Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [186]
The cocktail list is tempting indeed. Jane loved her pomegranate mojito; there are different margaritas and three champagne cocktails: rosé royal, French (with gin), and a Kir Imperial.
Kozy Korner Cafe and Bar
1 S. Broadway
406–429–2621
Winnett, MT
BL | $
A tipster told us that we needed to go to Winnett, Montana, for big pancakes. His note said he couldn’t remember the exact name of the restaurant that served them, but he assured us we would have no problem finding it. When hunting an eatery in such situations, the thing to do is look for the place where the cars and pickup trucks are gathered, but at 6:45 A.M., there was not a single vehicle parked anywhere at the crossroads that is town.
A guy on a bicycle loaded with a rack trunk and side panniers pulled up to a faded building that looked like it was a gas station long ago and, more recently, a place labeled Kozy Korner Cafe and Bar. “Pancakes?” we asked as he removed his helmet and secured the bicycle next to a phone booth outside the front door.
“Pancakes!” he answered, explaining to us that he was on a westward trip from St. Louis and was really looking forward to carbo-loading a Petroleum County tall stack to start the day’s ride.
A neon “open” sign in the window lit up exactly at 7:00 A.M. and Buck Wood unlocked the Kozy Korner door, wordlessly pointing us down a short hall into the dining room. His wife, Ellen, waved a nonchalant hello from the open kitchen, where she was mixing batter in a metal bowl. As we found ourselves a table, Buck poured coffee.
After a while, Buck came from the kitchen with two pancake stacks that looked like layer cakes. Kozy Korner pancakes are a half-inch thick but not heavy, their substantial insides girded by a fragile skin. They have a buttermilk tang that demands the complement of syrup, of which they can seemingly absorb endless amounts.
The person who had told us about the awesome pancakes also mentioned that the same restaurant was known for “damn good pies.” As we paid for breakfast ($4 for three pancakes), we watched Ellen at the kitchen counter cutting shortening into flour, adding salt and a dash of vinegar and cold water to make the dough for crust for that day’s berry pies. We told her we were on our way to Great Falls, but if we happened to drive back through Winnett tomorrow, would she save us a couple of pieces of pie? Of course she would. We got waylaid and didn’t get back that trip, but sure look forward to a return visit.
M&M Bar and Café
9 N. Main St.
406–723–7612
Butte, MT
BLD | $
It was a sad day when the M&M closed in 2003, but a great one when it reopened two years later. The place Jack Kerouac once described as “the end of my quest for an ideal bar” is a radiant vision of the West—chrome, with a dazzling neon sign looming over the street. The interior is a fluorescent-lit, high-ceiling cavern, weathered by decades of use. Here indeed is the consummate drinking person’s bar, its stools occupied by a clientele of regulars and irregulars including part-time cowboys, old-time miners, frocked and unfrocked priests, ladies and women who used to be ladies, winners and losers; their faces are a stunning group portrait of a town long ago known as the Richest Hill on Earth.
At the lunch counter, customers eat husky slabs of liver and onions, hot roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes, swollen spaghetti noodles topped with strong red sauce and accompanied by a roasted quarter chicken, and Whatzit burgers (with cheese, bacon, lettuce, and tomato) accompanied by lanky French fries. Thursday is pasty day, when steaming behemoth baked dough crescents filled with beef, potatoes, and onions are served under a puddle of brown gravy with a cup of vegetable soup and a dish of thick, cream-style coleslaw. Service is lightning-fast and diner-friendly and prices are rock-bottom.
Matt’s Place
Montana St. and Rowe Rd.
406–782–8049
Butte, MT
LD | $
Opened in 1930, Matt’s Place is Montana’s oldest drive-in