Drive down Main Street past Salt Road this month and you'll notice the sign changed. Shalooby Loofer Brewing, the nanobrewery with the tongue-twister name and the wizard-themed taproom, is now Local Hollow Brewing. Walk inside, though, and the story gets more interesting than a new name over the door.
The same brewer is still pouring. The same running club still meets there on weeknights. The same board games, including a homemade Monopoly knockoff called Clarence-opoly, are still stacked by the bar. What actually happened at 10737 Main Street this summer wasn't a business closing and a new one opening in its place. It was a handoff between two people who already knew each other, timed to land in the six busiest weeks of the Hollow's year.
The Handoff, Explained
Eon Verrall opened Shalooby Loofer Brewing in September 2023, converting a three-car garage behind a rented house into a one-barrel brewery and tasting room. The name came from his daughters' childhood nicknames, Madison as "Shalooby" and Maggie as "Loofer." After three years and an anniversary party this summer, Verrall decided to sell, telling Buffalo Hive he wanted to focus on family and professional obligations outside the brewery.
He didn't sell to a stranger. Hilary Dollinger had been handling Shalooby Loofer's marketing and had previously worked at Chrusciki Bakery and Sto Lat Bar & Restaurant, both familiar names to anyone who's spent time in Clarence Hollow. Dollinger bought the business, along with the house next door, meaning she isn't commuting in to run the place. She lives on the same stretch of Main Street her customers walk to get there. The brewery had a soft opening on August 19 and its official grand opening the weekend of September 17 through 19, just as the rest of the Hollow's fall season was warming up.
Here's what changed and what didn't, based on the ownership record:
| Detail | Shalooby Loofer (through summer 2026) | Local Hollow Brewing (from September 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Eon Verrall | Hilary Dollinger |
| Brewer | Jack Merlino | Jack Merlino, unchanged |
| Board games | Clarence-opoly and house favorites | Same games remain |
| Running club | Hollow Hashers meet at the brewery | Hollow Hashers still meet there |
| Flagship beers | Original names | Same recipes, names shifting gradually |
| Interior | Tinted plexiglass, mystical theme | Charcoal vinyl walls, new tap handles, clear glass planned |
Dollinger has been clear that the cosmetic changes are intentional, not incidental. "I'm very much a marketer, so I'm going to bring in different tasting events and watch parties," she told Buffalo Hive shortly before the grand opening. The plan isn't to erase what regulars already love. It's to build programming on top of a foundation that already works.
Six Weeks That Will Test The New Name
What makes this transition worth watching isn't the sale itself. It's the timing. Dollinger's first season as owner overlaps entirely with the busiest stretch on the Hollow's calendar, with no quiet ramp-up period to work out the kinks.
The Clarence Farmers Market has been running every Saturday since June and continues through October, still setting up in the same Hollow parking lot it's used for more than two decades. The Great Pumpkin Farm, a few minutes down Main Street, opened for its 2026 season on September 19, the same week as the brewery's grand opening, and stays open daily through October 31. The Clarence Hollow Association's Scarecrow Festival, an annual September tradition that turns storefronts into makeshift art displays, is already underway.
Then the calendar gets crowded. HollowFest, the Association's signature fall celebration, takes over Clarence Town Park on Main Street on Saturday, October 3, from noon to 8 p.m., with vendors, food, and live entertainment. A week later, on October 10, the Hollow Hashers host the second annual Run Through the Hollow 5K, a race that starts from the same brewery where the running club has always met, meaning Local Hollow's taproom will be the literal starting line for one of the fall's bigger community events. The season wraps with the HOLLOWeen Bar Crawl on Saturday, October 24, when local bars roll out Halloween specials and a costume contest sends people wandering between establishments along Main Street.
None of this was scheduled around the brewery's ownership change. It's simply what happens in the Hollow every fall, and this year it happens to coincide with a new owner learning what her regulars expect from her.
A Second Brewery, Same Local Logic
Local Hollow isn't even the first brewery to open in Clarence Hollow, and the district's history suggests why an insider taking over from another insider isn't unusual here. West Shore Brewing Company opened in 2017 at 10995 Main Street, next door to Antique World & Flea Market, founded by the Dziomba family as a tribute to the West Shore Railroad line that once ran through town. Josh Dziomba's great-grandfather had worked the line for decades before retiring in 1968. The brewery wasn't built by outside investors chasing a trend. It was built by a family honoring a specific piece of Clarence's own history, in a taproom decorated with photos of relatives who actually worked the rails.
That's the pattern Local Hollow Brewing fits into now. Verrall didn't sell to whoever offered the highest bid. He handed the business to the person who had already been standing behind its marketing for years, someone who bought the house next door rather than treating the purchase as an investment property. The brewer stayed. The running club stayed. The games stayed. What changed was cosmetic, a new name, new tap handles, a clearer window into the brewhouse, layered on top of a business that didn't need reinventing.
What This Means For Your Saturday
If you're planning to walk the Farmers Market this month, or if you've already got HollowFest on your calendar for October 3, expect Local Hollow Brewing's patio to be part of the scenery either way. The brewery's outdoor space sits behind the taproom on the same stretch of Main Street where most of these events converge, and Dollinger's stated plan for more tasting events and watch parties suggests the fall calendar will keep filling in as the season goes.
If you run, the October 10 Hollow Hashers 5K is worth watching for regardless of pace, since it's the kind of small community race that reveals how many of your neighbors show up for these things. And if costumes are your thing, the October 24 bar crawl gives you a reason to see the inside of a few Main Street establishments you might otherwise walk past.
None of this required a new business to open in the Hollow. It required an old one to keep going, under new ownership, without losing the parts that made regulars regulars in the first place. That's a quieter story than a grand opening banner suggests, and it's the one actually worth knowing if you live here.
For more on what's happening across Clarence and the rest of Western New York's suburbs, or when you're ready to talk about buying or selling in the neighborhood, Karen Baker is always glad to help you plan the next move.
