Buffalo Bill's Wild West Family Restaurant
2808 South Minnesota Avenue
In early 1968 a rootin' tootin' Wild West themed restaurant opened on South Minnesota Avenue. It captured the imaginations of Sioux Falls diners for only a short time.
Architectural drawing of Buffalo Bill's. Note the enormous fiberglass statue of Buffalo Bill, which welcomed diners.
In the late ‘60s, the old west was still pretty popular in movies and TV. Gunsmoke had been on the tube since 1955, and was on the radio prior to that. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was popular in theaters, and plenty of other westerns played at the Hollywood and the Starlight on a regular basis. Around that time, a franchise opportunity became available for a Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Family Restaurant in Sioux Falls. Four other locations were reportedly doing well in California and Canada where the chain was born. The home office provided the blueprints, but those plans had to be modified for local climates and building codes. The modifications for the Sioux Falls' location was done by architect Ward Whitwam.
On January 22, 1968, Buffalo Bill’s opened for business at 2808 S. Minnesota Avenue. There was a grand opening celebration February 9-16. The building was designed to look like an old-west storefront, complete with a wooden sidewalk and a 27-foot-tall fiberglass statue of Buffalo Bill. Manager Richard Drummond promised a “real old-fashioned chuckwagon full of western fun… and the best vittles in all the Dakotas”, presumably just before shouting “wahooo!” and firing his sidearms into the air.
The statue, which stood facing Minnesota Avenue, was built in several pieces at the home office in California. It weighed 500 pounds and was hollow fiberglass with a web of structural steel within. - sort of like the Statue of Liberty, but much smaller and with a plastic shell rather than copper. The company teased that at some point that it could be lit from within and animated to tip its hat at you as you walked by. The statue was of similar construction as Mr. Bendo who, at the time, welcomed customers to Buck’s Muffler.
At the grand opening, visitors were invited to come by and look around even if they didn’t plan on having a meal. The walls were covered in pictures and old west memorabilia, some re-created, some genuine. There were distinct areas of the restaurant, designed by Hollywood set designers to make you feel like you were eating in a jail, a sheriff’s office, a Wells Fargo office (think old west, not a stodgy bank building), an assayer’s office, or even a stagecoach. The stagecoach was the focal point of the restaurant and was in the center of the dining area. It was said that customers would wait for hours, forgoing other tables to get a spot in the stagecoach. Children’s parties of eight young’uns or fewer could be scheduled for this attraction. Each child would be provided with Buffalo Bill’s Gold Poke Bags filled with luscious pebble-rock candy.
The Buffalo Bill menu was fashioned after the program available at Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows. They could be purchased as a souvenir for 35¢. This one was generously provided by Linda Morton. Click Here for the full menu.
Menu items included Son-of-a-gun Stew in either Dude’s Portion – just right for the kids, or for more hefty appetites, Buffalo Hunter’s Portion, served with coleslaw and Mountain Man Bread. Most items were named to reflect the restaurant’s theme. There were sandwiches named The Virginian, The Pathfinder, and The Tenderfoot. There was a list of salads named for Native Americans including Geronimo, and South Dakota's own Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull. The dessert menu included an item named for John Wesley Hardin, though it’s unclear how a “luscious double chocolate sundae” relates to a man who would shoot another just for snorin’.
After Giovanni’s Steak House burned down, John Giudice managed the restaurant from July 1969 to April of the next year, bringing some of his recipes and a conflicting Italian theme to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.
The western theme was an interesting distraction for a time, but ultimately the restaurant didn’t take off. By January of 1971 Buffalo Bill's closed and Mr. Jiggs' Villa Marie began remodeling the building in preparation to move from its downtown location at 110 E. 8th. Villa Marie would eventually dropped from the name. This location is currently the home of Poppadox Pub.
The fiberglass statue of Buffalo Bill was more recently a fixture standing alongside a big fiberglass buffalo at Cody’s Tavern and Grill. In October, 2006 the owners of Cody's Tavern could not come to an agreement to renew their lease at 5400 North Cliff. Everything was sold and auctioned off. After the dust settled, the fiberglass buffalo and the Bill Cody statue made their way to Aqua One at 706 North Western. Bill was on a trailer in back of the business, as you see him below. The buffalo still stands guard at the front of the business.
The western theme was an interesting distraction for a time, but ultimately the restaurant didn’t take off. By January of 1971 Buffalo Bill's closed and Mr. Jiggs' Villa Marie began remodeling the building in preparation to move from its downtown location at 110 E. 8th. Villa Marie would eventually dropped from the name. This location is currently the home of Poppadox Pub.
The fiberglass statue of Buffalo Bill was more recently a fixture standing alongside a big fiberglass buffalo at Cody’s Tavern and Grill. In October, 2006 the owners of Cody's Tavern could not come to an agreement to renew their lease at 5400 North Cliff. Everything was sold and auctioned off. After the dust settled, the fiberglass buffalo and the Bill Cody statue made their way to Aqua One at 706 North Western. Bill was on a trailer in back of the business, as you see him below. The buffalo still stands guard at the front of the business.
Buffalo Bill lies in repose behind Aqua One in 2017.
In 2021 I was informed that Bill was on the move from his former Aqua One home. After a freshening up, he headed to western South Dakota to look over the prairies in front of the Redwood Motel in Wasta, SD.
The Redwood Motel in Wasta, SD, west of Wall.