Most suburban communities organize their summers around a calendar — a festival in June, a concert series in July, a fair in August. You find out what's happening, drive there, and go home. The Hollow works differently. Its summer density comes from a piece of infrastructure that was never designed for recreation at all.
The Clarence Pathway follows two converted rail corridors through the town and passes directly through the Clarence Hollow Farmers Market parking lot. That single routing decision means every Saturday morning from June through October, the people who walked or rode the trail and the people who came to shop for produce end up at the same address. What looks like a thriving seasonal scene is, at its core, a trail that happens to run through a market.
The Trail That Runs Through Everything
The Clarence Pathways system covers 17.25 miles of paved, flat surface across five connected trails built on two former rail lines: the West Shore Trail following the old New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway corridor, and the Peanut Line Trail following the former New York Central Batavia Line. Both are easy, wide, and open to biking, running, and walking. The West Shore Trail alone runs 8.7 miles point-to-point from Wehrle Drive in Clarence toward Akron, passing through forested stretches, farm fields, and Clarence Park before arriving near the Hollow itself.
The eastern end of the Akron run drops trail users at Akron Falls Park, where Murder Creek drops through a narrow gorge into a waterfall worth the detour. On the Clarence end, the trail routes past the Clarence Hollow Farmers Market parking lot at 10717 Main Street before continuing west. That overlap is structural, not incidental. On a Saturday morning in July, the trail and the market share foot traffic in a way that no events calendar could engineer.
What Saturdays Look Like, June Through October
The Clarence Hollow Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., June through October, rain or shine. It holds a distinction that no other market in New York State can claim: it is the only Rails-to-Trails farmers market in the state, operating directly on the converted rail corridor. The market is run entirely by volunteers and has been a community anchor for well over a decade.
What's available on a given Saturday covers a wide range of local production:
- Seasonal produce from local growers (mixed greens, corn, tomatoes, apples, peaches, squash)
- Farm-fresh eggs from Kreher's Farm Fresh Eggs, a regional staple since the 1980s
- Organic honey, maple syrup, and artisan cider
- Local wine, handmade sausage, sweet breads, and specialty jams
- Live music most weeks, with local acts performing through the season
The market also anchors the town's larger environmental calendar. In August, the Monarch Butterfly Day event brings the Eastern Monarch Butterfly Farm together with conservation groups including the Friends of Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve, and Erie County Parks for a butterfly release at 11 a.m. It is one of those events that sounds niche until you show up and realize half the town is there.
The Block That Captures the Morning
Within a short walk of the market's Main Street crossing, four distinct food and drink operators have built what amounts to a post-trail, post-market block.
This Little Pig, the dream project of Jeff and Mandy Cooke, anchors the upscale end of that cluster. The kitchen works from scratch, uses local farms and family-raised meats, and serves hardwood-smoked barbecue alongside seasonal American cooking. The space is broken into distinct rooms — the Sawmill Room for main dining, the Steer Room for banquette seating, the Stag Room for private events — and the bar carries up to 20 local beers on draft.
The Hollow Bistro & Brew, owned and operated by the Yu family, occupies a historic building at 10641 Main Street and runs a program that mixes Asian-influenced menu items with classic American fare and a rotating local beer selection. The Bistro hosts regular Jazz Brunches and Art Wine & Dine evenings, which means it functions as both a casual Saturday lunch stop and a destination for evenings later in the week.
Shalooby Loofer Brewing at 10737 Main Street is a neighborhood brewery in the literal sense: small, community-facing, and the kind of place where a stranger becomes a regular quickly. It serves as the home base for the Hollow's annual Cinco de Mayo Bar Crawl, where a Passport issued on-site unlocks food and drink specials across participating restaurants. Humbert House, just down the block at 10622 Main Street, rounds out the picture with whiskey, wine, and small plates in a building that dates to 1864, when it served as the private residence of local pharmacist and businessman Arthur Humbert. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 4 p.m., it draws a different crowd than the morning trail set, which is the point.
When the Calendar Fills In
The Clarence Hollow Association organizes the community events that layer on top of the trail-and-market foundation. The Spring Mixer on June 8, 2026 takes place on the Clarence Town Park Club House patio from 5 to 8 p.m. Live music comes from Jack and April Civiletto, and local restaurants bring food for sampling. The event is free, open to residents and newcomers alike, and structured specifically to introduce people to the businesses that operate in the Hollow.
The Bob Lenz Memorial 5K, held annually in early May on the Clarence-Akron Pathway, honors the legacy of a longtime community figure and draws runners and walkers of all levels along the same rail trail that connects the Hollow to Akron. It is a family event with limited spots, which means it sells the experience rather than the distance.
What all of this adds up to is a summer that does not require you to plan very far ahead. The trail is open every day. The market runs every Saturday from June through October. The restaurants are there on a Tuesday as much as a Saturday. The Hollow Association fills in the gaps with events that feel less like programming and more like the town checking in on itself.
There is a version of Clarence that gets described as "country near the city" — large lots, open space, easy access to Buffalo. That framing is accurate as far as it goes, but it undersells what the Hollow specifically offers, which is a walkable, bikeable summer district with a farmers market, a microbrewery, a nineteenth-century cocktail bar, and a trail that runs through all of it.
If you are thinking about what it actually looks like to live here, High Falls Sotheby's International Realty knows this market well. Reach out and we'll walk you through it.
