BUFFALO, N.Y. — This weekend, restaurants across Western New York will be serving visitors who are expected to come here from all over the country to see the eclipse.
At Resurgence Brewing Company, they're selling tickets ahead of time for an Eclipse Bash on Monday, but won't really know how many people are coming to their Eclipse Bash until it happens. They are ready to host a large crowd.
"We're going to take the whole parking lot next to the brewery and make it into a big entertainment space and a great place to view the eclipse," said Jeff Ware, the Resurgence Brewing Company president.
Ware has spent countless hours with his team at Resurgence getting ready for Monday's Eclipse Bash.
"We're going to have stages, giant screen TVs, science experts," Ware said.
It will be a place where you can bring the whole family with heated VIP tents, a bounce house, and lots of food and beer.
"I'd say get here early, plan to stay late, the brewery is going to be open late if people want to come in and have dinner afterward or hang out, so they don't have to like roll out of here right away, and there's ample parking all around the brewery, so it should be an easy place to come down and enjoy yourself without the hassles of circling streets and whatnot," Ware said.
They also have their special "In the Path of Totality 3:18 PM" beer, a wheat beer with a bunch of different citrus flavors. Resurgence wanted to make sure they had enough stuff going on for people before 3:18.
But since it's a once-in-a-lifetime event, Ware doesn't really know how many people will show up.
"I have to say as beer people, we're pretty good at planning events, and this has been a bit of a challenge though just because we have no history, we have no way of knowing, you know, how many people are going to come, exactly what the weather is going to be like especially this time of the year, so I have to say our team has done an amazing job of really coming up with a full, festival-type experience that I think everybody's going to love," Ware said.
Other restaurants are also hosting eclipse events on Monday including Patina 250, where there's a special Solar Eclipse Brunch and Watch Party.
Another popular brewery, Big Ditch, is open from 11 in the morning until 10 at night on Monday, so you have lots of options if you want to go out to eat on Monday.