When he’s not in the kitchen, Chris DiMaio, the executive chef of Three Forks Grille in Columbia Falls, Montana, is often out on the trail foraging for wild food: morels, boletes, chanterelles. When the mushrooms fade, he then looks for arnica, elderberry, and fiddlehead ferns....
There is an ongoing debate at Quinn’s Hot Springs. The question is whether to soak in the natural geothermal pool before or after dinner at the resort’s restaurant, the Harwood House. Such was the line of conversation amongst guests as I sat (post-meal) upon the steamy...
AT LONE MOUNTAIN RANCH IN BIG SKY, MONTANA, A RESTAURANT SERVES HISTORY ON EVERY PLATE TRUE CONFESSION: I'M A SUCKER FOR DUDE RANCHES. Maybe it stems from the first experience I had back at the Flagg Ranch in Wyoming when I was a kid. Cowboys with chaps...
Sometimes a restaurant is more than a restaurant. So it is at Wild Flower Kitchen in Absarokee, Montana, where two chefs and a charismatic maître d’ chose to build not just a business, but also a community. [caption id="attachment_14293" align="alignright" width="300"] Chef Nick Goldman works the...
It was spring in the early 1990s when I first stumbled into the Old Saloon with friends. We were making our way back through Paradise Valley to Bozeman, Montana, after a morning spent soaking in the Boiling River. I’d just turned 21, and I bellied...
A Bozeman steakhouse prioritizes great food and a classic atmosphere If there is one slogan that best describes the cuisine at Open Range in Bozeman, Montana, it’s: Keep it simple. [caption id="attachment_13389" align="aligncenter" width="709"] The kitchen cooks each steak to order on a high-heat, cast iron plancha...
At this landmark spa and resort, historic doesn’t mean stagnant I’d imagine that few Big Sky Journal readers need an introduction to Chico Hot Springs, the historic property tucked into a seam of Paradise Valley in Montana, and situated near the base of Emigrant Peak. It’s likely...
If Marci Andersen was the bragging type, she might tell you that her restaurant serves the best steak in Montana. But she’s humble and smart; bragging is not her style. Though more than one customer at Wassweiler Dinner House and Pub have told her as...
Robin Chopus is a pioneer of Bozeman’s farm-to-table movement. When she opened The Emerson Grill in 2005, the popularity of using fresh, seasonal ingredients from local farms and ranches was burgeoning across the nation, and Chopus saw the opportunity to create that niche in the...
When chef Marcos Mustain talks about his signature braised lamb shank dish, he’s not just referring to dinner. He talks about the curry stand in Bangkok that he and his wife, Sari, discovered while on vacation in Thailand. He talks about the local Montana ranch...