‘RIP Buffalo’: Hotel and Club Café bid adieu to downtown Red Deer

The Buffalo, or where the Buffalo was, is pictured here on Monday, October 2, 2023. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

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For those who’ve been in Red Deer for a long time, and perhaps walked, driven, biked or ridden a train past them too many times to count, there now is only a gaping void at the corner of Ross Street and 51 Avenue, like a hole in what has evidently always been the heart of the city.

The Club Café was opened in 1929 by George Moon, a hard-working man who’d arrived from China in 1902. It’s said Moon was a jack of all trades at the Café, even sleeping in the kitchen some nights. At its peak, the restaurant served 600 full course meals daily.

The Buffalo, originally the Alberta Hotel when its original structure was constructed in 1892, had a three-storey brick addition installed on the east side after the property was purchased by George Beatty in 1903. In 1939, the 1892 portion was demolished, and the current modern three-storey hotel was built.

The 1903 and 1939 additions stood until October 1, 2023. It had been renamed the Buffalo Hotel after the Calgary Brewing and Malting Company purchased it in 1920; the company’s logo was that of a buffalo.

An undated menu from the Club Cafe; a bowl of ox tail soup went for just a quarter, while a sirloin steak would set you back a whopping 60 cents. If you wanted the porter, you needed one entire dollar. (Red Deer & District Archives, K59)

For Elaine and Gordon MacKenzie, who are in their 80s now, the Club Café meant a lot because it was where they first met.

“He was a hockey player, and I’d said I would never marry a hockey player because that was who my dad employed. I also said I’d never go on a blind date, but my girlfriend had begged me. So never say never because that place has given me a great man, and three kids later, the rest is history,” shares Elaine, whose parents owned a chicken hatchery just blocks from the Buffalo.

A billboard for the Club Café. (Red Deer & District Archives, P1281)

For Gordon, the Buffalo was a home away from home.

“Bill, my dad, worked at the Buffalo when it was still operated by Calgary Brewing. My Aunt Eileen worked upstairs in the rooms, and my mom worked there too. My son was basically raised there, going to work with grandma sometimes,” he says.

“The Buffalo was home to a lot of the CP Rail boys when the railyards were still here, where Superstore is now. There was a lot of swale (beer) drank in there.”

Elaine, who at the, “probably too young,” age of 11 was a popcorn girl at the former Crescent Bowling Alley and Capitol Theatre, continues: “Junior hockey was quite a big thing in Red Deer. The teams would go either to the Peacock Inn, across from the Club Café, or they’d come to the Club Café. Most went to the Club Café.”

The Buffalo Hotel and Club Café, pictured here in early 2023. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

The Club Cafe, demolished this past weekend, before the Buffalo was also brought down. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

“And they had a parrot. You’d come in the door to the café and he’d be to your left,” says Gordon. “Patrons would come in and eventually they got the parrot to start swearing. So eventually they had it removed.”

He wouldn’t confirm or deny if the hockey players had anything to do with it.

“I remember the barber shop had to send a crew around every once in a while to clean up where the Buffalo head was hanging in the bar,” says Gordon, also applauding the Chinese food.

The old buffalo head from inside the Buffalo Hotel now rests at the Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery. The museum also has its hands on several other pieces from the two venues. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

“I grew up here,” says Elaine, who notes she actually worked at all three old theatres plus the drive-in. “I really like Red Deer and it’s been good to us. But times change and…,”

Like any loving couple finishes each other’s sentences, a la the Buffalo and Club Café reaching their final day.

“…that’s progress,” says Gordon.

In 2009, the Buffalo was purchased by Potters Hands Ministries, and was used as low-income housing until a couple years ago when The City bought it.

The City announced late last year a three-phase redevelopment plan for the site of the Buffalo and Club Café. Demolition was phase one.

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In the short-term, says Wade Martens, City of Red Deer, Land Coordinator, the municipality will look at ways it can activate the space for residents to come down and engage with it, but that won’t likely happen until the spring.

Long-term, the market will dictate what the lot may sell for, and then redevelopment can occur, he adds.

“At this point, it’s hard to say what will become of the lot because we haven’t started that step of the process,” says Martens. “We heard from city council that they don’t want to see it as just another parking lot for now, which is why we’re doing this activation exercise. We want to make sure that there’ll be good activity there.”

Clean-up from demolition may take two to three weeks.

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

‘RIP Buffalo’: Hotel and Club Café bid adieu to downtown Red Deer

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