Just under 100 miles from Orchard Park, New York, in Keswick, Ontario, football fans eat, drink, and watch the Bills in a backyard, where there's an enormous bright red Bills helmet. Blake Parnham is the founder and host of the Bills Helmet Bar, and he took a few moments to discuss his weekly jamboree. Here's their website: Bills Helmet Bar.
STADIUM JOURNEY:
What inspired you to start the Bills Helmet Bar?
BLAKE PARNHAM:
The construction of the Bills Helmet Bar happened completely by accident. In the spring of 2019, we decided to build a patio behind the house, adjacent to the deck. This project coincided with the Toronto Raptors 2019 Championship run. Having been confined to the indoors for most of the wet Canadian spring, we set up a television on our new patio and watched the Finals games outdoors. When the Raptors finally won, we looked to the back of the property and considered the possibilities.
I’m not sure whether it was the buzz, the hysteria of winning the championship, or the light of the full moon, but our giant football helmet glimmered in my eye. We decided to stand it up on the side of the patio and make a bar out of it. The very next day, we began our new project. As far as our tailgates, this began in 2020. With the inability of Canadians to cross the border and for fans in general to attend home games, someone reached out to us, asking to attend the Week One Jets game at our bar. He conceded that it was still in the depths of the pandemic, and it was okay if we said no, but he hadn’t missed a home game in eighteen years. We had a family meeting - admitted that it was objectively weird for a stranger to come to our home - and then said, “Hey, why not.” This is really how our tailgates began.
STADIUM JOURNEY:
What kind of experience can patrons expect at the Bar? Is there food? What kind?
BLAKE PARNHAM:
The Helmet Bar tailgate has grown each year. During that 2020 season, it was mostly our family and this one new friend. Since then, we’ve grown to a crowd that almost always eclipses twenty people and often is larger than forty, even in winter. People bring whatever they like to drink, but we always cook enough food for everyone. My friend, “Chef Rob,” and I typically theme the menu to the local cuisine of our opponent. Think Cuban sandwiches for Dolphins games; and Nashville chicken sliders for Titans games. We do put a little donation bin out to help with costs, but that’s not required of people.
Photo Courtesy of Bills Helmet Bar/Instagram
STADIUM JOURNEY:
Can anyone join in the fun? Can someone just show up? Opposing fans?
BLAKE PARNHAM:
Everyone can join Helmet Bar tailgates, though they can’t just show up. Since the Helmet Bar is also our house, we don’t publish our address. But people are free to message us on one of our social media accounts. Then, I provide our address and the relevant info about the tailgates. As for opposing fans, they're welcome. Canada is unique because - since there’s no Canadian team - there are football fans of just about every team around. If folks like football, they’re good enough for us. Just don’t cheer too loudly.
STADIUM JOURNEY:
Is the Bar open when it snows or rains? How do you handle inclement weather?
BLAKE PARNHAM:
[With exception to the games we attend in person,] we have been open every game since the beginning of the 2020 season, though we haven’t finished every game. During the Cardinals Hail Murray game, a tornado came through and took out our electricity for 48 hours, so we had to scramble to a different location for the unfortunate second half. As for rain, we have a little pop-up canopy that we put over the patio and a bunch of heavy-duty tarps that we layer across it to keep people warm. But for snow and cold, all bets are off. We’ve been snowed on like crazy, and have sometimes had to put our open drinks on a cooking grate over the fire to keep them warm.
Photo Courtesy of Bills Helmet Bar/Instagram
STADIUM JOURNEY:
Are there any special plans for the championship games this weekend?
BLAKE PARNHAM:
I’m actually grateful that the AFC Championship game is second. The NFC game will be a healthy distraction for us all. This Sunday, we’ll be doing much the same, on a larger scale. I will set up the Bills Helmet Bar flag in the morning, start cooking, and wait for folks to roll in. Given that it’s a road game, I expect it to be a larger crowd. Several of our regulars are also season ticket holders who don’t come for home games. Given the importance of the game, the fact that it’s on the road, and the fact that it’ll be relatively mild temperatures - -3C - I have no idea what that means in Fahrenheit. It should be the biggest crowd we’ve ever had. At least, until February 9th.
STADIUM JOURNEY:
Buffalo is getting a new stadium. Is this a good thing? When you attend games, what happens to the Bar?
BLAKE PARNHAM:
It’s been incredible to see the progress of the new stadium. It looks so much different now than it even did at the beginning of the season. However, I'm not super keen on it. The Ralph is home, and much like moving houses, it'll feel weird for a while. I’m going to miss it. But eventually, it’ll feel like it belongs, I’m sure. We typically attend one or two games a season, and when this happens, we simply close the bar. I put out on social media that we’ll be at the game, so no one comes by. However, this year, when we told all of our friends that we had tickets to the New England game on December 22nd, almost all of them bought tickets to come along. It was a great Helmet Bar takeover of Orchard Park and one of my favorite days yet.
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