Henrietta's AJ's Beer Warehouse will close this weekend

One of Rochester's best bottle shops opened in November 2013. It'll remain open until Saturday.

If you’ve been in and around the Rochester beer scene for the last decade, you’ve seen the bottle-shaped sign that looks like its pouring directly into building and resulting in the perfect pour.

You’ve always walked into that building and been inundated with an overwhelming amount of brewery choices, most of which are from New York state. Sadly, you won’t get to repeat that experience for much longer. That’s because AJ’s Beer Warehouse, which opened in November 2013 at 175 Clay Road in Henrietta’s Genesee Regional Market, will close Saturday, the owners told me earlier this week.

“The time is just right,” co-owner Alex Bielecki said. “It’s just time. The kids are growing up. They surprise and amaze me every day.

“I’m sure we’ll see a lot of people this week, people we see all the time and others we haven’t seen in a while.”

The Bieleckis, Alex and Julie, decided the time was right to walk away after selling the property to a developer, the same company that owns the neighboring plaza, which is also part of the sprawling regional market complex.

“The time is right for a new adventure,” Alex said.

Needless to say (but I’m gonna do so anyway), this is a massive blow for the Rochester beer scene. Among Rochester bottle shops, AJ’s was the first to ensure every beer was stored cold and the first to, almost exclusively, feature New York state breweries. Without AJ’s, and the wonderful people who work there, our scene will be a little less vibrant. We lost a space that educated and satiated novice and nerdy customers alive.

I’m gonna say this in the nicest possible way (and it’s meant as a compliment), but when you’re having a conversation with Alex, it’s pretty difficult to escape quickly. So even though I was hoping to keep our chat brief (mainly because my life is extra goofy right now and about to get even goofier very soon), I failed. But it was really lovely to hear about some of his favorite memories.

“There’s the customers, the brewers, the beer reps, the breweries that were here, the breweries that are no longer here, the breweries we used to represent when we distributed, you just learn so much and meet so many people,” Alex said. “It’s cool. We helped out in a small way — some of these breweries that got a space on a shelf here and that then helped them get on shelves at bigger places.”

With AJ’s closing, we’re losing another piece of the Rochester beer scene fabric. I had the same reaction after Roc Brewing and Tap and Mallet closed in the last few years. Because the highest compliment I can give a place is not related to the rare beers I scooped up there, but it’s measured by the amount of friends I made. AJ’s introduced me to a lot of great breweries (and I even introduced the store to some quality spots that it eventually sold on its shelves). The people, however, made it special.

Don’t get me wrong, it sucks. But it’s also really cool.

The Bieleckis named the business after their then 4-year-old son AJ. And the sister distributor operation, Rhino, was named after their son Ryan. AJ is now 14 years and about to begin his freshman year of high school. Ryan is 11. Julie and Alex learned the beer business from family. And that translated to the store itself. Many of the store’s employees have worked there for years, including a few from the very start.

During our chat, Alex pulled out his phone and showed me some of his favorite pictures from the last decade. The first one showed Alex sitting on a throne (a pallet) of Genesee Oktoberfest with Ryan in his lap. And this is what I’m gonna miss about AJ’s — those personal touches.

Alex joked that he still remembered the first time I visited the store, the first time he met me. During that trip, I knocked over a stack of Horseheads Brewing IPAs glass bombers and was mortified. That easily shoulda cost me $40 to replace. But Alex smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it. We knocked over plenty of bottles while we were setting this place up.”

And with that gesture, I was a loyal customer and had made some friends for life. (It also didn’t hurt that they let me pack up boxes of beer to ship across the country when I was in the middle of my out-of-control beer trading days.)

I was digging through my phone, trying to find a suitable picture to use for this announcement, and realized I didn’t have any. I’ve spent countless hours (and $$) at AJ’s over the last decade, but I’ve never taken a pic of the exterior or of the full shelves. Instead, all of my pictures are of labels from new-to-market breweries, beers shared, and Audie, my 3-year-old son. It’s wild — all of these pictures show how much Audie has grown up over the last three years and I’ve documented through our shared trips to AJ’s. I’m gonna really miss that.

Sappy alert: So yeah, one of the photos for this newsletter is a recent picture of Audie, sitting in the shopping cart. That’s because I didn’t have anything more suitable until I went to grab some photos earlier this week. But that somehow feels appropriate for a place that much more than just a store. I looked forward to my weekly visits, because I got to see my friends.

Alex said he isn’t sure what’s next. “I need a little bit of time to clean up and get everything back together.” But he’s looking forward to a bit of a break. Along with running the store and the distributor, which packed up a few years ago, the Bieleckis also ran J. Ryan’s, an iconic beer bar in Syracuse. That spot closed up in early 2018. But the sign still hangs near the front counter at AJ’s. Alex said the sign was to be gifted to an upstate brewery owner and his wife who had their first date there.

Alex said he expects to give away many trinkets lining the store walls. He offered me a bunch. And I know my wife is proud of me, because I only brought home a really handsome Sierra Nevada Pale Ale can-shaped tin tacker, a vibrant Lost Borough Brewing Co. sign (still one of the best logos in the history of Rochester beer), and a Hot Wheels race car with Alex’s hockey number 4. He said that one was for Audie and admitted, “Yes, I play with cars at work.”

He continued, “There are small things I am making sure people get. I know this place meant a lot to other people, too.”

A final note: It’s pretty wild to think I’ve been working on this independent publication for over two years now. In that time, I’ve published 200 newsletters, highlighted some of my favorite people in the industry, curated two beers festivals (that featured 150 participants and 4,600 attendees), and continued to break all the biggest news in the region (closures, consolidations, openings, etc.).

The Cleveland Prost remains the preeminent source for regional beer news. If you own a brewery, bar, or beer-adjacent business, this is the best place to reach the nerds you wanna be in front of. So I remain open to sponsorships, advertisements, and sponsored content. Feel free to reach out to me at clevelandprost@gmail.com for more. And more than anything, thanks for all the support. None of this would be possible without the devoted (and thirsty) audience.