Missoula is for Foodies
A city fit for a foodie.
One of my favorite things about hosting a neverbeen-here guest is the overall shock and awe of introducing them to our local food scene. You can hardly drive across Front Street or Higgins without looking like a tour guide. Over here we have the most incredible seasoned chicken thigh over a fluffy waffle, and over here—have you ever had a blueberry lavender latte? I'm always so proud and excited to point and describe a dish or drink that low-key changed my life. Because, well, I'm a foodie! And this issue always makes me cheerful.
After 15 years of traveling together, with and without children, my husband and I have sampled quite a bit of the country—quite literally, by sampling the taste of every city we've been to. We camped in an RV and (embarrassingly) I never fired up the stove or oven or even the microwave. All of our pots and utensils went unused. I just couldn't. We love to dine out and see what the world is cooking up, and here in Missoula too. I admire how each chef or baker, or whoever is at the helm, delivers their passion by way of food and drink. Such thoughtful execution is a true art form. Cooking for someone is indeed a love language and it's one that I think Missoula heavily appreciates.
But not everyone is like us Missoulians. When my husband and I are back at our farm, where we grow a small amount of vegetables and raise our own meat, we banter about what was lacking wherever we went, or what impressed us. When we go back east to visit family, we always notice the lack of coffee shops. Sure, there's a Dunkin' Donuts every few miles but even then, espresso isn't something I'd recommend. It's all plastic or styrofoam cups. Go, go, go. Must be in a hurry.
The slowed down nature of our area makes me so appreciative that we arrived here before that hurriedness became part of who we are. A chef personally delivering a plate of food that he or she made, or a barista taking the time to do some incredible latte art is a signal to us that people are taking pride in what they do. They are making joy an everyday practice. I see you, Missoula food and drink community, and I'm so glad you exist.
CHELSEA LYN AGRO, EDITOR
October 2025
PUBLISHER
Mike Tucker | MTucker@CityLifestyle.com
PUBLISHER ASSISTANT
Amanda Tucker | Amanda.Tucker@CityLifestyle.com
EDITOR
Chelsea Lyn Agro | Chelsea.Agro@CityLifestyle.com
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Rick Szczechowski | RrSzczechowski@Gmail.com
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Chelsea Lyn Agro, Marko Capoferri, Abigail Thomsen, Emma Trotter, Susie Wall
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Abigail Thomsen, Avery Kapitan, Sarah Kingsbury
Corporate Team
CEO Steven Schowengerdt
COO Matthew Perry
CRO Jamie Pentz
VP OF OPERATIONS Janeane Thompson
VP OF SALES Andrew Leaders
AD DESIGNER Evan Deuvall
LAYOUT DESIGNER Kelsey Ragain
QUALITY CONTROL SPECIALIST Marina Campbell
all sofa beds & rugs on sale
October 10 - 25
inside the issue
Your Neighborly Grocers
Pattee
PLONK
business monthly
White Cane Awareness Day
The National Federation of the Blind celebrates White Cane Awareness Day on October 15. Join us in celebrating this day for our publisher Mike Tucker, who is completely blind following the diagnosis of NAION or Non-Arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy, a condition where the optic nerve experiences a sudden loss of blood flow, leading to vision loss. The white cane is symbolic of a tool that allows the blind to move freely and safely from place to place.
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Blue Door Banquet: Hogsmeade Harvest Feast
It's the Boys & Girls Club of Missoula County's big fundraiser: The Hogsmeade Harvest Feast! This event takes place on Friday, October 17 at 6 p.m. and is a celebration of our youth and a huge fundraiser for the Back-A-Kid Scholarship fund. Their mission is to ensure that every young wizard and witch in our community has access to the invaluable services provided by the Boys & Girls Club. Indulge in a three-course meal and a cash bar, silent and live auctions. Check out BGCMissoula.org for more information.
Climate Bike Ride Missoula
This community bike ride on Sunday, October 5 helps raise awareness and funds for Missoula nonprofits who do the dirty (and good) work for our planet. Registration is free and three routes will be available and suitable for riders of all ages. There will be prizes and a post-ride party! Visit ClimateRide.org for more information.
Your Neighborly Grocers
PATTEE CREEK MARKET THRIVES ON PERSONAL CONNECTION AND REGIONAL PRODUCTS
ARTICLE BY MARKO CAPOFERRI
PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICK SZCZECHOWSKI
Have you ever met the CEO of Albertsons, or know what they look like? Might the finance manager of Wal-Mart be invited to dinner with your family? Is there a chance that WinCo’s director of human resources would lobby to put your name on a product?
It’s not a stretch to presume the answer to each above question is ‘no.’
For Tim Hines—who owns Missoula’s Pattee Creek Market along with his wife Elizabeth—these kinds of individualized, granular connections are the great reward of running an independent grocery store with a long track record in Missoula, where residents have plenty of options when deciding where to buy their food.
“Owning a business here, for a grocery business, is tough, because there’s a lot of competition,” Tim says. “Competition keeps you aware of everything. You just don’t get complacent; you don’t get relaxed. When there’s a dozen other grocery stores in Missoula, we want to be that friendly, small grocery store, but also offer great, quality product at a good price.”
As Tim notes, in a world of corporate largesse and global food sourcing—where decisions are by nature big, with big ripples and big timelines—Pattee Creek Market’s smallness is a virtue.
“We have the autonomy to make those decisions and make them pretty quick,” he says. “We can be nimble on what we bring in. We don’t have to go through, ‘well, let me give it to my district manager and then my regional and then my corporate office and then put it in a planogram and then...’ No. Bitterroot Bison called me today. ‘All right, let’s bring it in.’ It’s source to source. There’s no ‘I’ll get back to you after a month of checking with all these different steps and people.’”
And with a bevy of local farms and ranches helping to keep Pattee Creek Market stocked with Montanagrown meat and produce, Tim and co. can utilize their smallness to support their neighbors who are also
doing good work in the area. It’s a model of reciprocity and community that can realistically happen when things stay at a manageable, regional scale.
“They’re here, within our backyard,” Tim says, “why not use them and keep those dollars here locally? And this is good quality product, you know.”
Yes, the “backyard” Tim speaks of may be metaphorical, but there’s an operation thus far unmentioned that’s a little bit closer to the Hines’ actual backyard.
While some other grocers in Missoula do a decent job of sourcing products from the surrounding region, it’s tough to get more local than the Hines’ sheep farm, from which they bring in meat to sell at Pattee Creek Market.
The sheep farm is a family affair from top to bottom. What began as an operation run by Elizabeth’s father has since been taken over by Tim and Elizabeth, and even their kids are showing some signs of interest in continuing the lineage.
“My wife is heavily involved in [the farm],” he says. “She grew up doing that, raising lamb, showing sheep at 4-H. My daughter’s picked it up now, my son is into it as well.”
“So not only are we producing for 4-H, with our local community buying our lambs to show in 4-H,” he continues, “but we are raising lamb also for the store. We know what the source is because it’s literally out our front door. We know how they’re raised; we know all of that. And we’re getting it processed locally in Corvallis, the same folks that we get our beef from. We know their facility, we know their capabilities, we’ll be bringing some more lambs down there in a couple of weeks for processing, and we’ll sell them here at the store.”
It’s fair to say we’ve been circling this whole time around the real-world experience of connectivity. In a place like Pattee Creek Market, connectivity can, and often does, extend from food and family right through to the people who shop its aisles.
“Owning a business here, for a grocery business, is tough, because there’s a lot of competition...Competition keeps you aware of everything.” Tim Hines
“I’ve got customers who come in the store now, we chat, we’ve actually got some items named after them, [we’ve] been invited to folks’ homes to have dinner.”
Tim Hines
A store isn’t a store without customers, but at Pattee Creek Market a customer can mean so much more than just a person who spends their hard-earned money there.
“Whether it’s folks that [live in the apartments] behind the store and they’re walking in daily, maybe multiple times a day because of their needs, or folks that live on the hill and just driving down, folks coming down [Southwest 39th Street] to and from work and pulling in, we have a very unique clientele,” Tim says. “But in our business standpoint, we want to get them not to go all the way down that road here to the corporate store, right?”
“We’ve done some social media things with who we are and why we’re here and what we’re trying to do and accomplish and staying local and building those
relationships,” he continues. “And we’ve done that to where I’ve got customers who come in the store now, we chat, we’ve actually got some items named after them, [we’ve] been invited to folks’ homes to have dinner.”
Talking to Tim Hines, one gets the real sense that all of this is not a ploy to drum up business; it’s clearly a part of his and his family’s DNA.
“It’s not just, ‘I’m owning a store in Missoula and earning a paycheck and then I’m leaving.’ No. We’re here. We’re going to be neighbors. When you can see a customer come in and they say, ‘oh, that’s my recipe right there. My name is on that.’ That’s interesting. You’re not going to go get that at the corporate store down the road.”
LEARN MORE: The Hines family loves to give back to our community, made clear by their devotion to local and regional goods, but also by their social media presence. Follow them on IG @PatteeCreekMarket for deals and teasers on what's to come or what's already in.
@PATTEECREEKMARKET
ARTICLE BY EMMA TROTTER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICK SZCZECHOWSKI
MEDITERRANEAN FOOD, COCKTAILS AND WINE
PLONK
There’s something for everyone at Plonk, a Missoula staple for cocktails, wine, and Mediterranean food that opened over a decade ago.
“It’s a country wine bar,” said regional manager John Prugh, in an
“IT’S
dining area and lounge seating all the way in the back.
“You could be having a nice bottle of wine and dinner, and across the walkway people could be having beers just getting off the ski slopes,” he said.
A PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO GATHER AND HAVE CONVERSATION.”
- BRETT EVJE
effort to sum up Plonk’s welcoming ambiance and low-key decadence.
In keeping with that description, the space above the bar—and across from a low wall displaying wine bottles—is decorated with brands. The intent was to imitate the wall above the bar at Plonk’s Bozeman location, which opened in 2003. There, the owners chipped away at the plaster hoping to expose brick and found a wall of brands dating from, according to John, the original Stockman’s Bar that served Gallatin Valley beginning in the late 1800s.
“When we opened, they wanted to bring that vibe here,” John said of the Missoula location. Some of the brands signify local ranches, and others are made up.
Another part of Plonk’s vibe is what John called a “create your own adventure environment,” with cafe-style seating by the front window, high tops and a bar as you make your way deeper into the restaurant, and a sit down
“That’s different from any other place in town that I’m aware of.”
Co-owner Brett Evje agreed, highlighting Plonk’s beauty and versatility as a gathering place.
“It’s a place for people to gather and have conversation,” he said. “We specifically don’t have televisions.”
And don’t miss the upstairs patio, he added. “That area up there is really something special. We get the plant growth and everything up there is pretty spectacular.”
Chef de cuisine Andrew Stubbs encourages first time visitors to Plonk to order the mushroom tart appetizer, which contains maitake mushrooms, gruyere cheese, and caramelized onion.
“It’s savory and sweet at the same time, with the nice flaky crust of the tart,” he said.
From Scotland originally, Andrew is aiming toward Mediterranean flavors with Plonk’s food menu.
CONTINUED >
“A lot of the wines are from those countries,” he said. “I like the idea of matching a vibe with food and wine of different cultures, but maybe I’ll try to sneak some haggis in there.”
And bartender Barry Fowler steers diners toward the G.F.C. cocktail.
“People are like what is that?” he said. “They see it. It’s visually enticing, and then they immediately order one after I tell them what’s in it.”
Made up of ginger vodka, ginger simple syrup, lemon, lime, and basil, the cocktail name includes a “G” that stands for “good” and a “C” that stands for “cocktail.”
“It’s really simple and really good, and I think that’s the core of our cocktail ideas,” Barry said. “Good ingredients, keep it simple.”
Even the word “plonk” signifies something simple and approachable for all. Believed to derive from World War I era Australian soldiers misunderstanding French soldiers saying “blanc,” as in “vin blanc” or white wine, today the word has a connotation of an inexpensive house wine.
“It’s low-key and not fancy,” John said. “There’s a lot more wine and cocktail bars that have come about in Bozeman and Missoula since then, but that’s what set us apart when we opened.”
Today, something that sets Plonk apart is being open later than many other cocktail bars in Missoula.
“GOOD INGREDIENTS, KEEP IT SIMPLE.”
“We’re quite enjoyed by our service industry community,” Barry said. “A lot of them come here after shift, 11 to midnight when they don’t want to drink a beer or a vodka cranberry.”
Assistant general manager Katie Corwin grew up coming to Plonk.
“Coming here was always a fun experience because it felt like it was an elevated experience for Missoula standards,” she said. “That’s what really drew me here and made me want to work here—the experience I had as a customer. It doesn’t feel like a typical Montana bar.”
THE PERFECT PAIRING
The food: Grilled beef filet with peppercorn celeriac purée, scalloped potato, beef celeriac molasses, and crushed marcona almond.
The wine: 2015 Chateau Aney Bordeaux blend (one of several Plonk has available by the glass using Coravin technology)
The why: “The grilled beef filet, it’s heartier, it’s going to pair very well with this Bordeaux mostly because of the earthiness and a little bit of grit. There’s a little bit of cab franc in this blend so the vegetal aspect comes out as well. Kind of a classic one but it definitely plays.”
-John Prugh, Plonk regional manager
TEAM CAFFEINE
Four of our favorites for a caffeine fix
ARTICLE BY EMMA TROTTER
Missoulians are lucky enough to be steeped in choices for locally roasted coffee. We sat down with four local roasters to percolate through how they roast and source beans, interact with customers, and create community through coffee.
JAMES CHAPMAN
Co-founder and co-owner, Black Coffee
How do you help a customer decide which roast to buy?
The blends tend to be a little more approachable for someone who isn’t sure what they like, since a blend carries multiple flavors and multiple roast levels. One coffee is an instrument. If you blend that coffee what you’re getting then is bass, the drums, richer guitar sounds, piano background.
How many days after roasting is the perfect time to enjoy your coffee?
I used to say that a couple months old was old but now I don’t really think that anymore. It’s a disservice to all the work that’s gone into that coffee. The changes in flavor are so subtle I don’t think most people would notice them. And even though they’re different, that doesn’t make them worse. Roasted coffee is kind of like honey. It can sit for years and it’ll be fine.
SEBASTIAN SKOKAN
Owner and certified Master Roaster, Floreo
What flavors are you trying to attain or pull out when you roast?
People refer to coffee as a bean, but it’s actually the seed of a fruit. If you have Flathead cherry and there’s the pit inside of it, that’s exactly what coffee is. And so, when I’m roasting coffee, I’m trying to bring out the fruitiness of coffee. The coffees I specialize in are fermented coffees, so really processing it like you would a wine. Sealed fermentation tank, adding certain types of yeast, fermenting it for a week, two weeks, highlights the fruitiness as well. Coffee is actually twice as chemically complex as wine.
How and from where do you source your beans?
I compete in national and global coffee brewing championships. The farmers I work with are producing coffees for those competitions. No one else really has access. That’s mainly what we’re roasting, and it’s just coffee that’s unparalleled in quality.
SADIE AJAX
Head roaster and wholesale manager, Clyde Coffee
Describe a coffee ritual you have.
I think part of the job is drinking a lot of coffee and making sure you’re doing everything correctly while roasting. Making sure the products and specifics you’re trying to get out of the coffee come out. Every single morning, I’m a creature of habit, I make a coffee, either a pourover or a French press, and I take it out with me to walk my dog.
Have you noticed any recent trends in coffee that you’re excited about or wary of?
I started to roast in January and it was about mid-January, mid-February, the highest green coffee costs recorded. I kinda fell into the role during that and had to navigate that situation. We wanted to maintain high quality but at the same time we wanted to make money as a company. Finding alternative ways, blending differently, so we still maintain that quality that all of our customers are used to.
BEN GAUDE
Director of coffee, Drum Coffee
What sets you apart from other local coffee roasters?
Coffee is about community. Drum is the most loving group of people in Missoula. We have very little staff turnover because it’s really about loving our people, loving the art, loving the community. We create an atmosphere of support and community that lets people thrive. Our baristas are thriving, and you feel that, so the community that we gather is thriving. And the coffee is delicious to boot. We have something for everybody and we execute all sides of the spectrum extremely well.
What’s one roast you’re especially proud of?
I’m really proud of our Costa Rica Santa Elena. One of the few producers that not only provides work for the migrant workers but gives them a safe haven. Food, a little bit of shelter, they can see a doctor, childcare. So again it comes back to community, and what do you love, and why do you do it.
Floreo
Black Coffee
Clyde Coffee Drum Coffee
LITTLE HINOKI DESIGNS
MONTANA GROWN GRAINS
ARTICLE BY SUSIE WALL | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RICK SZCZECHOWSKI
ORGANIC GRAINS ARE THE MAGIC BEHIND GRIST MILLING & BAKERY
It hits you the minute you open the door at Grist Milling & Bakery. That enticing, mouth-watering aroma of fresh baked bread. But it is not just the loaves of tangy sourdough or the menagerie of sweet and savory pastries that make Grist a welcome addition to Missoula’s bakery scene. Nor is it the fact that Grist was named a 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist for outstanding bakery. What really sets Grist apart is in the back of the bakery within the sacks of all-organic Montana-grown grain.
Grist co-owners Selden Daume and Dan Venturella each have an extensive background working in bakeries, including at Missoula’s Le Petit Bakehouse where they met and worked together for years before deciding to open their own bakery in 2019. Grist first began in the back of Black Coffee Roasting Company where Selden and Dan installed an oven and some mixers and made bread and pastries for the roasting company’s customers with a plan to find their own spot within five years.
Sticking to that plan, they opened their own retail location in 2024 in the center of town at 520 S. Grant Street. “It’s been nice to be able to see people face-to-face,” says Dan. “We didn’t really interact with the customers when we were in Black Coffee and all our other accounts were grocery stores or restaurants. We didn’t get to see the person in the back of the deli, or the chef, or people that are tasting and eating our product. As soon as we moved over here, we had all of this great feedback and people saying that the neighborhood needed something like this. The Missoula community just wants to support local businesses and all of our patrons have been incredibly awesome.”
Selden says, “We wanted to carve out something that works for us. We don’t make 1,000 baguettes a day because Le Petit does that really well. We don’t make wedding cakes because Bernice’s is known for that, so everyone just sort of finds their spot. Dan and I wanted to start Grist because we were passionate about using organic grains. We wanted to provide Missoula with that product, and people have been really receptive and excited about it.”
Using only Montana-grown grains such as millet, oats, and barley to make all their breads, and milling it themselves, has been extremely important to Dan and Selden from the beginning. They originally sourced their wheat from a farmer in the Bitterroot Valley, but due to the growth of the business, the majority of their grains now come from Montana Milling, Inc., a co-op of local farmers certified organic by the United States and the Montana departments of agriculture, but they continue to work with individual farmers whenever possible.
You will always find the retail bakery stocked with three types of sourdough breads. Along with their signature sourdough, there’s the Miller’s Choice, a hearty multi-grain porridge bread made from ingredients such as hard red and soft white wheat, flax, brown rice, and sorghum syrup perfect for an elevated BLT or simply slathered with creamy butter. Their Bianco is an Italian ciabatta-style sourdough best enjoyed dipped in a fragrant olive oil laced with savory herbs. “We also have a variety of different breads available every day,” says Dan. “We make a beer rye, a fennel sesame rye, a potato onion sourdough, and a German sixgrain bread called Sechskornbrot.”
Other selections include danishes made with seasonal ingredients from asparagus to rhubarb, decadent shortbreads, Kamut (an ancient form of wheat) and cardamom coffee cakes, flaky sourdough croissants, and scones made from heirloom Montana Indian corn and honey berries.
In addition to the grains, Dan and Selden also feature locally-grown seasonal ingredients like cherries, eggs, and squash. “Grist is really about making relationships with farmers, whether it’s growing produce for our pastries or growing the wheat and the grain that we like to use,” says Selden. “The more relationships we make, the more we can showcase in the bakery. It’s a nice thing being the size that we are because it allows us to adapt quickly. We use local apricots until we don’t have them anymore, then we’ll transition to peaches, then to apples and pears. It’s really fun to cycle through what’s in season.”
Adding to the local distinction, every product is made onsite. Grist uses a unique slow fermentation process. Once the mechanical mixers stir together the flours, water and sourdough, everything is made by hand with the dough being punched, formed, put into baskets to rise, and then allowed to ferment overnight. Selden says, “What makes us different is we extend out the process of making bread. That long fermentation gives the bread a great flavor, but it also makes it easier on your belly to digest. Some people with wheat sensitivities seem to have better luck eating our breads.”
Dan adds, “You can view fermentation as a kind of pre-digestion so the sourdough is actually breaking down the gluten in the bread and digesting some of those things. In a quick ferment like in a mass market bread, they try to pump out as much as possible
in the shortest amount of time. It’s not doing any of that predigesting, so if you’re having a sensitivity to wheat, you’re probably just not getting help digesting it.”
Dan and Selden have plans and ideas for expanding their selections and building Grist, but the simplicity of making bread and running a community bakery is what keeps them coming to work every day. “We are bakers because we like baking bread,” says Selden. “It’s nice that we can work on the business a little bit and grow, but we’re still doing the day-to-day activities. That’s nice for our staff, and it’s also nice for us to feel that accomplishment when the bread comes out. We start with flour, water, and salt, and sourdough, mix it all together and by the end of the day we get this full rack of bread.”
Land is Kin
It’s a brisk Tuesday morning on a 50,000-acre ranch in Helmville, Montana. Family members gather for their ranch meeting. Irrigation challenges are discussed, crews assigned, and the team disperses for a long day’s work—just as they have for more than a century.
Welcome to Mannix Family Ranch, dating back to 1882 when their ancestors settled in Montana.
Marked by resilience, grit, and a deep love of land, the Mannix family is committed to preserving a legacy rooted in stewardship and conservation.
HISTORY
“It’s neat to have this kind of history documented,” comments Erica Mannix. She is one of the Mannix family descendants who recently moved back to the ranch.
Her great-great-grandfather, Timothy Mannix, was born to Irish immigrants in New England in 1840. He fought in the Civil War, including Gettysburg. In 1882, he purchased the original homesite of the ranch. It’s remained in the family, now run by the third through fifth generations.
The Mannixes carry on a rare tradition – family striving to preserve sustainable, multi-generational ranching.
“We have never thought of ourselves as the true ‘owners’ of this land,” shares Logan Mannix. “We are stewards of the soil, streams, grass, timber, and wildlife that belong to this ecosystem.”
ARTICLE BY ABIGAIL THOMSEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ABIGAIL THOMSEN, AVERY KAPITAN, AND SARAH KINGSBURY
They draw from the past while improving land and livestock management practices to support wildlife, family livelihood, and community health. Their mission: steward the legacy they’ve been handed from past generations and instill the same strong conservation values in the next.
WHAT SETS MANNIX APART
Their 100% Montana Blackfoot Valley grass-fed and finished beef is raised without hormones or subtherapeutic antibiotics and dryaged for optimal flavor and tenderness. They raise smaller-framed cattle well suited to the land, calving later in spring and using lowstress handling practices.
But before great beef, you need great soil. Their careful grazing methods build soil health—rotating herds, resting pastures, and grazing diverse, nutrient-rich forages.
Erica shares her “why.” After working in healthcare and other fields, she felt a pull to return to her roots, “I hope to be here for
The Mannix Ranch Story
a lifetime. I’ve never felt as much purpose as I do here. There’s a sense of belonging… of being part of something bigger than yourself.”
“These working landscapes matter,” Erica says. “Not just to my family, but to society. The reasons you love Montana won’t stick around unless you invest in them.”
With the Blackfoot River running through their land, local fisheries, hunters, and hikers all benefit from their careful land management along with other ranchers’ work. “We couldn’t manage it all on our own. We partner with many local organizations and ranchers in the valley.”
For example, with Trout Unlimited, they restored Nevada Creek and lowered stream temperatures by 14 degrees—a win for trout and ranchers alike. Since the early 2000s, they’ve partnered with the Sieben Ranch to graze knapweed. Persistence has paid off—levels are way down.
What’s one thing Erica hopes people remember about their story? “Generations have created a culture of stewardship and working partnership with ripples far outside of our valley.” The Blackfoot Valley is a key corridor linking Yellowstone and the Northern Continental Divide, sustaining both wildlife and families.
“Recognize that so many of the things you receive are part of that landscape. We honor that.”
And just as rare as their land ethic is their sense of family. “Growing up here was for sure the greatest blessing of my life.”
BEYOND THE RANCH
This is a family of artists and innovators. Erica runs Western Rising Leather, and her sister-in-law Kate makes naturally dyed scarves. Cole Mannix runs Old Salt Co-op–a direct-to-consumer meat brand with a butcher shop, processing plant, and restaurants.
Every summer, the ranch hosts the Old Salt Festival (June 19-21, 2026)–a weekend of food, music, and celebration of land stewardship.
Erica closes, “Be outside. That looks different for everyone. But in a time when addictive screens steal our attention from the present, find ways to disconnect.” Connect with people. With land. With the hands that feed you.
“Land is kin. Let’s leave it better.”
Mike turned a magazine into community.
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?
Lifestyle
Missoula Valley
Published by Mike Loved by Missoula Valley
