Macky's Shamrock RoomBuffalo, NY

SHAMROCK ROOM HISTORY

A classic Buffalo tavern on the corner...Located at the Corner of Bailey Avenue and Pullman Street in Buffalo. Pristach is one of the best Prohibition era taverns still in operation in the region. The establishment has been in operation at the address by the same family since 1937. Regina Pristach has been running the joint since the late 30s. One television, a jukebox with polka music, Rolling Rock splits for $1 and one of the best bar and back bars left in use. It’s located in a part of the history surrounded by industrial history.

Pristach’s Bar The bar stands on a bleak corner of Bailey Avenue. It outlived the prosperity of the neighborhood around it. It outlived the crush of hot Friday nights with work-weary bodies pressed against the back wall. It outlived its first owner and his son, Regina’s husband, gone 30 years ago. It outlived much of its reason for being. Boarded-up windows cover the corpses of nearby neighborhood bars. Pristach’s soldiers on, barely. Customers are nearly extinct. Open only in daytime, its front door is fastened with three deadbolt locks. It is part barroom, part refuge.

The place used to be packed...From eight in the morning—when the shift from the brake factory let out—until after midnight. It was one of a necklace of shot-and-beer joints on the block. Nobody drank with his pinky extended. Some of the men could sign only an “X” on the paychecks they cashed at the bar. Regina was law. “I told them, ‘Watch your mouth or get out,’ ” she said. “ ‘I’m the only one who can use bad language.’ The neighborhood changed around the place, an old story. Folks left for the suburbs. The stream of customers thinned to a drip of familiar faces.

The LAST Fine Time at Pristach's... In 2008, Forgotten Buffalo hosted the LAST big bash at Pristach’s as part of our celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition. It was a magical night. A cold, snowy evening inside a warm historic tavern on the Eastside. The joint closed in 2010.