The Bobcat Nation

If you were going to open a restaurant outside of MT with local MT favorites, what would be on the menu?

CelticCat wrote:If you were going to open a restaurant outside of MT with local MT favorites, what would be on the menu?

I had a similar idea at one point ... and I had the same question in my head. Pasties and things like that from Butte seemed like low hanging fruit, along with bringing in Montana steaks and beers, but I think you will come up with a pretty good list of local favorites from this crew.

I thought the idea of opening a Montana-themed bar/restaurant in San Francisco would be really cool and might even have a chance to become a "thing" (people could become Montanans for an evening, etc.), but I never really took the idea very far.

CelticCat wrote:If you were going to open a restaurant outside of MT with local MT favorites, what would be on the menu?

There are not that many actual Montana foods. Presentation would be the focus, like with Outback and their Aussie theme. There is nothing uniquley Australian on the menu. You would need to decide what people think about when they think Montana and develop the theme aroud that.

Another approach might be to contact various "local institution" type restaurants around the state and ask them if they would share the recipes for their most uniquely local/Montana recipes, and then the new restaurant could feature that original restuarant's name on the dish and maybe have a picture of the place up on the wall as a way to advertise that place. It would be kind of cool for the local place and may also drive a bit of PR for it.

You'd want to have Rocky Mountain Oysters on the menu, of course.

I love the idea of somebody essentially creating a new food niche of "Montana" restaurant. It doesn't have to be 100% unique, of course, just as many different kinds of ethnic foods are just slight variations on other themes, but with the mystique of the state with people (especially in urban areas), I think that one could create a groups of foods that people may well start to identify as "Montana" foods.

Bay Area Cat wrote:

CelticCat wrote:If you were going to open a restaurant outside of MT with local MT favorites, what would be on the menu?

I had a similar idea at one point ... and I had the same question in my head. Pasties and things like that from Butte seemed like low hanging fruit, along with bringing in Montana steaks and beers, but I think you will come up with a pretty good list of local favorites from this crew.

I thought the idea of opening a Montana-themed bar/restaurant in San Francisco would be really cool and might even have a chance to become a "thing" (people could become Montanans for an evening, etc.), but I never really took the idea very far.

Yea, Pasties, Pork Chop Johns, and steaks (meat in general) were about all I came up with. There's a lot of mediocre Tex-Mex in Montana but that is neither unique nor very good.

Bison I suppose as well, as you could get bison in Montana well before it really became "mainstream". I remember getting bison burgers down at the reenactment of Custer's Last Stand down in Hardin when I was a kid.

And big hearty breakfasts, I struggle to find anywhere out here in Washington that compares with Montana breakfast joints.

It wouldn't necessarily be "Montana-only" kind of food, but you could certainly market it as such ... but you could cherry pick some of the best salads that people make in the state (potluck-type food) and add that to the menu. It would be similar to comfort food of the south, with the collared greens, mac and cheese, etc., except that it would be more of a Montana potluck food sort of thing. Also similar to Hawaiian luao (sp?) food, except from a Montana perspective.

You'd definitely need to be creative with it to re-brand a lot of food that's common to MT but also the whole region as "Montana" food, but I think it could be done. Of course, as Allcat noted, the decor of the place would be key. I was thinking chalkboards with the current snow levels at the major ski resorts, maybe a scoreboard with the latest big MT sporting event score, lots of dead animal heads from MT, and that sort of thing. And really friendly service, ideally imported from Montana. The branding could be a unique Montana-esque experience and then just sell the idea that the food is that of Montana as well.

Oasis finger steaks. A lot of other places have them, but they are frozen. Not fresh made to order.

CelticCat wrote:

Bay Area Cat wrote:

CelticCat wrote:If you were going to open a restaurant outside of MT with local MT favorites, what would be on the menu?

I had a similar idea at one point ... and I had the same question in my head. Pasties and things like that from Butte seemed like low hanging fruit, along with bringing in Montana steaks and beers, but I think you will come up with a pretty good list of local favorites from this crew.

I thought the idea of opening a Montana-themed bar/restaurant in San Francisco would be really cool and might even have a chance to become a "thing" (people could become Montanans for an evening, etc.), but I never really took the idea very far.

Yea, Pasties, Pork Chop Johns, and steaks (meat in general) were about all I came up with. There's a lot of mediocre Tex-Mex in Montana but that is neither unique nor very good.

Bison I suppose as well, as you could get bison in Montana well before it really became "mainstream". I remember getting bison burgers down at the reenactment of Custer's Last Stand down in Hardin when I was a kid.

And big hearty breakfasts, I struggle to find anywhere out here in Washington that compares with Montana breakfast joints.

I save hamburger and bacon drippings, of which copious amounts are used to cook a mountain of hash browns for dinner. That's gotta be Montanan.

Huckleberry desserts. The number 1 thing I miss food wise living away from Montana.

SaxCat wrote:Huckleberry desserts. The number 1 thing I miss food wise living away from Montana.

Ah yes, can't forget the huckleberries.

It depends a little bit on what direction you want to go with it, and where you're thinking about having it. You could go in the direction of true Montana, but that's only going to appeal to the people who are from Montana, which, in most cities, won't be enough to keep your doors open. It seems to me you might have to try to appeal to the people who have maybe visited Montana or would like to visit Montana. Those people tend not to like things like Pasties (or know what they are) or Pork Chop John's; they like the bison, beef, trout, and things they think are associated with Montana. Not that they're wrong, it's just that people's perception of Montana is different from what Montana actually is. If you want to know what outsiders think Montana is, come to the Flathead Valley. This place is full of people who want to make Montana into what they thought it was before they moved here. I'll end my rant so I don't de-rail this thread.

I suppose you could do a combination of the two trains of thought though. Truth is, you're going to make your money off those people who learned about Montana from Chamber of Commerce websites and a ski trip to Whitefish.

BAC had some awesome ideas though. I especially liked the idea of the menu items coming from places all over Montana.

The main problem I see with this concept is, like all the ideas coming from this thread, you could take off the Montana name and add Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, or even Texas and it would be the same. These things are not uniquely Montana, they are Western or Wild West ideas. I have no better ideas and I don't know if there is a uniquely Montana cuisine. Even with the presentation ideas most will not see that as Montana but as western. I think what is great about Montana is the sence of freedom and openness and I don't know how you could present that in a restaurant.

Pickle Barrels!!!

I bet many of us have thought about this one time or another. I've traveled extensively throughout Western US. Like most have stated, MT dishes are pretty similar to most other Western states.
Here are some fairly unique MT items.
Feel free to use/ignore my list.

Food:
Steak Sandwich (8-12 oz sirloin on bread)
Large Salad Bar w/ pickled herring...just to mess with people
Jo-Jo potatoes (Big cafeteria style ranch bottle on every table)
Broasted Chicken...I don't even know what broasted means...but our casinos/gas stations/grocery store deli's sure do
Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe (you have to use the word Deluxe)
Gems (MT had gems before Sonic had tots)

If you are thinking steakhouse, you must price like MT steakhouses.
Price includes soup/salad/bread/relish tray/steak/potatoe/veg/small sundae (creme demint over vanilla). Some steakhouses in Eastern MT also include a glass of house wine or tomato juice (classy).
Basque restaurants in NV/ID/CA are the onlyt thing that offers more food per order.

Drinks:
BV well whiskey
Whiskey Ditches (cold/summer, warm/winter)
red beer
Ceasars or Bloody Ceasars
MT micros
Blackberry Brandy

I asked for a red beer when I was in Boston and got blank stares. Then they asked me if I meant "Like Killians?" I told them what it was and they had never heard of that, didn't have Clamato or tomato juice and I didn't get my red beer.

Also have been asked if fry sauce is ketchup when I've asked for that...

WolfPtCat wrote:I bet many of us have thought about this one time or another. I've traveled extensively throughout Western US. Like most have stated, MT dishes are pretty similar to most other Western states.
Here are some fairly unique MT items.
Feel free to use/ignore my list.

Food:
Steak Sandwich (8-12 oz sirloin on bread)
Large Salad Bar w/ pickled herring...just to mess with people
Jo-Jo potatoes (Big cafeteria style ranch bottle on every table)
Broasted Chicken...I don't even know what broasted means...but our casinos/gas stations/grocery store deli's sure do
Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe (you have to use the word Deluxe)
Gems (MT had gems before Sonic had tots)

If you are thinking steakhouse, you must price like MT steakhouses.
Price includes soup/salad/bread/relish tray/steak/potatoe/veg/small sundae (creme demint over vanilla). Some steakhouses in Eastern MT also include a glass of house wine or tomato juice (classy).
Basque restaurants in NV/ID/CA are the onlyt thing that offers more food per order.

Drinks:
BV well whiskey
Whiskey Ditches (cold/summer, warm/winter)
red beer
Ceasars or Bloody Ceasars
MT micros
Blackberry Brandy

You don't travel much do you?

WolfPtCat wrote:I bet many of us have thought about this one time or another. I've traveled extensively throughout Western US. Like most have stated, MT dishes are pretty similar to most other Western states.
Here are some fairly unique MT items.
Feel free to use/ignore my list.

Food:
Steak Sandwich (8-12 oz sirloin on bread)
Large Salad Bar w/ pickled herring...just to mess with people
Jo-Jo potatoes (Big cafeteria style ranch bottle on every table)
Broasted Chicken...I don't even know what broasted means...but our casinos/gas stations/grocery store deli's sure do
Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe (you have to use the word Deluxe)
Gems (MT had gems before Sonic had tots)

If you are thinking steakhouse, you must price like MT steakhouses.
Price includes soup/salad/bread/relish tray/steak/potatoe/veg/small sundae (creme demint over vanilla). Some steakhouses in Eastern MT also include a glass of house wine or tomato juice (classy).
Basque restaurants in NV/ID/CA are the onlyt thing that offers more food per order.

Drinks:
BV well whiskey
Whiskey Ditches (cold/summer, warm/winter)
red beer
Ceasars or Bloody Ceasars
MT micros
Blackberry Brandy

The Star or Toki Ona in Elko, NV - It's crazy how much food you get with a dinner order. Basque is such good, old-world style food, though. Toki Ona makes the best steak sandwich in the WORLD - provided you like garlic...

CelticCat wrote:I asked for a red beer when I was in Boston and got blank stares. Then they asked me if I meant "Like Killians?" I told them what it was and they had never heard of that, didn't have Clamato or tomato juice and I didn't get my red beer.

Also have been asked if fry sauce is ketchup when I've asked for that...

East coasters think that yuengling is an amber.

Yeah, if you think using no hops at all constitutes an amber. I really cannot wait to move home for the simple fact that good beer is available pretty much everywhere.


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For me it would be:

MacKenzie River Pizza and Pickle Barrel

TIrwin24 wrote:For me it would be:

MacKenzie River Pizza and Pickle Barrel

I think macKenzie has changed, I don't care for it anymore.