Robin Garr's LOUISVILLE Restaurant Reviews

75	Buffalo Crossing 1140 Bagdad Road Shelbyville, Ky. (502) 647-0377 Toll-free: (877) 700-0047

E-mail: buffalocrossing1@aol.com
Website: http://buffalocrossing.com/

Summer's here, the corn is tall and the lure of the country calls: It's time for a road trip!

And if you like to enhance your travel experience with a culinary adventure, you might want to consider a drive out to Buffalo Crossing. This agricultural amusement park - somewhat reminiscent of the Huber farm attractions on the other side of town - features a 500-head buffalo herd and an oversize dining room where you can give this purportedly healthy red meat a try.

Bison graze at Buffalo Crossing. (Photo from http://buffalocrossing.com/)

Buffalo Crossing sprawls across 1,000 acres of rolling farmland in eastern Shelby County, near the village of Bagdad northeast of Shelbyville, about 25 miles from Louisville a short jump off I-64. The built-up portion consists of acres of parking lots surrounding log and rustic wood buildings, a lake, a petting zoo, a flea market, private catering halls and motorized trams waiting to cart you around to see it all.

They could really use a "You are here" map at the entrance. We drove in, parked in the first open place we found, then had to wander around a bit, peeking in doors, before we finally found our way through a humongous gift shop to an inner entrance to the rather cavernous two-room dining area.

The atmosphere is kitschy country-style, with tall raw-wood walls loaded with antique farm impliments, olde-tyme advertising signs, animal heads, a bear skin, even a whole stuffed bear, plus rifles, more farm implements, and a couple of television sets here and there.

Dining tables are covered in green oilcloth that's a bit the worse for wear, furnished with rather attractive modern dining chairs with chrome frames, padded seats and backs. Tables are set with paper napkins and simple flatware, paper towel rolls on stands, ketchup and ballpark mustard and packets of sugar and two brands of sweetener.

Nothing was said about smoking or non-smoking, but to our pleasant surprise in this exurban environment, none of our neighbors indulged during a crowded weekend midday session, and there were no ash trays on the tables.

The food here is country-style and so are the friendly, reasonably attentive servers, who wear black t-shirts with the simple motto "Eat more buffalo." The menu goes on to tout the joy of the humble bison, noting that "buffalo is a delicate, tender sweet meat, very low in fat, high in iron and nutrition, similar to turkey breast in fat content and compable to beef in flavor. ... We feature buffalo in many dishes including those where beef has traditionally been used. ... Relax and indulge."

We took a look at the $12.95 all-you-can-eat buffet, which offered buffalo meat loaf, chicken wings and something that appeared to be pulled buffalo barbecue, plus mashed potatoes, green beans and other traditional vegetable dishes, and a sizable salad bar, but passed on that as well as the buffalo steak of the day, which was a rather spendy $18.95 for a 10-ounce New York strip steak.

Lunch entrees range from $3.99 (for a hot ham-and-cheese sandwich) to $7.29 (for the Chief Joe Burger, a half-pound double buffalo burger with cheese). This confection, by the way, is named after the farm's Chief Joseph, a world champion bison purchased at the National Western Stock Show in Denver for a record $101,000, who is not about to turn up in a burger.

A short list of main dinner courses are $6.99 (for buffalo meat loaf) to $9.49 (for sliced roast buffalo with gravy. Lunch and dinner entrees come with choice of two side dishes, although that apparently does not apply to the burgers, for which an unmentioned $2 surcharge was added to the tab for sides.

Meals begin with a wax-paper-lined wicker basket full of country-style fried biscuits: Snowy white, fluffy biscuits are deep-fried to crisp, dark-golden exterior. They're not exactly grease-free ... in fact, they're cloaked with just enough cooking fat that I felt no need to add Land O Lakes blend from little tubs ... but I found them quite addictive just the same.

The roast "buff" dinner ($9.49) turned out to be finely shredded buffalo meat, not sliced, perhaps a necessity as the braising cuts of this extremely lean meat are typically more flavorful than tender. It was piled on a thick slice of white bread and covered with a thick, glistening brown sauce that may very well have come from a can or packet. It's down-home food for sure, and reminded me of childhood roast beef dinners at the Woolworth's lunch counter. The buffalo meat wasn't all that different from roast beef, but a hint of gaminess reminded us somewhat of the strong, dark flavor of beef liver.

A Cherokee cheeseburger ($5.29) was a good one, a thick, juicy single patty dressed with good leaf lettuce, a decent slice of tomato and raw red onion on a large grocery-store burger bun. They didn't ask how my wife wanted it cooked, but it came out just about right, medium pink in the center but not overdone.

Green beans were straightforward country style, flat beans cut in short bits, ever-so-long-cooked to translucent tenderness with a bit of salty ham hock or bacon for flavor. A side dish of the day, broccoli casserole, consisted of finely chopped, long-cooked broccoli baked in a casserole that might have included a little canned mushroom soup, a little Velveeta, and a crunchy Ritz-cracker topping. Mashed potatoes were creamy and smooth, passable if not particularly awe-inspiring.

If you go From Louisville, take I-64 east to Exit 35 (Shelbyville), about 20 miles east of Hurstbourne Lane. Turn left at the end of the exit ramp and follow KY 53 north, across the intersection with U.S. 60, to the blinking caution light at KY 43. Turn right, and follow KY 43 for about 6 miles, where KY 43 forks to the left; continue straight at the fork on what is now KY 12 for two more miles, and you'll see Buffalo Crossing clearly marked on the left, just before a railroad crossing.

This is retro cuisine, 1950s-era comfort food and in no way "gourmet," but it's well-made for what it is. I have to confess that for all my connoisseurish pretensions, I put it away at a pretty good rate, filling up on a large midday meal, the kind of thing that country folks would call "dinner" if they were planning a light "supper" later in the day.

With strong iced tea and a Coke (no alcohol is served), a hearty Sunday lunch for two came to a reasonable $20.52 plus $4 tip.$$

(June 2003)