The Lone Buffalo is located at 812 LaSalle St, Ottawa Il 61350. Their hours of operation are Sun-Thurs: 11am to 9pm, and Fri/Sat: 11am to 10pm. Find out more on their Facebook page, or their official website.

We are just about halfway through the first of Ottawa’s Restaurant Weeks (read event description here), a two-week celebration of community and creative cuisine! As part of our series of bite-sized interviews, we recently spoke with The Lone Buffalo’s GM Corinna Ritchie and Anna Wright. They gave us some insight into their exciting Restaurant Weeks menu options!

First, Corinna and Anna explained some of the history behind the Lone Buffalo. This local favorite has been in Ottawa for a decade now, with its 10th anniversary celebration coming up soon.

“We passed the 10-year mark, but we’re having our party in spring, March 21st,” Corinna said.  

“So our owners, Peter and Inga, decided to put this restaurant here in downtown Ottawa. They grew careers here. So, lots of growth inside the core walls,” she explained. “We wanted to make good quality beer, have some craft cocktails, and delicious food.”

“One thing that Peter and Inga felt that was really important, they wanted to see something in their community, because they both live in Ottawa, and they really wanted to see Ottawa grow. And I think that this has been a big contributor to the downtown.  The restaurant industry has really grown a lot in the last 10 to 12 years. I think B.A.S.H. really started it, and then this restaurant, and since then, so many have grown, and I think it’s fantastic.” Corinna said 

“Yes, yeah, agreed,” Anna replied.

If you haven’t seen what the Lone Buffalo’s cooking up for Restaurant Week just yet, now’s your chance! We got to learn about these special items. You’ll get to choose from a variety of options for their Dinner Course.

Your first options are for starters. You can choose either a bowl of Tomato Bisque (creamy tomato bisque, Parmesan croutons, and basil), or the House Salad (mixed greens with onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers, tossed in a lemon vinaigrette.

Corinna explained the choice of entrees, desserts, and more.

“We’re gonna do our steak schnitzel, which is new to our menu, served with mashed potatoes and a mushroom gravy sauce,” she said. “We’re also doing our wagyu patty melts. Our Wagyu Burger has been very well received.” 

“We use our LaSalle Lager on our pork chops, as our brine. Which is something we don’t have on our menu, but we’re putting it on here special for this week.” 

“We have an entree course, a dessert course, and then we also have the option to add a beer flight to that. Fifteen percent of sales from that beer flight are going to the Community Food Basket of Ottawa,” Corinna said. 

Full Restaurant Week Menu:

With so many great choices, we just had to ask Corinna and Anna what their favorites on the menu are. Perhaps they’ll inspire your next order!

“I will say, I love the chicken and broccoli pasta, I do it without chicken,” Corinna said. “And I just love the veggies inside of the nice cheese sauce. It is good.” 

“I mean, for me, I will say the cookie skillet, I love it, but I am really excited to have the Schnitzel on this. As Corinna said, it is something new, that we just started on our full menu,” Anna explained, “A whole schnitzel category because we did one schnitzel, it was so popular. So now we have a variety for our guests to choose from.” 

While on the subject of “favorites,” we decided to finish things off by asking Anna and Corinna what their favorite part about the restaurant scene in Ottawa is.

“I love talking to the guests like the community part of it and, we get to make cause beers for different charities and different things,” Corinna explained. “But just speaking to guests that come to visit Ottawa or our locals is my favorite part. Being in the hospitality industry is just making sure everybody has a good time while they’re here.” 

It’s clear that a strength of Ottawa is the tight-knit community we foster together. It’s even more fulfilling when you can share that feeling with others! Anna expressed a similar sentiment.

“I feel like we’re all in it together. There’s definitely just a partnership that we get from working together, and especially with something like Restaurant Weeks,” Anna said. “It really gives us the opportunity to play off one another, to bring people to Ottawa. Which is all of our goals, to drive tourism and just keep people here.” 

Many thanks to Anna and Corinna! Make sure to check back in for more bite-sized interviews for Restaurant Weeks!