Meet The Owner – White Buffalo Saloon

Editor’s note: MyEverettNews.com is working to introduce our readers to more independent business owners here in Everett, Washington. We want to highlight their businesses, tell their stories and invite you to shop locally and help move Everett forward. If you know of a business we should feature, send us a suggestion via email: news@myeverettnews.com. Leland Dart – Publisher
 

For many, the best pizza in Everett, Washington doesn’t come from a pizzeria but a saloon, the White Buffalo Saloon to be exact. Earlier this week I stopped in to speak with Ian Hunt one of the owners of the White Buffalo Saloon which opened in 1996.

“My business partner, Brian Rebeschini and I painted houses for two years in order to buy a bar,” Ian told me. “We met in college, became friends and shared a vision of owning a bar together.”

After a quarter of a century that vision has extended to owning three bars. The White Buffalo Saloon on Evergreen Way, Twin Foxes on Hewitt in Everett and the Town Pump in Mount Vernon.

The name White Buffalo Saloon was partially inspired by the White Bear, a pub in London. Ian’s parents are British and he says the White Bear is the first place he ever drank a beer. At the time they were considering the name, a white buffalo was born in Wisconsin and that was considered a sign of good luck so White Buffalo became the name.

The big buffalo on the roof actually came a few years after the bar opened. A customer’s mother who collected all things buffalo and lived in the neighborhood behind the bar had her son bring it up from Oregon (it was actually brown) and was in her yard for a number of years. After she passed away, Ian and Brian bought the life-sized buffalo and painted it white.

They first put it in front of the saloon chained to a big barrel but too many folks wanted to take a piece of it or the whole thing, so they moved it to the roof. By the way, it doesn’t have a name.

From the outside it looks like a dive bar, but step inside and it is clean, bright and a lot bigger than it looks. You’ll find multiple pool tables, a couple of dart boards, Golden tee golf, lots of seating, TV screens throughout showing all kinds of sports and a former storage room that contains nearly a dozen classic pinball machines.

Behind the bar you’ll finds a good selection of micro-brews along with pull tabs. White Buffalo also offers mixed drinks soft drinks and did we mention they had pizza?

“Necessity is the mother of all invention,” Ian told me. “When we went to open, the cost for a hood system was prohibitive so we installed a pizza oven.” That turned out to be a very good decision. “It was a fun process to come up with the various combinations and one thing we learned painting houses that applies to pizza, its like making good paint, it comes down to using good ingredients.”

The pizzas are made fresh and packed with toppings. You can get them to go or enjoy them onsite. They also have salads and sandwiches. Click here to see the menu.

The White Buffalo Saloon is located in central Everett at 5616 Evergreen Way in Everett, Washington. The phone number is (425) 348-5446 and you can learn more about them here on their website. They’re open Monday – Saturday 10:00 AM – 2:00AM and Sundays 10:00 AM – Midnight.