28 May Dining Out: Holding Space

Kat Porco is reminiscent. She describes a warm June evening, the first summer after she and her husband, Mike, opened One Legged Magpie, an upscale restaurant and bar in downtown Red Lodge, Montana. Upstairs, a group of women were rehearsing for the town’s first drag show. Downstairs, Red Lodge old-timers in dusty boots and well-worn hats sat at the bar. “I had the instinct to run between the two groups, warning them both of the other, preparing each for the collision I was sure was coming,” she says. It was old Montana versus new. “Instead, I did nothing. I just watched.”

The women came down the stairs and sat at the other end of the bar. The men glanced over. The sureness in Kat’s voice gives away the story’s ending.

“Nothing. No comments. No conflict. No one left. They just shared the room,” she recalls. “That night, I realized something important about this place we were trying to build. It wasn’t about choosing which Montana we were. It was about holding the space between them. And somehow, that space became home to everyone.”

At One Legged Magpie, a 2026 James Beard Award-nominated restaurant, belonging is even more central to the culture of the place than the faithfully restored building, the carefully crafted and locally sourced menu, the 30-page selection of exquisite beverages — including tasty zero-proof options — and the deep-blue velvet chairs awaiting diners. While every detail is thoughtfully considered and expertly executed, the feeling of the place adds up to more than the sum of its parts. And Kat and Mike Porco are the reasons.

The restaurant and bar has a very sophisticated and utterly comfortable vibe. Sumptuous blue velvet chairs complement vibrantly colored works by Billings multimedia artist Marie Taylor, which hang against the exposed brick.

Longtime Montanans — Kat grew up in Great Falls — the Porcos moved from Bozeman to Red Lodge 14 years ago with their young children, the oldest of whom was born with cystic fibrosis (CF). The couple started a nonprofit to support those living with CF, and both worked with patients before and after lung transplants — Kat as a diabetes specialist and Mike in pulmonary rehab. It was what Kat calls their “passion work.”

Proprietors Kat and Mike Porco stumbled on the name for their restaurant one day in Red Lodge’s Pride Park, when they spotted a “scrappy magpie hopping along on just one leg. Imperfect, determined, unforgettable.”

When a new drug emerged six years ago that enabled 92 percent of the population with CF to live full, healthy lives, Kat says they got their wish: “We were no longer necessary. We had built a nonprofit to serve thousands of people worldwide, and the majority of them were able to start planning for their retirement and do all the things that we hoped for them.” This left the Porcos with more than a course correction; they had to completely change the path they were on.

“We had gotten really good at creating community,” Kat says. The couple had spent more than 50 weeks in the Billings hospital with their own child, not to mention the work they did with other patients. “While we had zero hospitality experience, we knew how to enjoy hospitality and what made us feel like we were an extension of a space,” she says, citing Billings’ Harper & Madison café and bakery as their oasis away from the hospital. “Joanie just kind of swooped us up into this grace,” she says of Harper & Madison owner Joanie Swords. Mike and Kat knew they wanted to create for others a space “that embodied the idea of hospitality first.”

In September 2021, the Porcos saw their chance and leaped. The couple bought the old Bull ‘n Bear Saloon, Casino, Restaurant, & Ballroom, an age-old establishment in a historic but run-down building. Together, they imagined the building in its original glory and, together, they got to work. Achieving the nearly impossible in barely six weeks, they peeled away layer after layer of the building, right down to the exposed brick walls and the original pressed-tin ceiling. In 14- to 16-hour days, they chipped away plaster, tore down two dropped ceilings, and covered the red bar and yellow walls with a deep, stormy gray. “Mike’s New York roots shine through his sense of urban design, and I bring my moody love of speakeasy vibes,” Kat says of the restaurant’s elegant and entirely comfortable ambiance.

The restoration continued this May, when the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant offered through the National Park Service enabled the Porcos to uncover the building’s original double-door entry dating to the turn of the 20th century, during Red Lodge’s mining heyday.

As for the food and beverage offerings — which Kat sees as the way they care for people now — the Porcos initially envisioned a “super cool, eclectic tapas bar,” with cocktails and a significant number of tap handles. But, true to their nature, the couple has continued to evolve their vision toward what the community wants. “We very quickly learned that our vision of what people [want] is different than what the community needs,” she says. To that end, One Legged Magpie serves moderately priced small plates — including poached pear salad, charred burrata, pork belly, and fried Brussels sprouts ranging from $10 to $17 — and entrées, including local Wagyu New York strip with cherry demi-glace and bacon snow, Montana pork chops with blueberry-balsamic sauce, and duck breast with sage butter and cherry-orange purée in the $23 to $48 range. They also have a fine selection of pizzas.

Located in a historic building on Red Lodge’s main drag, One Legged Magpie was remodeled from what had been a longtime bar and casino. The newest renovation this spring opened the entire front of the building, a return to the structure’s original massive windows and entryway.

Chef Chase Cardoza, a native of nearby Fox, Montana and a competitor on Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen in 2025, specializes in elevated comfort food with Montana roots. He was trained in Michelin-starred restaurants around the country and jumped at the chance to return to Red Lodge last year to take the helm at One Legged Magpie.

Kat gushes over Cardoza’s talent and inventiveness in the kitchen and his kind-heartedness and reliability. “Partnering with Chase has been really wonderful. … He is someone who didn’t just come here to be a part of something, but because he wanted to be a part of the community and be connected to the people, which is obviously the most important part of our restaurant. … We feel really lucky,” she says, adding that most of the Magpie team have been with the restaurant for at least a year.

Chef Chase Cardoza grew up near Red Lodge and joined One Legged Magpie after cheffing at Michelin-starred restaurants around the United States and appearing on season 24 of Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen.

Aside from taking care of people with food and drink, the Porcos make Magpie available to the community in all sorts of interesting ways. They’ve hosted avalanche awareness lectures and book clubs. They offer live music, sometimes making use of the gorgeous 1920s grand piano that occupies the dining room, and have plenty of space upstairs for private events. This spring, Kat introduced The Listening Table to patrons, with five-course, family-style meals for a table of up to 12 people. The idea is to nurture connection. Kat, who has a degree in social work, can’t help but create those opportunities for others. “Everything I’ve done in my life has been shaped around creating spaces where people can arrive exactly as they are,” she wrote in an introduction to the idea of The Listening Table. All three spring offerings sold out.

Offerings from the scratch kitchen rotate with the seasons, but the roasted Montana pork chop with polenta, cilantro, apple and fennel slaw, and blueberry-balsamic sauce is a ready favorite.

True to their hospitality-first ethos, Kat delights when locals come in at 4 p.m. and stay until closing. Or when tourists come in “dirty and hungry” from their Red Lodge adventure of the day. “I don’t want people to feel like they have dollar signs on their foreheads,” she says. “Our goal is to create a space that feels like community to all people.” So far, the lack of empty tables and number of return guests suggest the team at Magpie is doing a lot of things right.

But in this time of rapid change around the state, how do they protect themselves from becoming something else, something not so true? How do they remain a place that people will drive hours to for a meal, or come back to several times in the same week? They’ll just keep doing what they’re doing, Kat says. “I think so long as we have conviction, we can’t get lost in the becoming,” she says. “What we are doing right now is what we are here to do.”

Chef Chase Cardoza’s Smoked Scallop Ceviche

Written by Carter Walker

We were the last reservation on the books the night we went to One Legged Magpie, and on top of that we’d called to say we were running late. I could imagine the glares that awaited us. But Mike Porco assured us over the phone that we didn’t need to rush, that the delay was no problem, that our table was waiting. When we got there, he seated us near the bar and was gracious, soft-spoken, and funny as he answered our endless questions about the stunning interiors. He delivered an amuse-bouche as if just to delight us.

We ordered more than two people should ever order, plus a Moscow Mule my partner assures me was the best he’d ever had, and a few different glasses of wine the server recommended given our order. At some point, and for some time, we were the only diners left. And nothing changed. In fact, when we lamented how full we were from dinner — but of course we would have to sample some desserts — the server offered to delay putting in the order so we could digest. I know very few people who could make me feel so welcome in their home. It was that kind of evening.

Among our favorites of the dishes we ordered was the smoked scallop ceviche. Leave it to One Legged Magpie to bring together the smoke of Montana ponderosa pine with the briny goodness of scallops, uniting them with the bright flavors (and colors!) of mango, red bell pepper, avocado, and lime. Simple and sublime.

Serves 2

100 grams scallops
1–2 limes
½ red bell pepper
½ small avocado
½ fresh mango
1 jalapeño
¼ red onion
½ cup cilantro
7 grams salt
Garnish: Leche de Tigre, rice paper

Slice the scallops and cold-smoke them, allowing to sit for at least an hour to retain the smoky flavor. Cardoza prefers to use ponderosa smoke, which gives the scallops that Montana touch.

Meanwhile, juice the limes and finely brunoise and mince the vegetables and fruit.

Once scallops have finished resting, set aside roughly 20 grams for garnish. Brunoise the remaining scallops and toss with the additional ingredients in a large bowl. Adjust the lime and salt as desired.

Serve garnished with Leche de Tigre, the reserved smoked scallops, and fried rice paper, or enjoy with any sort of chip.

A writer and editor for various publications, Carter Walker covers art, architecture, food, travel, and culture. Her latest travel guide from Moon Books, Yellowstone to Glacier National Parks Road Trip, was released on March 31, 2026. She has a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and always has at least one creative project going. Walker is a founding board member of The Montana Project, which empowers Montana artists to advocate for the places that inspire them.

Photographer Lynn Donaldson shoots regularly for National Geographic, National Geographic Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Sunset, and The New York Times. The founder and editor of the Montana food and travel blog The Last Best Plates, Donaldson lives outside of Livingston, Montana with her husband and three children.