The new kitchen at the Silver Buckle Sports Bar is just phase one of major renovation and expansion of the Medicine Hat landmark establishment.--News Photo Anna Smith
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
The Silver Buckle Sports Bar is looking ahead to bigger things, as the first phase of an expansion and renovation nears completion.
Work has been actively in progress for about six months now, says owner Devon Potvin, though the story began following the change at Skinny’s Smokehouse into only a catering business.
“They were doing really well with catering, but the front of house was not doing as well. So the owner of the building sold it to a law firm, which started doing some renovations to the front of house, while Skinny’s continued to offer catering over the summer,” said Potvin, explaining that Skinny’s had made some commitments it wanted to honour over the summer.
Following the end of the renovations for the law firm on Sept. 1 however, Potvin seized the opportunity for a major upgrade for his own business.
With a 109-year-old building, Potvin says there are a lot of small upgrades that have been made at the Buckle over the years, but this is a major change that will significantly increase capacity and allow new and different food options to be offered. Renovations include an entirely new and significantly larger kitchen, with upgraded equipment.
While this does include a smoker, Potvin stresses he has no intent on becoming a “Skinny’s 2.0,” and he and the staff are pleased to be able to take on the catering business and preserve some of the smokehouse’s legacy.
“The Buckle is still the Buckle,” said Potvin. “The entire vision that we have is chef-driven pub fare. We’re not going to try to be fine dining. We’re not doing linens, and we’re not going to be a smokehouse non-stop.”
The new executive chef on board is “incredible,” said Potvin, and he believes the upgrades will only broaden the establishment’s already broad offerings.
“The Buckle already is very multidimensional,” said Potvin. “We’ve got casual offerings, we’ve got group functions, we’ve got late-night crowds, we’ve got private function rooms, we’ve got sports, we’ve got games – we’ve got so many different things that appeal to so many people. So I think by elevating our food offerings, it’s going to open it up to even more people.”
The first stage of the project, to create the new kitchen, is almost complete, with a second stage to convert the current kitchen area is to begin once the new space is operational. New bathrooms have already been created, and it’s expected the kitchen will be operational within the coming weeks.
“We’re just, we’re really excited to be able to improve our facility, improve our menu and offerings, improve the off-site offerings we can do and excited to be able to do different things. You know, at the Buckle, we’re always active with trying new things and trying to think outside the box. And so hopefully this gives us a lot more flexibility and freedom to experiment with food a lot more,” said Potvin.
