Volume 33 Number 6 July 8, 2009

Formerly Beaver Creek Saloon
Buffalo Bill’s sees strong community response to changes

By Kurt "SWINGCAT" Johnson

Beaver Creek is quite the country mile from downtown Portland. Located about five miles south of Oregon City, it's out in the countryside among rolling hills and farms. In the middle of Beaver Creek is Buffalo Bill's Saloon, 21950 S. Beaver Creek Rd. Formerly The Beaver Creek Saloon, Buffalo Bill's is under new ownership and the business is reestablishing itself in the community.

Under the present leadership of bar manager and KJ Lisa Holiday and her father, the new team is taking all the right steps to assure that Buffalo Bill’s regains the confidence and patronage of the Beaver Creek community. With changes and additions to both their restaurant menu and entertainment program, the bar is beginning to see a strong community response and successful re-emergence.

On the restaurant side of the house, they now offer a new assortment of house specials, along with extended dining hours. Some of them include new pizza entrees, Friday and Saturday night prime rib specials, a "Bloody Sunday prime rib breakfast with bloody mary," along with daily chef specials.

For the entertainment line-up, Karaoke is the main item with an extended schedule from Wednesday to Saturday nights. The old stage has been removed to make room for a larger dance floor area to accommodate future bands and line dancing.

On Sunday evenings, starting at 6 p.m., line-dancing is hosted by Michelle Dodge. The on-going remodel project accommodates new dancing and seating requirements. The idea is to create a honky-tonk, country-western music and dancing entertainment destination. The present layout includes a large centrally-located bar, a separate full-line sit-down restaurant, a pool-room area to the left of the bar and Karaoke and dancing room to the right. There is Keno, Oregon Lottery and continuous sports TV programming. The entire place is done in a backwoods/ranch motif. Karaoke starts early from 7 p.m. on weeknights and 8 p.m. on weekends. The Karaoke crowd is decidedly country-western, in a very relaxed and comfortable atmosphere.

Lisa Holiday describes the community's response to the new efforts at Buffalo Bill's; "It's been very big, a lot of people coming back, getting together with the community and having fun and great food. Everybody here gives us a lot of support to make this successful and a happening place. My dad, I have to give it to him for being so strong and making this work for my husband Brian and his vision. He works really hard to what he does everyday." (Holiday's husband Brian just passed away two weeks ago).

Holiday talks about Karaoke and assuming the role of KJ. As a lifelong musician, she was a natural choice to take on the roll of KJ and entertainer. "Our other KJ decided to move on. We started earlier and running until midnight. I have people every night. I have regulars who come in every night. I have a lot of good singers. It's good to see the response from people and we're hoping to see more and more of the community return and have good food, good music and good times!" (See ad for information.)