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CORWI N MOTORS OF KALISPELL
I'm an enthusiastic member of the community that thinks craft beverages are life-changing. Call it silly but my fellow craft lovers out there will agree, there's something special about sipping on something that offers depth, pause, and most of all, joy. And sometimes that "something" is just an experience.
I was really excited about interviewing Justin Meccia (owner of Whitefish Crafted Spirits) for this issue, and just as I suspected, he was one of my most memorable interviewees to date. I love when someone, especially a business owner, is outwardly passionate and knowledgeable about their product. I love it when they don't rush things and when they care enough about the process to make something rare and amazing. In a world that truly cherishes convenience and things done at a faster pace, I am beyond thrilled to put forth this issue. It's a gigantic pause button on life. Slow down, take a sip, stay awhile.
We also have a feature on Flathead Lake Lodge, which celebrates 80 years this year, and the same sentiment holds true. It is a place that has largely remained unchanged, and visitors cherish it for that reason. It's the slowness of life that is offered in these pages this month that brings me a lot of joy. Our third feature story, on one of the only organic cherry farms in the valley, is another nod to quality over quantity. It's easy to want to make more money (faster). But what if that isn't really the goal? What if the goal is just to live a more healthy life and offer something truly natural, as it was intended to be, to a customer? The Gleasons know all about this standard of product and lifestyle. I can't wait for you to get to know them.
I hope this issue feels like sitting down with a good book or a hot latte in a big mug. No to-go cups here. Sit, stay, and enjoy the read. Happy October, readers. This is the season for slowing down.
CHELSEA
AGRO, EDITOR
@FLATHEADVALLEYCITYLIFESTYLE
October 2025
PUBLISHER
Greig Fahnlander
Greig.Fahnlander@citylifestyle.com
EDITOR
Chelsea Agro | Chelsea.Agro@CityLifestyle.com
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Porsche Jean Photography 406PsPhotography@Gmail.com
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Chelsea Agro, Marko Capoferri
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER
Rick Szczechowski
CEO Steven Schowengerdt
COO Matthew Perry
CRO Jamie Pentz
VP OF OPERATIONS Janeane Thompson
VP OF SALES Andrew Leaders
AD DESIGNER Rachel Chrisman
LAYOUT DESIGNER Kelsey Ragain
QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Marina Campbell
Learn how to start your own publication at citylifestyle.com/franchise.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Flathead Lake Lodge celebrates 80 years of being timeless. Featured 12 18 30
The Cherry on Top
Going all organic was important and necessary for the Gleasons when it came
3, 2, 1, Rum!
Whitefish Crafted Spirits sets the bar high for craft beverages.
Where Time Stands Still
Flathead Lake Lodge celebrates 80 years of generational tradition. The thing that keeps them going? Sharing this increasingly rare lifestyle with every guest. Read their story on page 30.
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Two great weekends full of fun! October 2nd to 4th and 9th to 11th. Thursdays and Fridays, 5 to 11 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 11 p.m. Tickets are $10 but kids under 12 are free with a parent. Purchase at the Main Gate on the day of. Get ready for German food, drinks, music, dancing, entertaining contests, artists, crafters and so much more.
Downtown Bigfork offers a safe and fun environment for parents to bring their kids out for Halloween. Start the festivities by attending the Bigfork Elementary parade down Electric Avenue where students will showcase their costumes at noon on Halloween day. Trick or treating will be from 4 to 6 p.m.
Have you been itching to get out in your community? Are you naturally curious about the stories that are all around us? Maybe you had a career in writing and want to get back in the game. We invite you to write for us! Please send a published writing sample to Chelsea.Agro@CityLifestyle.com.
ARTICLE BY MARKO CAPOFERRI | PHOTOGRAPHY BY PORSCHE JEAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Going all organic was important and necessary for the Gleasons when it came to their cherry farm
Whereas Montana winters can sometimes feel drawn out and drab, summer in Montana is a veritable Eden of natural abundance—think Dixon melons, wild huckleberries, and so much more. But nothing says “summertime” in Western Montana quite like Flathead cherries. And even though the bright season is behind us, we went behind the curtain to see which fruit should be on the top of your list next year.
Take a spin down MT Highway 35, along Flathead Lake’s eastern shore, and at a certain point every July there’s a blossoming of farm stands around practically every bend in the
road, each with a boatload of cherries fresh from the orchard just behind the stand. And while the profusion of cherries can be a delight to the passersby, those who seek an organic cherry will be hard pressed in that search.
As Maureen Gleason says, she and her husband Jerry’s organic orchard is one of a very few operations doing things in a more holistic way.
“There’s one north of us, and I think there’s one on Finley Point,” she says, “and to my knowledge that’s it.”
Gleason’s Cherry Orchard has been operating organically in their current location— midway between Polson and Bigfork—since 2006, while their foray into earth-friendly growing extends back even farther.
Maureen says part of the decision to pursue organic growing had a lot to do with the impact of conventional practices on their immediate environment.
“We went organic because we were living right in the middle of the orchard. They were spraying around us and we just figured that wasn’t good.”
“We like being able to have good fruit,” she continues, “because apples and strawberries and cherries are the worst-sprayed fruits, so it makes us feel good that we’re doing the right thing.”
“And we enjoy giving the public really, really good fruit, and clean fruit, so they don’t have to worry,”
Jerry Gleason says. “I go into my orchards all the time and I just eat things off the trees. I don’t have to worry about it. Even though we do spray, everything we spray is certified organic by the FDA.”
One side to organic growing is the end result: cleaner air, water, and soil; pristine and delicious produce; happy customers that value all of the above. The other side is the meticulous, repetitive, and granular work of keeping an orchard running without all the workarounds that conventional growers can use.
“Way back when, people had trouble with tent caterpillars,” Jerry says. “Well, they sprayed. We had one tree that had a couple of branches with tent caterpillars, and we had to go out manually and clip them off, put them in bags, and destroy the bags, and that’s how we have to do everything.”
“We’re doing right by the public and we’re doing right by ourselves.”
Maureen Gleason
“We can’t just go to the garage or the barn and grab some spray and go out and take care of things,” he continues. “So, it just makes it very labor intensive, and you’ve got to be watching all the time.”
All this being considered, it’s safe to say the Gleasons consider all the extra effort they expend keeping their orchard functioning organically is more than worth it, for themselves and for their customers.
“We’re doing right by the public and we’re doing right by ourselves,” Maureen says.
“And we get a really good feeling from the public,” Jerry says. “They compliment us all the time on how beautiful the cherries are.”
“They thank us,” Maureen continues. “I get thanked all the time. And I have a lot of repeat customers.”
“We love the people that come back,” Jerry chimes in. “We have people that come back over and over. We just had a person come all the way from North Dakota to buy our cherries. And he’s been here before several times.
When people do stuff like that, it just makes you say ‘holy mackerel!’ You know you’re doing things right.”
Well, hard work takes time and nothing—especially life's sweetest things—are ever promised. A good season delivers more than just plump cherries. It brightens the spirit of lake life with the gift of abundance. With the lake moderating the region's climate, these varieties are generally available mid-July to beginning of September: Lapin, Sweetheart, and Rainier.
WHITEFISH CRAFTED SPIRITS SETS THE BAR HIGH FOR CRAFT BEVERAGES 3, 2, 1, Rum!
“We’re giving people the opportunity to enjoy a hard beverage without it having to kick them in the teeth in order to do so.”
If you’ve ever been to a brewery, cidery, or distillery, you probably appreciate a craft beverage, but maybe you’ve never truly understood why until now, upon hearing Justin Meccia’s take on spirits and the community surrounding them.
Justin is the owner, alongside his wife Zena, of Whitefish Crafted Spirits, even though their tasting room resides off Highway 2 in east Kalispell. (We’ll get to that later). His newest spirit is the Huckleberry Reserve, a huckleberry rum made from wild Montana huckleberries. It doesn’t sound like anything out of the ordinary but Justin pulls back the curtain on how much thought went into offering this one-of-a-kind spirit and why it’s so special.
Let’s take vodka, for example, as a comparison. Vodka is always mixed. And whiskey is similar. The whiskey drinker knows what they’re getting into, so to speak. It’s less approachable, it stings or burns. It has a robust nature when it hits the tongue.
“However, rum tends to be more palatable because it’s so sweet…When you take huckleberry, which is kind of tart, and you allow it to collide with the sugars and the rum, you actually get a pretty well balanced rum,” says Justin. “By itself, or poured over ice, it’s actually quite enjoyable.”
He goes on to offer a distilling process perspective. Overall? Rum really isn’t that difficult to make or distill, but it is difficult to control. As a dad to five, Justin compares his spirits to his easiest subjects.
“Once you start to make rum, once you get into the direction of making a rum that’s flavored or unique, controlling it so that it stays that way is a little difficult. Think about spirits like they are children. Rum is kind of like your wild child. It can go 100 different directions. If you don’t control it, that’s what you have: a wild child spirit.”
The longer, more delicate process of controlling the exact rum Justin wants to put out into the world is one that speaks for itself, without a counterpart, like a mixer. His tagline for the business is “rugged but never rough,” and now we’re starting to see why. Justin isn’t aiming to make a spirit just to end up disguising the
taste with the goal of making it palatable. “We aim for all of our spirits—all of our products—to be drinkable or palatable by itself.”
Vodka, he says, is pretty straight forward—arguably the easier spirit to make, which is why you see a rather saturated huckleberry vodka market. It has a fast turnaround, it’s fairly easy to control, and it’s overall pretty straightforward. The huckleberry is really more for marketing, not to enhance the actual quality of the vodka, he shares. “The result is still a spirit that’s really difficult to appreciate by itself, which is why huckleberry vodka is always mixed.”
A light bulb moment, indeed. What if our spirits were enjoyable without a companion? Justin pursues a high quality, palatable spirit that truly highlights one of Montana’s most loved flavors—the huckleberry—by including it in the process, not by muddling it for an add-in.
“We’re giving people the opportunity to enjoy a hard beverage without it having to kick them in the teeth in order to do so…the secret to that actually is not so much in what we cut our spirits with, it’s actually what we filter or choose to not filter out,” says Justin. “Distillation is not just what you put in but what you keep in that will result in the final product. So our move to do huckleberry rum was two-fold; one, to do something that nobody else does and also because we’re staying true to form. We want a product that, should you be interested, you can drink it by itself. It doesn’t have to be mixed.”
Justin talks about a crowd favorite: the mojito. Bartenders have a love-hate relationship with the drink—it’s slow to produce but it’s usually costly, so any bar is happy to put them out. And the customer is always satisfied. After all, it’s a timeless, refreshing beverage.
“If you want to make your mojito even better,” says Justin, “make it with one of our rums. Now you’re either adding a citrus element [Whitefish Rum with Spices—infused with orange and clove] to the mint or you’re adding a huckleberry element to the mint… Everybody’s going to go crazy over it.” And Justin hits
I wasn’t exactly a rum drinker except for when I tasted this I said, ‘Oh my goodness, call me a pirate, let’s go back to rum because this is amazing!' “ ”
the mark with palatability. When making the drink, “You know what you don’t have to do? Anything else.” No muddling, no mixing.
Justin has plans for signature cocktails that are so good, they’ll keep you coming back. But he’s not in a hurry to slap anything on the tasting menu. He and Zena became the owners just one year ago in a serendipitous way. Whitefish Crafted Spirits originated in its namesake town of Whitefish in 2015. In 2016, Justin was a guest bartender for the owners because they were doing a tasting event in Kalispell, Justin’s home turf after he moved from Wilmington, North Carolina in 2008. If you’re going to serve it, you ought to taste it, right? The orange and clove infused rum blew him away.
“I wasn’t exactly a rum drinker except for when I tasted this I said, ‘Oh my goodness, call me a pirate, let’s go back to rum because this is amazing!’” When the establishment moved to Kalispell, it became a routine date night location for Justin and Zena, until 2024 when the owners approached Justin—also a real estate agent—about wanting to sell. A quick look under the hood revealed that there really wasn’t much to sell, so Justin wracked his brain for a month about how to help his friends. Luckily, a new idea took hold with just enough experience to give it momentum. Justin and Zena were home flippers. They flipped one home per year for the first four years of their marriage. This business needed flipping.
“At its core, a home flipper really is a problem solver…This is just like flipping a home, except for you’ve got different things to consider. While we’re not remodeling a kitchen, we are remodeling a brand. We’re ambitious enough, we feel like we’re smart enough, let’s take this on,” says Justin. And it makes sense—Justin and Zena are longtime craft beverage lovers—breweries, cideries, and distilleries—and when they travel, they always seek out the nearest one. “What we love about them is the hyper local aspect that they provide,” says Justin. “We love tasting the local community.” The Flathead community is a culture that believes in hospitality, according to Justin. “So much that you’re welcome to bring your families in the cideries and distilleries and the breweries. It’s not like I’m advocating that alcohol needs to be part of your diet—what I’m advocating is that you should be after things that are very good.”
And that sentiment ties directly into his family. His 5-year-old knows the distillery as “the business.” It makes “juice” and that juice is for
adults. “At a young age,” says Justin, “he’s being introduced to this idea that there are things out there, and that there are better things out there, and I like that. We can all go to McDonalds and sit down, and it’s going to be the same no matter where you go…there’s nothing special about the community, other than the fact that it employs a few people. What we enjoy is local, unique, and unlike anything else. That’s art in the community.”
With the future ripe before them, Justin and Zena are ambitious about what’s to come, and they’re willing to take the long (expensive) way home. “We do have a future name in mind…we’ll be rebranding in the future,” says Justin. “Like what very much pulled us into this in the first place was the aspect of it being a staple of the community, we are aimed at making this very community-centric. In fact, we are aimed at making it very Montana-centric. My goal is to be the distillery that honors Montana most, and with the new name and the new efforts, that’ll really resonate.”
My goal is to be the distillery that honors Montana most, and with the new name and the new efforts, that’ll really resonate.
ARTICLE BY ANGELA BROOCKERD PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANIE JONES
There’s something deeply satisfying about a well-made sandwich—especially when it comes together with minimal effort but delivers big on flavor. As the season changes and appetites grow heartier, fall is the perfect time to get creative with ingredients tucked between slices of crusty bread or buttery rolls. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your lunch routine, enjoy comforting flavors and bold textures, or impress guests with a no-fuss meal, these easy-tomake sandwiches strike the perfect balance between simple and sensational.
INGREDIENTS
• 2 slices crusty bread (sourdough, ciabatta, French bread)
• 6 oz roast beef
• 2 slices provolone cheese
• 2 tbsp butter (for toasting)
INSTRUCTIONS
• 2 ½ tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp horseradish sauce
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• Arugula
• Cherry tomato
• Caramelized onions
Toast the bread. Butter one side of each slice and toast in a skillet until golden. Heat roast beef briefly in a pan. To make the spread, mix mayo, horseradish sauce, and Dijon. Spread on the toasted bread. Layer roast beef, cheese, and broil briefly to melt. Add arugula, tomato, and caramelized onions if using. Top with the second slice of bread.
INGREDIENTS
• 1 grilled chicken breast
• 2 slices pepper jack cheese
• 2 slices cooked bacon
• 1 tbsp fruit jam (fig, raspberry, or jalapeño recommended)
INSTRUCTIONS
• A handful of fresh arugula
• 3–4 cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1 tbsp garlic aioli
• 1 brioche bun (toasted)
Lightly butter the inside of the bun and toast in a skillet or oven until golden brown. Spread a layer of garlic aioli on the bottom bun. Add the sliced grilled chicken breast. Place the pepper jack cheese over the hot chicken to slightly melt it. Layer on the crispy bacon slices. Add halved cherry tomatoes and a small handful of arugula. Spread the jam on the top bun. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
• 3 oz goat cheese
• Fresh arugula
• ¼ cup caramelized onions
• 1 pear, thinly sliced
INSTRUCTIONS
• Honey, to taste
• Butter for toasting the bread
• Rotisserie chicken breast thinly sliced
• Sourdough bread, buttered (optional)
Spread goat cheese on one side of the bread. Top the cheese with arugula, caramelized onions, sliced pears and chicken breast. Drizzle with honey. Top with remaining slice of sourdough bread. Use a griddle or panini press to heat the sandwich.
INGREDIENTS
• French bread loaf, halved lengthwise
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 tsp thyme or rosemary
• Salt, pepper, chili flakes (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
• 8 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
• 1 cup arugula
• 2–4 tbsp pesto (thinned with olive oil)
• Balsamic glaze
• Optional: 4 slices prosciutto
• Fresh basil
Toss cherry tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper. Roast at 375°F for 20–25 minutes until soft and caramelized. Brush bread with olive oil. Toast in the oven at 375°F for 5–7 minutes until crisp. Layer mozzarella slices on the toasted bread. Add fresh basil. Return to the oven for 3–5 minutes, just until melted. Optional: Top with roasted tomatoes, arugula, and prosciutto (if using). Drizzle with pesto and balsamic glaze.
City Lifestyle isn’t just a publication — it’s a pulse. A rhythm of voices, neighbors, and stories woven together by someone who believes in the power of connection. As we expand, we’re looking for people ready to turn care into community. Are you ready to be that spark?
ARTICLE BY CHELSEA AGRO
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FLATHEAD LAKE LODGE
They say the only constant is change. While that’s certainly true in regards to our treasure state as a whole, there are few places that time hasn’t quite touched. One being Flathead Lake Lodge. Guests are not of the one-and-done variety. They return, most often year after year, for the feeling the
“Everyone comes back— maybe they haven’t visited in 20, 30 years—and the first thing they all mention is that the main lodge smells the same.”
Lodge offers—the furniture in the Main Lodge dated to 1932, the log pool furniture, and, believe it or not, the smell.
“Everyone comes back—maybe they haven’t visited in 20, 30 years—and the first thing they all mention is that the main lodge smells the same,” says Chase Averill, the third generation general manager. To be celebrating 80 years of business, in today’s world nonetheless, is a feat that not many know the sweetest of. So much gets washed away or lost in the hustle of progress but Chase comments on how the Lodge has withstood the test of time, and miraculously (perhaps magically) remained unchanged through eight decades. With a long lineage of hospitality at the helm, Chase reflects on how his family—mainly his father Doug and grandfather Les—have paved the road for this way of life to persevere despite all that’s come to Montana over the years.
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“My dad has stories as a kid—a lot of the highways that are around now being dirt roads, and I think back in the 40s, supposedly Les had an old Dodge Power Wagon and he and one other guy had the only four wheel drive vehicles in the whole town of Bigfork,” says Chase. “Originally, the place started as more of a hunting and fishing lodge and, you know, kind of morphed into a dude ranch…I think a lot of it had to do with, at the time, Hungry Horse Dam was, I think, one of the largest engineering projects in the world ,and so that attracted people that wanted to visit Montana—obviously Going to the Sun Road and all that sort of stuff. It kind of started to take off in the 50s with those projects and it morphed into more of a guest ranch.”
Chase talks about his grandfather being one of the original outfitters in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and how his experience had reshaped the hunting portion of the Lodge when the guest ranch transition took place. Hunting became accessible through pack trips and the guest ranch operation took shape at the lake.
“We, as kids, ran wild around the place and so that was obviously a pretty awesome way to grow up,” says Chase. “The guests stayed for a week at a time so each week you had a new set of friends that you just ran around and had fun with. There’s a lot of those kids that I grew up with that I’ve remained friends with—we’re all in our 40s now—and they’re all starting to cycle back with their own kids… There’s a freedom here that their kids get to experience that isn’t possible in a lot of places in the country. It’s funny, you know, we take it for granted but kids being able to hop on a bike and ride around the ranch is an amazing experience for them because where they’re coming from, they can’t just hop on a bike and go without Mom and Dad right behind them. It’s just some of those old world experiences that are disappearing these days are a big part of it.”
He says that the ranch is stuck in time, which encourages guests to press pause and just take in their surroundings. Whether it be the physical activity of something recreational, or just relaxing by the lake, there’s something
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"We love what we do, and as the world’s gotten crazier, the ability to offer families and kids this experience, it just becomes more and more important."
transformational that happens when we’re allowed to just interact with this environment, and clearly it can become a habit. Conversation is easy here. Needs are taken into account, and that familiar feeling of “home” is the mission for everyone who works at Flathead Lake Lodge to make it the most comfortable experience, despite how many times someone has visited.
“I think just that authenticity and the genuine style of hospitality that they experience is almost always what they’re talking about,” Chase says about the guests. “That kind of genuine hospitality is kind of lost in the world today.”
While Chase receives a steady stream of offers to buy the Lodge, he meets them with a respectable
“No, thanks.” But of course the choice to keep the Lodge in the family was decided long before anyone wrote to him or stopped by. The generational torch bearing of this position has been handled in an organized family manner, where conversations happened early and effectively. Other pristine properties have been sadly sold off since Montana took its place in the spotlight. “It’s sad to see it, but you know, we’ve been blessed—about 70 to 80% of our guests come back every year. Some of them are in the fifth generation. We love what we do, and as the world’s gotten crazier, the ability to offer families and kids this experience, it just becomes more and more important. It’s our job as stewards of that to keep it going and not just cash out.”
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