then there’s Smoldered Society, the wildcard in the trio. Launched by CBW in late 2023 and led by former Thin Man head brewer Ryan Zacarchuk and brand manager Cameron Frank, Smoldered Society is deliberately different. It leans into pop-punk aesthetics, early 2000s nostalgia, tons of wonderful collaborations, and a kind of playful irreverence that feels refreshing in an increasingly earnest beer market. The beers are creative and high-quality, and the brand identity is distinctive.

Bringing these three under one roof isn’t just a cost-saving measure or a way to reduce logistical headaches (though it’s both of those things too). It’s an attempt to re-imagine what a brewery taproom can be in 2025: not just a tasting room, but a hub. A creative space. A launchpad. A community gathering place that reflects the full range of where Buffalo beer has been—and where it’s headed.

Thin Man director of sales and marketing Yvon Paul Pasquerello said it best in the press release: “We know people are eager for our new taproom—we hear it every day. And we’re just as excited, but we also want to get it right. This is a big, collaborative project and a real opportunity to redefine what a brewery taproom can be.”