New York’s culinary scene is as expansive as it is fragmented.
Every region is home to signature dishes that seem like a foreign oddity to someone an hour or more away. Most of us know the struggle of trying to find a serviceable garbage plate outside the Rochester area. Good luck tracking down a stuffed banana pepper outside of metro Buffalo, or a spiedie outside of Binghamton.
Nine Spot Brewing, which plans to open on Monroe Avenue near downtown Rochester in early August, is looking to pay homage to the different drinks and dishes associated with various New York cities and regions.
On the menu are offerings like the Utica staple of chicken riggies, Rochester’s beloved chicken French, pizza rolls popularized by the Queen City, and nine different brands of New York hot dogs, alongside an array of clean brews made from Empire State ingredients.
Marina Nothnagle, a longtime worker in the state’s beverage industry, spearheaded the concept of Nine Spot alongside her husband, Chris Nothnagle, and partners Gary Rodriguez and Edd Taylor.
Even the brewery’s name is a tribute to something quintessentially New York — the nine-spotted ladybug, the state’s official insect.
“Everything we do, we don’t just want to use New York ingredients, we want to tell a New York story behind it,” Chris Nothnagle said. “We’ve spent the past five years researching all of these weird little things about New York that we’ve fallen in love with.”
The Nothnagles’ tributes to New York stretch well into the esoteric.
For example, the brewery's first beer, a collaboration with Syracuse’s Buried Acorn, was a smoked dunkel called “The Great Squirrel Migration.” The name recalls the 1968 phenomenon in which squirrels, eager to seize upon an especially abundant acorn harvest in the northeastern United States a year earlier, flooded new areas of the region. In New York, hundreds of intrepid bushy tails drowned crossing the Hudson River in what newspapers at the time called an “invasion.”
“The sugar maple is the state tree, and we’re working on doing our flight boards and tap handles out of maple, and we’re also trying to carry those kinds of things through into our recipes,” Marina Nothnagle said. “Apples are the state fruit, yogurt is the state snack . . . it’ll almost be like a New York museum.”
Nine Spot’s second beer, contract-brewed with Battle Street Brewing in Dansville, is a pale ale dubbed “NY Grains, Trains, and Automobiles,” a name Marina joked came to her in a “COVID fog.” The title references the Battle Street building’s former life as a train depot, and the classic 1987 Steve Martin flick “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” much of which was shot in western New York, namely Batavia and Cattaraugus County.
The beer pours a light straw color and has a subdued hint of zesty citrus on its nose. The initial sip offers a burst of bitter pine and lime notes, and ends silky smooth with a crisp, lightly grassy finish. This simple beer has no pretense and it shows off the chops of Nine Spot head brewer Mike Beebe.
Beebe, a Rochester native, has brewed for establishments from Alaska to New Jersey.
“We got the opportunity to try about a dozen beers before we hired him and it was really a no-brainer at that point,” Marina Nothnagle said. “He makes really great, clean (beers), and he respects the history of the styles. He knows how to make a great beer.”
Nine Spot is the latest in a growing network of breweries on the southern edge of downtown Rochester. The brewery will be located in the space formerly occupied by Towner’s Bike Shop and, decades ago, CE Hartson, one of the first car dealerships in Rochester. The brewery sits about half a block away from Strangebird Brewing on Marshall Street, and about a quarter mile from Roc Brewing on South Union.
The Nothnagles are looking to tap into the traffic they hope will be generated by the nearby Strong National Museum of Play, which is undergoing a 90,000-square foot expansion, including the construction of a hotel. Nine Spot intends to be a family-friendly brewery, offering mocktails and sodas with its suds and ciders.
“There’s not that many options (for families),” Marina Nothnagle said. “We wanted to create an environment where you can come in and sit down and order if you want that. If you don’t, you go to our taproom over here. We wanted to make it this kind of fluid space where everyone can find something.”
Gino Fanelli is a CITY staff writer.