Anyone who plans to go out to a bar takes into consideration what kind of environment the establishment has. You could be looking for a cheaper college bar, a more expensive martini bar, or even a festive nightclub environment. Buffalo Alice has the reputation to fit under that latter category. More affectionately called BA’s, this bar has been a mainstay in Sioux City since 1976. It’s known for their pizza, beer, and fun environment. Having never been there before, I was curious to see what all the fuss was about and to see if they really lived up to the expectations.
Signage for Buffalo Alice
Upon arrival to BA’s, I first noticed their sign hanging outside of the bar. Their logo was painted on weathered wooden planks. I was really impressed with the look, it had a classic “western” feel to it between the paint colors, the wood, and the illustration of the buffalo. I liked the color choices, the blue and the reddish-orange, but both of the colors, particularly the reddish-orange, was a little hard to see on the wood background from a distance. I would have liked to seen the words “Buffalo Alice” in white to help with the readability. They had a several signs in the window that helped a customer figure out what this place was, but the sign would be tough to read if you were driving by. I am curious why the hearts and arrow illustration are in this logo. They don’t seem to belong. To me, it looks more like a tattoo drawing or something, but they just don’t seem to fit with the rest of the appearance of the logo. Perhaps there’s a story behind it, but I don’t know of it.
The Bar at BA’s
Inside, BA’s is separated into 2 different sections. The front part seems to be more of the bar side while the other side was more of the dining area. The “bar” side had a ton of signs hanging up all around, giving it a “festive bar” feel. The “dining” side didn’t have hardly any signs, and was instead decorated with artwork. After a little research on their website, I discovered that they were all done by local artists. There was a very large mural of different musicians throughout musical history. I liked this look for this side, perhaps even more than on the other side, but that’s probably because I’m an artist myself. Both sections of BA’s had a very large bar, with several beers available on tap.
Pizza and a Beer
We arrived at BA’s for their lunch pizza buffet, so in the back of the “dining” side, they had a buffet with about 4 or 5 different pizzas. On the closest table to the buffet, they had salad and a tray of brownies. I grabbed a slice of supreme pizza that had olives, peppers, mushrooms, pepperoni and sausage and another slice of sausage pizza. My impressions were that the pizza was simply OK. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad pizza; it was just pizza. There wasn’t really anything special about it and it didn’t live up to the expectations that I gained from others telling me how good it was.
In the end, I would say that Buffalo Alice isn’t a place I would advise going to for the food. To me, you would go to BA’s for the beer, the people, and the environment, and only if you got hungry and didn’t want to leave yet, would you get the pizza. Perhaps it was because it was a lunch buffet that it wasn’t all that impressive. I was, however impressed by their logo and aesthetic appearance. I really appreciated their rustic feel with their logo and the “festive bar” inside BA’s.
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