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...
Eating at the Gallatin River Lodge and Grill is a lot like reconnecting with a long-lost friend. The kind of friend you have always loved but lost touch with over the years. The kind of relationship that is rooted in a foundation of nostalgia but...
The Billings Petroleum Club is more than a restaurant: It’s an institution founded on the shoulders of the private social clubs that existed in the late 1800s, places where business meetings and networking opportunities transpired in an atmosphere of curated sophistication. [caption id="attachment_6128" align="alignright" width="212"] Established...
Whenever I step across the tile-floored threshold of PLONK, I’m struck by the craving for a cocktail. It’s the rattle-slush rhythm of ice in a shaker that greets me as readily as the wave from a mixologist standing behind the crescent-shaped bar. It’s the high...
If Great Falls, Montana, had a ghost, it would be one of the city’s founders, Robert Vaughn. And if he roamed the floors today of the building that he envisioned in 1890, he would approve of the crisply painted and meticulously restored rooms of the...