Nietzsche's — Restaurant in Buffalo

The Wyck Recommendation: Nietzsche’s Buffalo Rating: 4.4/5 Where Buffalo Finds Its Weird

About the Neighborhood Allentown is Buffalo’s scrappy rainbow painted art district. Pride flags wave from tattoo shops. Murals peel off old brick like they are tired of holding secrets. One bar sits boarded up while the next is packed shoulder to shoulder. You will spot a couple in suits trying to see the real Buffalo while a punk kid plays banjo on the curb. It is funky and frayed and when you hit the right night you know you are standing inside the city’s honest soul.

Vibe and Atmosphere A chaotic dive bar cathedral with ceiling graffiti chainmail mannequins and body casts wedged into old brick. Over the tiny stage paper trees hang like a DIY forest canopy. It is surreal a bit grimy but alive in a way you cannot design. Every sticker sketch and scribble says the same thing. This place is not polished. It is loved.

Food and Drink Forget mixology. Here it is PBR tallboys local drafts plastic cups and a whiskey pour if you know how to ask without acting fancy. Beer is cheap and ice cold always. Warm PBR is the only sin they do not tolerate. The real menu is the bands and whatever your bartender decides you need next.

Service and Staff Zero pretense. Our bartender was the kind of legend you wish every dive bar had. Fast pours dry jokes and he knows your face before you remember your tab. He told us about Dave the ghost who tips in cigarette butts and never leaves. When someone in a suit asked where to go next he just shrugged and said stay here. This is it.

Audience and Crowd Buffalo’s true cocktail. Punks bluegrass pickers off shift bartenders artists swapping sketches for beers and a few downtown suits trying to pass the vibe check. Some guy offered to trade us his harmonica for a shot. We said no so he played it anyway. Strangers talk like old conspirators. You walk in alone and leave with a ghost story and five bad ideas you will never follow through on.

Hits and Misses

✓ Live music every night bluegrass punk indie chaos ✓ Decor is an accidental art piece layered in signatures and stories ✓ Bartenders who make you feel like you belong fast real no fake smiles ✓ All weirdos welcome Pride flags cheap beer open arms

✗ Floors sticky enough to rip your sneakers off before the encore ✗ Bathrooms feel like a punk encore happened last night bring your own soap and do not expect working stall locks ✗ Some nights your tap card gets you an eye roll bring cash and be ready for old school bar math

Final Word Nietzsche’s proves music keeps life from being a mistake and a good bartender makes sure you do not forget it. Come for the chaos stay for the soul and trust me you will want to come back. It is on my Buffalo list as the best bar I hit. If you do not leave with an ice cold beer buzz a ghost story and someone’s number you will never text you did not do...

This review is way overdue. Like from the early '90s! had just moved to Buffalo for my freshman year (art history major), and read something in a local paper about an upcoming show featuring the critically-acclaimed band, the Goo Goo Dolls. Eager to explore local culture, I donned my favorite formal attire, a floor-length velvet skirt, and set out for an evening at Nietzsche's. Upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of room to stand up close, right in front of the stage. "It's my lucky day!" I thought. The place was packed. "The Goo Goo Dolls must be awesome, I wonder what they sound like..."

The lights dimmed, and the Goo Goo Dolls came out on stage. The lead singer addressed the audience: "Would anyone out there like one of my socks!" he screamed, as he pulled off his tube socks and threw them out into the audience. The crowd erupted! Everyone was running full force at the stage, and side to side, slamming into each other. I was totally smushed and about to be trampled when some really big guy in the crowd picked me up and threw me off to the side. He must have been really strong because I remember people looking up at me as I sailed through the air. If anybody knows who he is, please tell him I said thank you for saving me. I was the girl with long blonde hair wearing a long skirt who obviously had never heard of moshing. Every time I hear the Goo Goo Dolls on the radio I remember this, and it's amazing how different they sounded back then. I wonder if the singer still wears...

Great music, scuzzy atmosphere. I've seen LEGENDS perform here for five bucks at the door...But I wouldn't touch any. thing. in the place. It has got to be at least a few decades since any kind of a cleaning crew has been through there. I can tell, because the smoke grime is still coating everything from when smoking was allowed in bars, way back when. Don't use the bathrooms, if you can get away with it. It's just plain frightening. And if you do absolutely need to use the loo, at least you have decades of bathroom graffiti to read, which can distract you from the walls that are covered in decades of every type of bodily fluid. However, they have Guinness on tap, and when the music is good, I wear a depends and hop on over there. They have about 12 parking spaces that are quickly taken. Parking around there is very tricky on a busy weekend night. Be ready to navigate one way streets to find parking within a few blocks. Many people just park at an easy spot a few blocks away and get an Uber...