Entry No. 21 — the Buffalo file — filed under: curling
Buffalo Curling Club
The Buffalo Curling Club traces to the 1860s and was resurrected in 2014 by members throwing stones outdoors at RiverWorks — until thirteen weather-cancelled games in one season convinced them to move indoors. Since 2017 the club has run its own dedicated ice inside the former Buffalo China factory, the plant that once made America's diner dinnerware, with a chiller system under the sheets and a warm room walled off for spectators and post-game drinks. Learn to Curl classes ($35) cover the three skills — slide, sweep, skip — plus etiquette, and end with an actual short game; the three-hour Shots and Rocks version breaks in the middle to 'broom stack,' club-speak for a beverage in the warm room while you talk strategy over a tabletop curling set. The whole operation is volunteer-run, roughly 300 members strong, and all equipment is provided.
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The story
Curling in Buffalo goes back to the 1860s, and the club still carries that lineage as a member of the Grand National Curling Club. The modern version dates to February 2014, when a group tired of driving to Niagara Falls, Ontario restarted it with outdoor bonspiels and league play at RiverWorks on the Buffalo River. That was charming until it wasn't: thirteen games were cancelled for weather in a single season, and then-president Danielle Buchbinder went looking for a roof. The club found one by partnering with Kevin Callahan of Buffalo China, and by December 2017 it had glycol, a chiller, and its own ice inside the old plant.
The building has a pedigree. Buffalo Pottery was founded in 1901 by John D. Larkin, was billed as the largest fireproof pottery in the world, and spent a century making the heavy commercial china that went to railroads, hotels, and diners; Oneida bought it in 1983 and manufacturing ended in 2004. What sits in it now is four sheets of dedicated curling ice — the only indoor facility in Buffalo that does nothing else — with a warm room walled off behind glass for spectating and the post-game drink, plus locker rooms. Out on the ice the air sits just above freezing.
It is member-run and volunteer-supported under an elected board — David Guzzino is the current president — and was already close to 300 members across three Western New York counties when it moved indoors. Most membership tiers come with a service expectation of ten-plus hours a season, which is a fair description of how the place stays open. Alongside the Monday-through-Thursday evening leagues there are Friday and Sunday morning draws, a stick curling league, youth and veterans programs, and an adaptive program run with Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports on wheelchair-accessible ice.
What it's like
Arrive twenty minutes early — that time is for fitting grippers over your shoes and getting the group upright before anyone touches a stone. Dress for a room a degree or two above freezing: flexible athletic pants, layers under a windbreaker, a hat, thin gloves with grip. Jeans are actively discouraged, they stiffen and they get cold. Bring clean, flat sneakers and carry them in separately; the ice crew is serious about grit. A two-hour session is instruction, practice, then an instructor-assisted game. If anyone's knees, back, or hips object to the slide, ask for the stick — a shuffleboard-style delivery that keeps you standing. Equipment is all provided: stones, sliders, grippers, brooms.
The move: Register for a Shots and Rocks session: $35 each buys three hours on the ice, a drink break in the warm room halfway through, and a short real game at the end where you find out which of you can actually sweep.
📍 Before you go The ice is seasonal and class dates post to the club site in waves — late summer shows no open sessions, so watch buffalocurlingclub.org for fall registration. Group Learn to Curl runs $35, private sessions $45 (offered whenever a trainer and ice time line up); all equipment provided. Note the address is 91 Buffalo China Road, not the 50 that circulates in some listings, tucked behind South Park Avenue in Seneca-Babcock.
- 📍 Buffalo
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Big night
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 91 Buffalo China Rd, Buffalo, NY 14210
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Hartman's Barrel Room — Two and a half miles northwest in the Old First Ward, and the obvious next move when you've spent two hours at 33 degrees — bourbon made on site, drunk while looking into the barrel house.
- Pocketeer Billiards & Bar — Pinball Alley — Four miles east on Clinton Street: the indoor-winter double bill, granite on ice in the afternoon and a hundred pinball machines until midnight.
- Adam Mickiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle — A Saturday-night counterweight on Fillmore — the members' bar opens Friday and Saturday under 12,000 mostly-Polish books, with fifty-odd imports on hand once you're done being cold.
More weird in Buffalo
Good to know
When is the ice actually in?
Mid-September onward. Ice installation ran September 12–21 in 2026, and group rentals shut down over the summer and reopen in October. The season is anchored by the Kickoff Bonspiel on November 6–8 (2026's is the football-themed Frozen Gridiron Classic, $500 per four-player team, sixteen teams max), the Rumspiel on December 12, and the BCC Open on March 13–14, 2027. Watch buffalocurlingclub.org for Learn to Curl dates as they post.
Where is it, exactly?
91 Buffalo China Road, Buffalo NY 14210 — in the old Buffalo China factory, off Bailey Avenue between Clinton and Seneca. Some listings still circulate a different street number for the same complex, so navigate to Buffalo China Road itself. Phone is 716-464-2875, which spells 464-CURL.
What does a first session cost?
The two-hour Learn to Curl is $35 and covers the three skills — slide, sweep, skip — plus rules and etiquette, finishing with a short game. Shots and Rocks is also $35 and stretches to three hours with a break in the middle to broom stack: a drink in the warm room, a tabletop curling set on the table, and strategy explained somewhere warmer than the sheet. A private two-hour session is $45, offered whenever a trainer and ice time line up.
Can I bring a group?
Yes, from six to forty people. One sheet takes a maximum of ten, so groups of eight to thirty-two fit across all four sheets at once; anything over forty needs a phone call. A rental is two hours of ice, all equipment, quick-start instruction, and use of the warm room. Rental windows are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 9am–4pm, Thursday noon–4pm, and Saturday 12:30–7pm, with the last slot starting at 2pm on weekdays.
Is it accessible?
The ice is wheelchair accessible and adaptive equipment is available. The Adaptive Curling Program runs in partnership with Greater Buffalo Adaptive Sports and is open to all ages and ability levels, with instructors trained to work with physical, cognitive, and sensory disabilities. For anyone who just doesn't want to kneel and slide, the delivery stick solves it without a separate program.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site
last checked: 2026-08-25