Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Buffalo Bills are gearing up for their 2021 playoff run, starting Saturday night with an AFC Wild Card Round matchup with the New England Patriots at Highmark Stadium.
While the Bills get ready for their big night on Saturday, many local bars and restaurants are also gearing up for a potentially big business night for the game.
"Being a home game, as much as the city is excited to host their first playoff game [in front of] a full stadium in however many years, it's exciting," said Chris Ring from the Rec Room in Buffalo. "It's just 70,000 people you're taking out of the local businesses that are actually going to the game. So an away game would definitely make businesses a lot busier, but I think everyone will be super busy on a Saturday night for a playoff game."
While many businesses are hoping to see a good crowd come out to take in Saturday's big playoff matchup, some places acknowledge it will throw a wrench into the usual Saturday night crowds they get.
""It definitely interferes with our normal Saturday night business, but at the same token, we're hoping to produce enough excitement to fill up and take us into the late night at all locations," said Paul Santora, owner of Santora's Pizza Pub and Grill restaurants. "Trying to get people in, trying to get them fed and trying to get them entertained."
As many local businesses already know, Sundays during football season are a haven for Bills fans and other football enthusiasts to find an establishment close by to enjoy the game, while also enjoying some good food and beverages.
When the playoffs come around, the schedule of games not only gets shorter, but more spread out. This year is no exception in the NFL, with the league featuring two games on Saturday, three games on Sunday, and even a contest on "Monday Night Football".
While businesses don't have their say in when their local team is featured in the postseason, it becomes a challenge for any bar or restaurant when games are being played during other important times during the week.
"Sunday is probably our best scenario. 1 p.m., 4 p.m.," Santora said. "1 p.m. seems to be a Buffalo party time, where people can have enough time to recover, and obviously we get our full Saturday night out of it and then we pick up another Sunday. But that's not to say that there won't be a lot of people coming out Sunday to watch the rest of the games."
"Personally, I prefer it on an off night," Ring said. "A Sunday, Thursday night game, Monday night game - to get that extra day of business - but a Bills playoff game I'll take it. Whether it's 8 p.m. EST on a Saturday, a 5 p.m. EST on a Saturday or 2 p.m. EST on a Tuesday, either way, we're just excited to have it."
With the Bills being featured in prime-time on Saturday night, it is a perfect opportunity, though, for businesses to bring out some special features to not only enhance the evening's experience, but also attract more people to join the party.
"We do some extra stuff, and we live musicians and halftime shows that we do at Rec Room that we're going to pull out again for the playoff games," Ring said. "If we win [this week], we are going to do the street parties again next time for the away game that we would do. It's just a lot of planning and making sure we have the proper staff, and trying to work through the schedule of every body that wants to go to the game, but unfortunately have to work as well. So it's about trying to find that work/life balance."
Meanwhile for Santora, who owns three separate locations in the Buffalo area, they will be going a little further for the playoffs to get more people in their doors.
"Taking into consideration our Transit Road location has a full heated patio, we're actually having a tailgate party starting at 5 p.m. EST on Saturday," Santora said. "Live music, drink specials; We're doing a lot of releases of our new 1927 Brew House beers, and then we have a DJ through the game. We are definitely prepping up. We've got a $1,000 worth of giveaways, and quite an entertaining evening at our Transit location. Our Galleria location has tons of giveaways as well. We've got some tastings there, and a lot of koozies, t-shirts, a lot of stuff to keep people having fun and enjoying themselves."
One benefit that could also help restaurants this weekend with the Bills playing on Saturday night is the potential for Sunday's action in the NFL to be more meaningful to Buffalo if they beat the Patriots. The hope would be people take in the other day's action to see who the Bills could face in the AFC Divisional Round the following week.
While bars and restaurants get ready for the big weekend ahead, concerns continue to swirl around the uncertainties of COVID-19, especially with the rapid rise in case counts due to the emergence of the Omicron variant.
Luckily, for both Rec Room and Santora's, they have fared quite well when it comes to dealing with COVID-19 in the recent weeks.
"We're lucky in the fact that we have a large staff," Ring said. "We've had those weeks where we've had six, seven, eight people out, unfortunately, with COVID. Luckily it was minuscule and wasn't severe for people that work here at Rec Room, but because we have a lot of staff, it's been relatively OK to kind of navigate through the waters and make sure that we're staffed properly."
"Our outbreaks have been very sporadic," Santora said of his staff. "Being that it's January, it's a little bit of a slower time. Even after Christmas, between Christmas and New Year's, people not wanting to necessarily go out because they had functions and family obligations. We were a little bit slower at the time period, so we were able to move people around with the three locations. We really didn't have a problem, and now we're probably 60%-75% through all of our staff having COVID again."
Despite all the challenges that currently present businesses, both Ring and Santora don't foresee any inconveniences with staffing coming up this weekend and in the near future.
"You throw in COVID with a Bills playoff game and a million other things going on, it makes things a little bit more difficult, but having the right amount of staff that's been willing and able to work has been something we've been working on," Ring said. "Staying open through the pandemic, creating new and fun programs to keep everybody working so that way we held on to our staff during all the times that things were a little tough. We have a dedicated staff, and they're all excited to work."
