Chiefs bar in Buffalo preparing for packed house for AFC Championship Game
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Chiefs-Bills rivalry will be on full display at Arrowhead Sunday as the teams face off for the AFC Championship, but it will also be alive at a little bar in Buffalo.
Casey’s Black Rock touts itself as Buffalo’s first and only Chiefs backers’ bar. It’s named for the Black Rock neighborhood of Buffalo, what owner Vinnie Garofalo described as “a tough, gritty, proud section of Buffalo.”
He’s not sure who Casey is. It doesn’t stand for KC. The name’s been on the sign for 70 years, so he decided not to change it when he bought the spot in 2019. What he did change was what graces the walls. He filled it with Chiefs memorabilia and signage.
“I’ve been a Chiefs fan since I was six years old and in the restaurant business pretty much my whole life,” the soon-to-be 40-year-old said. “My dad had a couple places growing up.”
His growing up took place in The Bronx. Garofalo can brag on the New York City borough plenty. That’s a rivalry of another kind with five teams in the mix. He doesn’t have any physical ties to Kansas City, but his dad raised him on Joe Montana.
“When Montana got traded to the Chiefs, he left the Niners,” Garofalo described, “and (my dad) walks in my room and tells me, ‘Joe’s been traded. We’re going to Kansas City.’”
No, they didn’t move. It’s the fandom that did. Garofalo moved to Buffalo 20 years ago.
“They are a wonderful, magical, wild group of people here,” he remarked.
Growing up in the food service sector he decided long ago that if he opened a place, it would be a sports bar, specifically a Chiefs bar, no matter where it was.
The décor is mostly Chiefs with a smattering of Bills. Chiefs game days, however, end up being more 50/50.
“We like to make the joke that we’re a Chiefs bar until Sundays, and then the Bills fans show up, just to spite it I think,” Garofalo said.
The Bills Mafia is a raucous bunch for sure, but so far, no fisticuffs at Vinnie’s t. He’s convinced the rivals play nice because they have a common experience: decades of down in the dumps, now celebrating comebacks that arrived at around the same time.
Garofalo is a mutual respect guy too, but his heart is with the Kingdom. Super Bowl tickets are a bit rich for his blood, but he’s been to three Super Bowl parades in Kansas City and itching to make the trip again.
“We will be cheering very loudly from Bill’s country, and I’ll see you guys in February for another parade,” he said.
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