My cool friend opened a natural wine shop in Buffalo. You should definitely visit.
Funk and Fermentation, a small natural wine shop in Buffalo's Elmwood Village neighborhood, encourages folks to explore and learn.
This isn’t normally a wine newsletter but it goes back to Cleveland family rule no. 4 — support your cool friends doing cool shit.
(Remind me to codify those rules to writing soon. I’ll do that once I get a little bit of sleep.)
And Justine Powers is unquestionably cool and she’s doing something exceedingly cool.
For the past year, she has owned and operated Funk and Fermentation, a natural wine shop in Buffalo’s Elmwood Village neighborhood. So here’s a bit more about how one of my favorite beer people ended up in the wine world and how she now owns an adorable, cozy little shop at 587 W. Delavan Ave.
(I’m just happy I was finally able to get Justine on the phone for an interview. We initially intended to do this interview 16 months ago, but as life does, life got in the way. But with things settled down a touch, this is a perfect chance to introduce you to an incredible person who is sharing her gift and her passion with her community.)
Justine, 32, a Buffalo resident, who spent a decade in the craft brewing industry with stops at Hamburg Brewing, 42 North Brewing, Kings County Brewers Collective (KCBC), and The Beer Keep, opened F&F in March 2024 after years of planning, including a year of renovations at her new home and the interminable wait for her liquor license from the state. But when she talks about her journey, it all makes sense.
“This journey does start with beer,” she said. (See! I can write a wine newsletter, because it has its genesis in beer.)
Justine started her beer journey as a bartender at Hamburg Brewing, but said her stint at East Aurora’s 42 North Brewing really kick-started her interest in fermented beverages and started her on the path toward starting her own business. (COVID played a significant role, too, but we’ll get to that in a second.)
She spent three years at 42N, again starting as a bartender when the brewery opened in 2015. Along the way, she moved into a taproom supervisor role, then transitioned into social media, marketing, and events. “I wore a lot of hats by the end of it,” she said. “And at that point, if there was more responsibility, I wanted it.”
Initially, she was pulled into the craft beer world because she had just graduated college and needed something to do. “I didn't know anything about beer until I started working there (42N) and they did a ton of education and training,” she said. “They were really good at teaching us about beer. I learn like a sponge. I’m not someone who learns just by reading.”
Photo: Justine Powers (photographed by Julie Roesser).
And then Powers decided to follow her dream. “To me, the peak of the idea of working in craft beer is getting to work in the industry in New York City, at least when I was on that path,” she said. So she moved to Brooklyn after she was hired as taproom manager at KCBC (Kings County Brewers Collective). She spent two years in NYC and moved back to Buffalo in July 2020, right during the height of the pandemic. She continued to work remotely for the brewery for another three years after returning to Buffalo. And on the side, she was bartending at The Beer Keep, one of the best combo bottle shops/bars in this region.
In the back of her mind, however, Powers knew she wanted to work for herself and she knew she wanted to showcase natural wines in Buffalo’s Elmwood Village neighborhood. She thought that area specifically, which was already jam-packed with small businesses in a really walkable neighborhood, was perfect for this venture.
“The initial plan was to get my store open sooner,” she demurred. A year of renovations in the little space just off Elmwood Ave. followed, as well as waiting. Lots of waiting. It took a year to obtain her liquor license from the state. But once she obtained it, she started stocking up and educating herself on the wide, wide world of natural wines.
While living in NYC, particularly during the early months of the pandemic pause, Powers found herself frequenting many of the little wine shops in and around her neighborhood. “There’s a little boutique wine shop in almost every neighborhood,” she said. “All very walkable, all carrying a unique array of things. I just started trying new bottles and going to different bars and restaurants, the ones where you could eat outside and drink wine. Mostly just trying bottles at home. And I got really into there.”
She thought something in the Elmwood Village area would thrive. It was where she lived and hung out the most, so it felt like a good fit. When she moved home, she made up her mind — she was gonna go for it.
“I thought it would benefit the neighborhood,” Powers said. “And I think the people here would really appreciate having a little shop like this here.”
Powers said she also knew the name of the spot years before opening.
“That was the first thing that came to mind and it was something I was telling a lot of people I was going to do, over and over again,” she said. “And I’ve learned the only way I’ll actually do anything is if I hold myself accountable by telling a bunch of people.”
She was already working in the neighborhood. And she knew she wanted the business to be located there, too. While noting she wasn’t in a hurry to open, she did write a business plan and was able to get a small business loan to make it a reality after she found the perfect home. Her best friend texted her a “for rent” sign on this storefront just off the main path. She loved that it was central to the neighborhood and close to her house.
She finally opened her doors in March 2024.
Education is one of the most important aspects of her new job. During her beer days, she loved traditional Belgian-style beers and wild ales. That segues pretty flawlessly into natural wine.
“These wines are produced at small, family-run farms, in tiny towns all over the world,” she said. “I noticed they’re using a similar process (to beer) when fermenting with wild yeasts. Letting Mother Nature do its thing, that’s really where I got into natural wines. There’s a huge array of ways that these producers actually make their wines. Some of them let things go wild and run free. Others are a little more fine-tuned while keeping everything organic and better for the environment.
“I’ve learned so much in the past year. The products in here are always changing, while still remaining sustainable and good for the environment. That's what I love about it.”
The shop really focuses on and showcases wines from regions of the world that aren’t typically seen on store shelves. There’s still plenty available from France, Italy, and the U.S. But there is a good selection on Eastern European wines from places like Croatia. She also focuses on “eclectic grape varietals, some things you might not recognize.” The store is laid out by style, not region, so if you like pinot noir, there are wines with similar profiles available there.
Powers said some recent German wines are among her favorites, but note that it’s constantly changing. She has fallen in love with Slovenian and Austrian wines, particularly Slovenian orange (really amber in color) wine. (I had to look this one up but here’s a quick definition: Orange wines are also known as skin-contact white wines and are fermented with with grape skins and seeds, “resulting in a unique amber or orange color and flavor profile,” according to Professor Google.”) The resulting wine is a “little nutty, a little apple-y” and it’s “medium-bodied, depending on how long they leave it on the skins.” An example of that should always be available at F&F, Powers said.
With a year under her belt, Powers said she now knows to recognize trends and better appreciate seasonality when stocking the store. She tries to balance the inventory between the weird and the normal or traditional. And that balance also extends to taking care of herself and her mental health.
“I don’t have any employees and it will probably just be me for a while,” she said. “Personally, I’ve learned that there’s a lot of down and alone time as a small business owner. Before, I was such a busy-body and social and chaotic. I’ve learned to make sure that my time outside of work is among people and doing things I love and just taking a step away from the business when I don’t have to be here.”
It’s so fitting that when I concluded the interview by asking Justine if there was anything else she wanted to cover or chat about, she immediately brought up Rochester’s own indie natural wine shop, Aldaskeller Wine Co., 289 Gregory St. in the South Wedge neighborhood. So this is a reminder to support Funk and Fermentation, as well as Aldaskeller, which is currently asking for the public’s help to remain open. You know what to do. And it’s also a reminder to me to reach out to the Aldaskeller crew and set up an interview for a future newsletter.
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 nearly 250 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.