Come taste a delectable meal at The Buckingham. Come sit at the bar with a cocktail. They are open nightly all week. You can get there by car. The neighboring location is notable for its merchants and coffee shops.
It can be difficult to find your niche when opening a bar on Whyte Avenue because there are so many nightlife choices for bar-goers. The Buckingham has done it by being inclusive, eclectic and a little bit silly. “On a street like Whyte, you’re in such close proximity to other bars. There is a bit of a cannibalistic atmosphere,” says Ben Sir, one of the bar’s owners. “People are focused on what everyone else is doing but, for us, we just put our head down and do what we do. I just want to focus on making sure when people come here they’re having fun and they see we don’t take ourselves particularly seriously.”
That lack of pretension has been the key to their success. When coming up with an identity for The Buckingham, known as The Buck to the regulars, the owners used their own personality as the business model. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re just a bunch of jackasses that somebody thought it wise to let run a bar and we found out we had a knack for it,” says Ben. “The biggest thing is we’re nice. I don’t care what you’re into, but if you’re a nice person, we want to get to know you and we want you to have fun here.”
