Upon my first glance—no wait, scratch that—upon my first few glances, stares, and ponderings, I wasn't sure what to assume about the type of place that the Buffalo Rose might be on the inside. The outside has a very unassuming façade, and the few windows to the inside are too dark to be able to tell what is happening on the other side of the glass. The closed off porch area with a covered roof that spills out onto the sidewalk hints of a bar that would be teeming with people having a good time, if only the weather was nice enough to be outside. The logo on the Buffalo Rose sign has an old western flair to it because of the inclusion of a bull's skull with horns. Anywhere other than the Old West, and I would associate this icon with biker culture, but since Golden is a historical old western town, I was not certain whether this was a more generically-used symbol here.
The name “Buffalo Rose” is intriguing in and of itself. Buffalos are large and bulky animals, yet a rose is such a small and delicate flower—to put these two words together into one name is akin to creating an oxymoron. I don't know the meaning of the name, but one of Golden's famous bronze statues sits right in front of the Buffalo Rose's main door, and that statue is of—you probably guessed it—a life-sized buffalo.
After passing by the Buffalo Rose on several visits to town, one day I was a little bit hungry, but not in the mood for a full sit-down restaurant meal, and perhaps I was feeling a bit adventurous at the time. I walked up to the Buffalo Rose and first checked the food menu that was posted to the fence around the covered porch area, just to make sure that they offered more than just bar appetizers. I was impressed to see sandwiches on the menu and—imagine this— buffalo burgers! Where I come from in the Midwest, buffalo burgers aren't a regular item on a bar menu, let alone any menu. In Colorado (one of the few states where buffalo still roam free in herds) buffalo burgers are not as uncommon, but it seems to be more of a delicacy then beef burgers, so I wasn't expecting to see buffalo burgers offered on a bar's menu.
From my quick browse of the menu, I was intrigued enough by the food to work up the nerve to push open the dark-tinted glass front door and brave whatever cliques of rough, tattooed, and leather-dressed people that I might find inside. The instant the door cracked open and revealed colorful lights, an ornately-carved wooden bar, average happy hour-goer-type people, and the live guitarist playing and singing in the corner, I knew that this wasn't really an old western biker bar, or at least not one like I had imagined from movies.
I had my choice of sitting at the bar, a high-top table, or a regular-height table, so I chose a 2-seater regular-height table right in the middle of the room because I wanted to be able to take in all of my surroundings. As I pulled out a chair and laid down my multiple bags and purses of camera equipment, the friendly gentlemen at the high-top table next to me asked me if I needed more chairs. Through briefly talking with him, I found out that he thought I was carrying bags for other people who would be joining me!
I ended up ordering a buffalo burger and substituted the french fries for onion rings because the waitress said they were known for their beer-battered, thick-cut onion rings that they make from scratch on the premises daily. I have been told similar tales by waitresses before and I've not been very impressed with the results, so I didn't have high hopes for these onion rings either. My meal arrived in a plastic basket lined with paper, but the flavors were impressive! The buffalo burger was juicy and full of flavor, and the breading on the onion rings was not cake-like heavy or a crumby texture, but nice and light and crisp, just how I like them. The onion inside the breading also contributed to the flavor because it was a good, sweet onion, and had been cooked through so there was no raw onion bite to ruin the flavors.
After I finished eating my delicious buffalo burger and beer-battered thick-cut onion rings, I turned to my right and struck up a conversation with one of the friendly gentlemen at the table next to me who had said hello when I initially sat down. One of the first things I asked was "how frequently do you come to this bar?" To this, the one guy pointed at the other and said, "well, he's the owner!" These two guys were major jokers, so the conversation quickly turned into all kinds of silly fun. Watch the video to see just a few minutes of what really happened.
BuffaloRose.mov
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