Ten years ago, the downtown of My Fair City was forever altered when a Big Dinosaur appeared on the scene. Thankfully—unlike 1950’s Tokyo—when this dino showed up our downtown wasn’t flattened, but considerably improved. Dinosaur Bar B Que, a restaurant that originated in downtown Syracuse in the 1980’s, planted its foot in downtown Rochester in 1998. It was an instant hit—it’s common to have a line waiting to get in at all times. And it’s clearly Hog Heaven—for a decade now thousands of Big Bike riders have roared into our downtown and opened their wallets. It’s provided economic development, made downtown more of a destination, and put feet on the surrounding streets. And with all that delicious BBQ aroma drifting around, our downtown even smells better!
The Rochester location is especially nostalgic for my family— the former Lehigh Valley train station was where my parents got their first glimpse of My Fair City. In fact, locating in old downtown buildings has been a big part of the Big D formula for success. After Rochester, it repeated that success by opening in the Harlem/Riverside area of Manhattan in 2004, where it’s also been a big hit. Ironically, it located on a block smack between an elevated highway and an elevated railway—and we all know what happens to those in monster stomper flicks.
With its formula for success well tweaked, Big D got an appetite for more. Like that Big Dinosaur movie franchise, initial success spawned sequels—and folks eagerly line up to await each new opening. The big guy is expanding his stomping grounds to the remaining major metro areas of the state that hatched him. The Capital District is the next target, where Big D will appear on the banks of the Hudson for a second time, with a location on the Troy waterfront opening next year.
Soon, that will mean a Big D in every major metro in the state except Buffalo. But that may not be the case for long—word is that the owner of the franchise was in Buffalo this fall scouting for locations. It seems that on the first pass nothing quite caught his fancy, but that’s not necessarily surprising. This big guy is very particular about where he plants his feet: in addition to favoring downtown locations and old buildings, he likes a bit of stomping room for some outdoor dining and parking (especially for bikes—the kind that roar).
But we know that Buffalo Rising readers are the sharpest location scouts of all—so what do you recommend as a new stomping ground for Dinosaur Bar B Que in Buffalo?