BUFFALO, N.Y. — In 2018, rockstar Pat Benatar's guitarist and husband Neil Giraldo brought his Three Chord Bourbon headquarters to Clarence.
It's all because his CEO Paul Nanula and COO Andy DeYoung are from Western New York.
"The idea Neil had was to stimulate the consumer through music and we give a portion of that back to musicians," DeYoung said.
Right now, Three Chord has distributors in 34 states and one distillery in Michigan.
Now the bourbon company will continue to expand.
Of the $15 million they're hoping to secure from investors in the next six months, they just received $4.5 million.
It'll allow them to continue expanding across the country, while offering the bourbon at a reasonable price.
It also means they can build another distillery and this time it will be in the City of Buffalo.
"You'd be able to come in and listen to music. We're going to be live music oriented so it would be supporting all the local musicians here in Buffalo, let them come out and play and throw festivals and things like that," DeYoung said.
DeYoung says he and his colleagues are still deciding between a few locations downtown.
The distillery and tasting room will bring about 60 jobs and you can expect it to open sometime at the end of the year.
"One of the things we're looking for which was tough during COVID but one of the things we're looking for is a place where we can have music and we are able to have live music and entertain so it'll be something nice to do during the indoor and outdoor months and trying to be able to do it all year round is a challenge. We want to do both," DeYoung said.