Wayland Brewing and Buffalo Bros open shared taproom in Lancaster

Wayland Brewing and Buffalo Bros Burgers opened a shared taproom-and-restaurant in the Village of Lancaster, turning the former Lilly Belle Meads space on West Main Street into a single stop for beer, burgers and neighborhood traffic. The project is built as a survival-and-growth play for local craft beer: more ways to fill tables, longer visits and a menu that can pull in guests who want food as much as they want a pint.

The partnership also has a family tie. Buffalo Bros is owned by the brother of Wayland co-founder Brad Rowell, and Rowell said Lancaster was the right move because both brands already had customers in the area and the space finally became available. Wayland guests from Lancaster had been asking for a local option, while Buffalo Bros had fans in Hamburg, giving the new room a ready-made audience before the first pour.

The Lancaster buildout gives that plan a compact footprint. Buffalo Beer League said the space is about 2,400 square feet, with 16 taps, seating for roughly 40 inside and 30 outside, and room for another 30 indoor seats later. Lilly Belle Meads had planned to close its taproom on December 20, 2025 and move mead production to West Seneca at Rusty Nickel Brewing, clearing the way for the new concept on West Main Street.

Wayland is not treating Lancaster as a one-off experiment. Its Orchard Park location opened in April 2023 in the former American Legion Post 567 site, and Wayland describes that operation as a brewery, restaurant and private event facility. Buffalo Bros, meanwhile, has been serving smash burgers since 2017 and opened its Hamburg brick-and-mortar in early 2024, so the new venue folds two already established businesses into a format that can work as both taproom and dinner stop.

Lancaster itself gives the plan a built-in audience. The Town of Lancaster has about 45,148 residents, and the Village of Lancaster about 10,100, which makes a shared beer-and-burger room on West Main Street a fit for repeat visits rather than destination-only traffic. With Wayland’s beer at the center and Buffalo Bros’ menu on the board, the new space reflects where small brewery growth is heading in Western New York: toward hospitality-first rooms that can pull more people in and keep them there longer.