A crown for Wyoming

When one thinks of "The West" and particularly Wyoming, a number of images come to mind. Bucking broncos, hard working cowboys, majestic mountain ranges and clear blue skies. The most iconic of all these images, however, is the buffalo.

If the lion is the "King of the Jungle", then the buffalo was the "King of the Prairie". Larger than life, with a massive head and impressive horns, one could easily sense an air of royalty. There is only one place, however, where one can find a Crowned Buffalo. 115 West Bridge Avenue in Saratoga.

The newest storefront in Saratoga, the Crowned Buffalo is a joint venture, the brainchild of Brooke Sietz and Kassey Westring. The co-owners of the new store each established their own brands before entering into this new venture. Brooke is the owner of BareFoot Brook while Kassey is the owner of Westrings.

BareFoot Brook, now entering its third year of business, grows and delivers flowers throughout the Valley. Westrings, meanwhile, began in 2017 and has services ranging from laser etching to embroidery to screen printing. Both Brooke and Kassey had previously shown their wares in retail spaces in town, but eventually wanted to have their own retail space.

"I've always felt like the natural progression was to open up a retail store and it was something that Brook had approached me about and it was something that we decided to jump in and try together," said Kassey. "It was a decision that was made pretty quickly."

"We have always considered a store front," Brooke said, "but not for at least eight years from now when my kids are all in school."

When the previous businesses at 115 West Bridge, The Flower Pot, closed its doors Brooke saw an opportunity.

"We have the same aesthetic and we like the same products, so it was just something where it was just kind of an idea thrown out there of 'Let's go look at this space. Let's see where it goes' and we made a decision pretty quickly that we wanted to give it a shot," Kassey said.

The space which now houses the Crowned Buffalo has been home to many other businesses other than the Flower Pot, including Strongtower Designs and The Outhouse. Each business was able to modify the space as needed and the Crowned Buffalo is no different. Despite the small size of the store front, it feels bigger on the inside.

"It was a very intentional plan of keeping it open and very clean," said Kassey.

Though the Crowned Buffalo is a joint venture between Brooke and Kassey, the store is not composed of just products from BareFoot Brook and Westrings.

"From the BareFoot Brook side, we offer handmade jewelry that I make that's always evolving, paper goods such as journals, notecards and magnets with photos taken by Rebecca Romios," said Brooke. In addition to Westrings items that can also be customized, Kassey does a great job of ordering items that we love and hope others will love, too. We hope it will provide some quality options for gifts for locals and tourists."

At the moment, a majority of the products at the Crowned Buffalo are made in Wyoming. According to Kassey, while most of the products currently in stock are Wyoming made, it doesn't mean the store won't bring in items from other places.

"Not all of our products are from Wyoming but if there's a really great product available we want to definitely explore that option," Kassey said.

While both flowers and retail products will be available at the store for people to choose from at their own convenience, Brooke said the Crowned Buffalo will add onto the successful floral business already established with BareFoot Brook by eventually offering custom ordered gift boxes which will combine flowers with retail items from the shop.

"We hope people will trust our taste when putting them together," Brooke said.

One of the biggest questions people may be wondering, however, is why the name "Crowned Buffalo".

"Brook and I really wanted a name that tied us to Wyoming. We both love being in Wyoming and we offer a lot of Wyoming products and felt like Wyoming needed a crown," said Kassey. "We just thought it was really cute, it was a name, as soon as I threw it out there, Brooke was like 'I can picture that' and it was just such an easy choice after that name came to light."

The Crowned Buffalo is closed on Sunday and Monday and is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Wednesday.