Apr 9, 2018
BATAVIA — Tavern 201 is open for business.
After shutting down in 2001 when the Batavia Club, a men’s social club, closed its doors, and following two years of planning with the liquor license finally arriving last month, the historic bar at GO Art! finally started serving alcohol again.
Director Gregory Hallock said the bar was built sometime between 1887 and 1906.
“I’m not 100 percent sure on when,” he said. “We just know the Batavia Club came in 1887 and then in 1906, it’s in a picture.”
Before reinstating it as a bar, GO Art had been using the space as an art gallery and occasionally served alcohol with a temporary liquor license at some events. It was these events which made the board of directors at GO Art decide to open the bar.
GO Art decided to call it “Tavern 201.”
“201 is because we are 201 E. Main St. but also because it is 2.01,” Hallock said. “So 2.0 is a second version of a bar space, so it is a nod to the Batavia Club members, saying thank you to them. And it is 2.01 because it is our first bar. So it has a triple meaning.”
Tavern 201 sells mead, beer, wine and cider from across Orleans and Genesee counties. It also sells butterbeer, made famous by the Harry Potter series, which is made of cream soda, caramel, butter flavoring, whipped cream and butterscotch.
Hallock and Mary Jo Whitman, a board member and chair of the event, said they were most excited to serve mead because there isn’t a bar in the area which serves it.
The bar will offer GO Art some extra income and make their events a little more “fun” according to Hallock. They will also be renting out the facility for private parties, and Whitman said they can do everything from corporate events to private baby showers.
Members were the first ones able to experience the new bar on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., before it opened to the public. After a ribbon cutting, Assemblyman Steve Hawley gave GO Art an official proclamation from the New York State Assembly.
Don Fryling, a volunteer from Batavia, was mingling around and said he was enjoying the event.
“I think it’s a great addition to the GO Art family and a good way to bring people in,” he said.
Sitting outside the bar room, Patti Pacino, a board member on GO ART, sat at a table, giving slips for people to fill out to receive a door prize. She said she has been looking forward to the bar, living here all of her life and has remembers the Batavia Club.
“I’m looking forward to seeing people socialize. It’s very beautiful in here, and I want more people to visit GO Art,” she said, adding her favorite drink was butterbeer.
For more information on GO Art or their programs, call (585) 343-9313 or e-mail info@goart.org.
