Bars and restaurants prepare to serve up large crowds in town for the solar eclipse

BUFFALO N.Y. (WIVB) - Bars and restaurants all across Western New York are making sure they're ready to meet the demand and give people a taste of what the Buffalo food scene is all about.

"Western New York is expecting to get a total influx of people coming in and we hope to get our fair share, being the home of the original Buffalo wing. We anticipate being very, very busy that day. Not only gearing up for food but with staff," said Mark Dempsey, the CEO of the Anchor Bar franchise.

With hundreds of thousands of people expected to come to Buffalo for the eclipse restaurants like Anchor Bar will have their plates full.

"We've been looking at upping our batch, upping the levels of our sauce, ordering enough chicken wings and beef for our beef on wecks and pizzas. All the different ingredients and of course a lot of beer," Dempsey said.

Speaking of beer, Community Beer Works is getting ready to showcase craft beer made right here in Buffalo.

"We've gone about selling as much beer as we can into local establishments that we think are traditional Buffalo third spaces, we think people are gonna come when they come to Buffalo to experience a little bit of the city," said CEO Christopher Smith. "You're gonna find us on tap this weekend at places we deem pretty special in Buffalo, great wings, beef on weck, and great culture in Buffalo."

Over in Allentown, Casa Azul owner and chef Zina Lapi is getting ready to to see a surge of people from out of town looking for a place to feast.

"It's a lot of people's first time in Buffalo so we're excited to see some new people and get some new faces in the door for sure," Lapi told News 4. "Buffalo has an awesome small business community. We have a lot of chef owned restaurants, local artists so its cool there's a spotlight getting shown on all these people because of all of this."