If
anyone has an old mounted deer head or fish on their wall that their
wives are itching to get rid of, Buck Clark says he’ll welcome
it.
He’s got a spot
for it on the wall at Buck’s Broken Antler, his bar and restaurant
in Waterloo. The bar and restaurant looks like a hunting lodge with
all the horns, heads and fish mounted on the walls. He wants it
to function like one too – a place for sportsmen to gather
after hunting or fishing trips.
“I just love it
when people come in here and have a couple beers and tell hunting
stories,” said Clark, a lifetime hunter and former Iowa Alcoholic
Beverages Division tobacco investigator. “That’s the
theme I had in mind. There are sports bars, but this is a sportsmen’s
bar.”
The name Buck’s
Broken Antler certainly lends itself to that theme. Striving for
a creative name, Clark stumbled across a set of antlers –
er, antler – he had taken from a deer he shot years ago. One
antler was a large four-pointer and the other had been broken off.
Buck’s “broken antler” is now mounted on a sign
that hangs in the center of the bar.
While the broken antler
sign provides a focal point in the bar for sportsmen to exchange
stories while drinking one of the 25 beers on tap, the restaurant
is what Clark calls his signature.
“It’s just
good food,” Clark said. “Nothing fancy.”
It may not be fancy,
but it is all homemade and the portions are huge. Clark’s
kitchen, which opens for breakfast at 6 a.m. daily (7 a.m. on Sundays),
makes its own hash browns and potato chips from hand cut potatoes.
Clark’s meat is bought locally, his hamburgers are hand patted,
and his pork tenderloins are hand tenderized and breaded.
“I’d say
all my food is my signature food,” Clarks said. “Everything
we do here is fresh and is done right here in the kitchen.”
Since Buck’s Broken Antler opened last April, the restaurant
has carried the majority of the business. Now Clark wants to concentrate
on the bar, but he wants to maintain the sportsmen’s atmosphere.
“This is not a
late night joint,” Clark said. “It’s not a young
person’s pool and dart type of place. At the same time, it’s
also very casual. Just regular folks.”
Earlier in the fall,
Buck’s Broken Antler sponsored a trapping league, and it will
sponsor a bass fishing tournament in the spring. Clark hopes such
events will establish his bar as the place to go for sportsmen.
Perhaps one of them will
have a mounted fish or deer head his wife is looking to get rid
of.
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