markets and constantly rotating its menu. In early spring, the menu includes a lentilwalnut burger ($9) topped with beet relish, grilled frisee, radish and roasted garlic mayonnaise. Recommendation: The Chef ’s Lunch ($15-$17) includes a microbrew or wine, sandwich and side, with a selection that rotates every week. Top Hat Opened: March (although technically it’s a re-open) Where it’s at: 137 W. Front St. What it’s about: The venerated downtown music venue and bar reopened in March with a slick remodel and full kitchen that offers small plates, or tapas, during low-key dinner shows, which usually feature a local acoustic singer/songwriter. Think salads, manchego-cheese-filled cro-
quettes, red-pepper hummus and calamari. Signature dish: The stone-fired flatbreads ($7-$8), which arrive on a wooden paddle branded with the Top Hat logo, include accoutrements like roasted wild mushrooms, serrano ham and goat cheese or roasted garlic, spinach, manchego and tomato. Recommendation: Long may the bleu-cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates reign on the menu ($5). Treasure State Donuts Opened: April Where it’s at: 400 E. Broadway What it’s about: Handmade doughnuts with creative twists, like huckleberry glazes. You may have read about it in our 3,000-word ode to doughnuts when they opened. Signature dish: Glazed yeast doughnut (about $1.25)
Recommendation: Get there early. Doughnut-hungry masses stood in line at 6 a.m. on its opening day, and after a few days, Treasure State shut down to install more equipment and hire another shift. The shop is still plenty popular today. Flathead Lake Brewing Company of Missoula Opened: February (although technically it’s a re-open) Where it’s at: 424 N. Higgins Ave. What it’s about: The Woods Baybased brewery closed its Missoula location last fall after a plumbing leak damaged part of the second floor and most of the first floor, which was formerly the separately owned Sapore restaurant. It reopened early this spring as a three-floor complex, with the Imperial Lounge offering fine dining on the first floor, the Pub
Q: Is substituting items a jerk move? What about ordering off the menu? A: James Bar server Kelly Fullerton says it’s okay to ask for menu substitutions—or even order something that’s not listed—as long as you accept the fact that the restaurant can’t always make the desired changes. “As long as you have realistic expectations,” she says. Others were less forgiving, especially about ordering off the menu. “Trust the people cooking your food,” says one local chef. “You’re eating out for a reason.” House focusing on beers and burgers on the second, and the Galaxy Lounge providing killer views on the third. Signature dish: All the signature Flathead Lake beers, like the Two Rivers Pale Ale and Dirty Ginger, are still here. The revamped brewpub menu focuses on sandwiches and burgers, like the Imperial Burger ($11) with soppressata, pickled peppers and provolone.
Recommendation: Order some beer battered pickles ($4) and pork belly bites ($7) to share with the team during Wednesday trivia night, and wash it all down with the new $2.50 pint special. If you’re looking to class it up downstairs, try the Imperial Lounge’s pan-roasted dates topped with pancetta and almonds ($8) and the Oliver’s Twist pizza with merlot-soaked grapes ($14).
Being a better regular Bartenders serve up advice on how to properly belly up by Alex Sakariassen Just another slow Monday night at the Golden Rose in downtown Missoula, and famed bartender Claude Alick busies himself cracking cans of beer and mixing vodka Red Bulls. The jukebox blasts a mix of ’70s-era funk. Heads bob, feet tap. The handful of patrons bellied up to the bar may as well be listening to tunes at home. “What you having, Alex?” Claude asks, flashing a pearly grin. I ask for a beer. Claude reaches into the cooler for a PBR tallboy. He doesn’t bother to ask if I want him to run my card or keep a tab open. Normally I’d be here for an escape, or, on a late summer Sunday, to catch the next episode of AMC’s hit series “Breaking Bad,” which Claude gladly screened for a few of us Rose veterans every week last season. But tonight I’m here with a very specific question: How can I, as a patron, make a bartender’s night better? Claude doesn’t hesitate with his initial answer. “Tip heavily,” he says. I’m looking for something more, something that can inform Missoula as a whole on what really sets off the guys and gals pouring our favorite drinks. “Not acting like a child is a big thing,” says the guy on my right, a bartender from another popular local establishment who agreed to talk candidly with me on the condition of anonymity. For my purposes here, I’ll call him Tyrion. “When people get drunk, they’re like children,” Tyrion continues. “And bartending is basically a practice in babysitting adults.” I can’t help feeling embarrassed by the comment. Over the years, I’ve certainly acted like a child while cutting loose. I’ve danced on bars, had friends 86’d from various establishments, forgotten to tip. But the wild stories have become fewer and further between since college. It’s occurred to me that, while I might have fun acting like an idiot now and then, someone else is paying for that idiocy. “Missoula likes to get fucked up,” Tyrion says, adding that people here tend to party even harder than the Midwest metropolitan area where he grew up. “Honestly, I think Missoula has a problem with that.” Tyrion recalls one particularly irritating incident. A young, drunk woman began dancing on chairs—something that, for her safety more than anyone else’s, Tyrion needed to put a stop to. When she refused the first few polite requests to sit down, Tyrion had to gently coax her off the chair. She complied, but it really put a crimp in Tyrion’s night. “Bartenders can tell when you’re on drugs,” he says, adding that alcohol was clearly not the only factor in this woman’s behavior. “And they will stop serving you when you’re messed up.” I turn to Claude and ask about buying shots for bartenders. It happens a lot around Missoula, and patrons seem to think it’s a hip thing to do by way of a “thank you.” “I always say, buying a bartender a shot is a bit like buying a whore a piece of ass,” Claude says, laughing. Tyrion adds that, while it may feel cool, getting a bartender a drink really isn’t. It can actually be kind
of annoying, he says. Depending on the bar, it can even get someone in trouble. So what makes a bartender happy? Lots of stuff. Clearing glasses off your table can ease the night, particularly at bars that don’t have a bar-back. Calming down angry or emotional friends is a big plus—stepping in early can prevent a fight from breaking out, and keeps the bartender from having to get involved. “There are people who get drunk and get into fights,” Claude says. “Why? That’s ridiculous. Drink and laugh. You paid for it.” It’s no easy job standing behind the bar. Bartenders have to learn when to stop serving folks who are visibly intoxicated. And the job gets extremely emotional too. Patrons—particularly regulars—tend to share really tough stories, Tyrion says. In that sense, bartenders are almost like psychologists. And if there’s one thing Claude hates more than anything, it’s inhospitable people working in the hospitality industry. He goes so far as to equate the relationship between a bartender and a patron to that of a doctor and a patient. “It’s all about confidentiality,” he says. In other words, there’s a trust that goes both ways.
So why do it? Why subject oneself to the name calling, the broken glasses, the fights and the drama? “When it’s a good job, it’s fun,” Tyrion says. “When it’s a pain in the ass, you’re a babysitter. But as a bartender, you feel like the life of the party. You’re the host.” It doesn’t hurt that the pay plus tips is good enough to work three and a half days a week and still make rent, he adds. For Claude, the motivation to sling beers extends to all aspects of life. He enjoys getting to know people on a first-name basis, for one, he says while sliding another PBR in my direction. And working nights enables him to spend his days writing, golfing and hanging out with his son. “I feel like this is my purpose.” I couldn’t agree more. Not many bartenders would host a “Breaking Bad” viewing party for eight straight Sundays and spend every hour talking plot points. “Everything in a bar is constant,” Claude says. “The chairs, the bottles, the jukebox … The personality of the bartender, that’s the variable.” I close out my tab, making sure to take Claude’s advice. I tip heavily.
missoulanews.com • May 2 – May 9, 2013 [17]