Ballyhoo Links & Drinks
Logo design and visual branding, menu design, and signage reflect the unique style of a popular Buffalo, NY restaurant & bar
After over 40 years of service as a workingman’s tavern in Buffalo’s historic First Ward, Ballyhoo has found new life with an updated identity based on a classic gin-mill. In the years since its inception, the restaurant has reached local cult status, notorious for killer drinks and tasty links. With all the hubbub around its popularity we ask ourselves, “What is a Ballyhoo?” (Answer: an excited commotion!)
Services: Apparel Design, Brochure/Collateral, Environmental Design, Logo/Identity Design, Print Management
OtherWisz Creative was called to design a logo to revive this long-lost gin mill, formerly known as the Malamute Tavern. Tim & Morgan Stevens breathed new life into the throwback shot-and-a-beer joint by introducing craft beers and classic cocktails alongside house-made specialty sausage plates, soups, salads, and mac n’ cheese. Naturally, they wanted a new visual identity to match the bar’s character.
Using bubble typography and a retro color palette, OtherWisz developed the word mark logo to express the playful aesthetic of a vintage board game. Our team designed lunch menus styled after punch clock cards – accompanied by branded mini pencils – to fit in with the tavern’s blue-collar beginnings and its industrial location. Keeping with the theme, we created a spirits and drinks menu formatted as an old-fashioned newspaper; these included the bar’s backstory and information on the available cocktails for customers to peruse while their order was made.
Located by Buffalo’s historic grain elevators, Ballyhoo Links & Drinks opened in the Fall of 2014 with a visual brand designed to mix new flavors with vintage styles. Buffalo’s industrial past and its modern renaissance meet here where everything feels new again.
