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Business & Tech

Review: Buffalo's Southwest Cafe

On the menu: World Class Wings, Coconut Jerk, Carolina Fire BBQ and Death Valley sauces, Baby Back Ribs, curly fries, garlic bread and coleslaw.

Those who know me have to put up with my interest and delight in any restaurant, be it humble or magnificent that puts energy into creating sauces. I wholeheartedly agree with Ambrose Bierce, the author of The Devil’s Dictionary who defines sauce(s) as “a sign of civilization and enlightenment.”

At , go for the sauces. With their world-class wings, this restaurant offers not one, but 12 sauces for your tasting pleasure. Let me name them: Mild, Medium, Hot (Ho Hum), now it gets interesting—Scorching, Death Valley, Teriyaki, Lemon Pepper, Coconut Jerk, Honey Garlic, Red Hot Ranch, Sweet Bourbon BBQ and lastly, Carolina Fire BBQ.

If you are like me, you want more than one sauce to taste at any given time. But, here is the trick: taste from the mildest to the hottest, and if you want to taste more than three, leave the hottest one for the very last. Do this in reverse, and you won’t appreciate the subtleties of the milder flavored sauces.

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I started with a Taster size portion of the World Class Wings ($6.29): six fresh, juicy, chicken wings and the Coconut Jerk, Carolina Fire BBQ and Death Valley sauces on the side. The Coconut Jerk imparts a sweet-spicy flavor that pairs well with chicken; the Carolina Fire BBQ derives its hotness from habañero essence (juice), and the Death Valley is a chili-bomb of piquancy with bold tomato flavors.

Not to let these sauces go to waste, I completed my order with a half-slab of Baby Back Ribs ($12.99), curly fries, garlic bread and coleslaw (you can choose corn, if you like). The pork ribs are fully complemented by the sauces and especially the sweeter Coconut Jerk sauce, but the other two worked just fine. The ribs had a nice char along the edges, were firm, fully cooked and tender throughout. The ribs were so good that halfway through I regretted not ordering the full slab. The leftovers would be welcome at my house any time. The coleslaw, the finely minced style, was cold, crunchy, and creamy—the perfect side to balance all the spicy sauces. The garlic bread was the right portion for the meal and helped to calm the tongue from the two hotter sauces.

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Besides great wings and ribs, Buffalo’s has eight appetizers, five salads including an interesting one named Juanita’s Fajita Salad, the Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa is chunky, tasty and flavorful. I’ve enjoyed this appetizer with chips and a cold beer at another location and could vouch for it at the Woodstock restaurant if they follow the same winning recipe. There are six Outlaw Burgers: The Canyon, a ground beef or chicken burger—to which you can add cheese or freshly made queso verde; The Buffalo Bill burger comes with the wing sauce, bleu cheese dressing and onion straws; The Blackjack, a blackened burger with bacon, pepper jack cheese, onion straws and Vidalia Onion Sauce; The Mushroom Swiss—the classic with grilled mushrooms and topped with aged Swiss cheese, and several more to satisfy any burger urge, any style.

The menu continues to present extraordinarily different items with their five selections of Handheld Wraps. From the Chicken Salad wrap to the Apache Chicken wrap, all priced under $8. You are sure to find something to your liking. If you visit Buffalo’s during lunch, check out the Lunch Stampede, seven delightful dishes comfortably priced between $4.99 and $6.99.

If you still have room, there are three desserts that warrant a look: The Buffalo Chip: a chocolate chip cookie topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce (there’s another sauce!), Fried Cheesecake (I’m a purist in this category, but I hear it’s quite delicious), and Mesa Brownie, a chocolate-walnut brownie, ice cream and chocolate sauce. All of the desserts are priced below $5.

Buffalo’s menu showcases a small glimpse of the diverse and wonderful nature of southwest cooking. The food is great, the service friendly and prompt and the prices don’t hurt a bit.  For a moment, I felt like I was back in the Old Pueblo where the heat is dry, the coyotes howl and the jackrabbits’ ears are a foot long. 

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