A travel show that offers viewers a look at the towns that are home to Atlantic Coast Conference sports teams is about to debut its feature on Syracuse.
It will mention basketball, of course, but also showcase a heavy dose of beer, barbecue and snow.
The ACC Network’s “3 Day Weekend” episode on Syracuse has its initial airing at 9 p.m. on Dec. 12. That’s a Monday night on which the Syracuse University men’s basketball team hosts Monmouth at 7 p.m. The episode then goes into regular rotation on the channel.
Filming for the Syracuse episode took place last winter.
It highlights the area’s breweries and beer history, with interviews filmed at Willow Rock Brewing in Syracuse and the Brewseum at Heritage Hill Brewhouse in Pompey. It also included a visit to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and a local ski resort.
“They filmed it last winter and they’re going to run it this winter, so it definitely seems to have a winter feel,” said Bob Searing, the curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association. Searing was interviewed about the area’s beer history after the producers learned of the OHA’s partnership with Willow Rock to bring back Syracuse’s historic Congress Beer, a brand that had been out of production since the 1960s.
“They were really intrigued by the Congress story,” Willow Rock co-owner Rockney Roberts said. “We also talked about Syracuse being a beer hub, a place with lots of great breweries.”
And befitting a conference that has many schools in barbecue-centered places, the show’s producers also visited the Dinosaur, the downtown restaurant that already has a fairly big national profile.
“I guess they like barbecue,” Dinosaur owner John Stage said. “It makes sense for the ACC.”
Other locations featured in the Syracuse segment include dining spots like Pastabilities restaurant and Varsity Pizza, outdoor venues like Labrador Mountain and Highland Forest, and the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.
The series description at IMDB.com says, “ ‘3-Day Weekend’ features host Jess Roy as she travels to ACC college towns. Jess introduces fans to unique activities, visits historic spots, eats at popular restaurants and establishments, while giving viewers a taste of what the area has to offer.”
The is the second season for the “3 Day Weekend” series. Syracuse is the 10th of the 15 ACC home cities to be featured. The series went to Blacksburg Va., Miami, Pittsburgh, Boston and Clemson, S.C. in the first season. This season so far has featured Atlanta, Tallahassee, Fla., Charlottesville, Va. and Louisville.
Next up after Syracuse is Winston-Salem, N.C., home to Wake Forest. That leaves three cities in North Carolina (Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Durham) to be profiled, along with South Bend, Ind., home to Notre Dame.
The ACC Network is obviously aimed at sports fans, but the show should still create a boost for the local tourism and hospitality industry, said Danny Liedka, president and CEO of Visit Syracuse. He noted the local tourism agency has been limited in its own outreach for the past few years due to Covid.
“To have a network that can reach millions of people do that — there’s no question that’s a big boost,” Liedka said. “That has infinite worth.”
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.