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(See also a photo gallery of White Buffalo Saloon's grand opening party.)
If you’ve been paying attention to Ticket, you likely know that White Buffalo Saloon has become a nightlife destination for a surprisingly large swath of Sarasota. Makes sense — although the restaurant, bar and music/dancing venue is tucked away from the hustle and bustle near the corner of McIntosh and Ashton roads, once you get there its charms are obvious.
Mike and Steve Evanoff — owners of the Evie’s chain of taverns, restaurants, car washes and mini-golf — transformed an old appliance rental warehouse into a country and western temple, with soaring ceilings, a long and beautiful bar and a massive dance floor that fronts a dedicated stage. The glowing chandeliers that hang above the bar area may seem incongruous at first glance, but it’s the kind of classy element that serves to throw the rough wood and chunky furniture into stark relief. The place looks great.
White Buffalo Saloon
5377 McIntosh Road, Sarasota
Open Wednesday through Sunday
“Hungry Hour” from 4 to 7 p.m.; dinner from 7 to 10 p.m.; customers 21 or older only from 10 to 2 p.m.; 10 to midnight Sunday.
whitebuffalosaloon.com; 927-6655.
And, as a nightlife spot, it seems to be thriving. There’s live music on the weekends, line-dancing lessons on Wednesdays and plenty of entertainment value in the crowd alone.
But as a restaurant? If White Buffalo wants to do more than just offer convenience food for people coming to dance and party, it needs to attract a different clientele than the after-dark crowd, folks willing to come to eat dinner between five and eight and move on. Families, work friends, and first dates.
For this, White Buffalo might need to do a little more work, starting with the building’s exterior. From the road, it looks like, well, an old appliance warehouse, with little signage and nothing to encourage people to pull in to the parking lot out back and see the beauty of the place.
Get people to the door and many will be tempted by White Buffalo’s menu. It’s filled with a mishmash of Southern comfort food filtered through modern, over-the-top dining sensibilities. That means pulled pork stuffed inside hefty fried onion rings, homemade potato chips doused in ranch dressing and wing sauce, mac-and-cheese covered in chili and wings that come with Garlic Parmesan Butter along with the usual Buffalo sauces. The number of things you can order fried is impressive, if not surprising: pickles, mac-and-cheese, green tomatoes, potatoes, onions, catfish, and more. Crowd-pleasers, for sure, and most of it executed well enough to satisfy a craving for filling, fat-driven flavor.
White Buffalo’s menu also features an array of barbecue, a selection of burgers and a line of pizzas. The barbecue varies in quality, from sauce-logged, featureless pork to wonderful brisket infused with a serious amount of smoke and a spicy kick. Both the chicken and ribs are adequate, but nothing to get excited about.
White Buffalo’s fried catfish is indicative of a lot of the menu. The fish is cooked right, moist and steamy on the inside, but the cornmeal crust is barely seasoned, a crunchy bit of texture that does nothing for the fish. Fried green tomatoes are similar, hard hockey pucks of cornmeal and grease that hide the essence of the veggie. Thick-cut meatloaf is overwhelmed with green pepper and sweet barbecue sauce, heavy and filling, but not necessarily satisfying.
Go back for a second visit and you’ll be tempted to try to overcome the potentially bland food with excess. Go for it — it’s what White Buffalo does best. Like The Duke burger, where your 10-ounce Angus beef patty will be topped with pork, chili, a fried egg, bacon and cheese until it doesn’t matter anymore how good any individual item is — trying to wrangle that burgerstein’s monster into your mouth will keep you plenty occupied. Same with White Buffalo’s “Spaghetti Western,” where the restaurant’s gooey mac-and-chese is covered in smoky, spicy chili made from burnt brisket ends. It’s tasty, sure, but my senses may be dulled by what can only be called a comfort coma.
Instead of judging White Buffalo’s food on its own merits, put it into context. The profusion of fried food, the heavy nature of the dishes, the reliance on fat for flavor — the restaurant is competing with chain restaurants more than it is aiming for gastronomical greatness. At that, it surpasses its competition, both in the quality of the food and the ambiance.
And you can always stick around and dance those extra calories off once the place really starts picking up.
I haven't been to the White Buffalo and probably won't go due to some personal issues I have with the owners. However, I heard through some friends that the head cook was bragging about "his" great menu concept and food items that "he" came up with. Which is strange because I actually typed up and still have the original copy of the sample menu which John Levita (Evie's former food service manager) devised after much time spent with the owners at food shows, etc. So, just for the record it was John Levita who has brought you Evie's famous pizza, the former amazing pasta nights that y'all love and the delicious and unique menu at the White Buffalo.