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restaurant, featuring beautiful old murals of the Rocky Mountains on the wall, a short curved counter, and an ancient, bright red, waist-high Coke machine—the kind in which the green glass bottles tinkle when you pry open the top to fetch one. The soda fountain behind the counter is fully equipped: six wands for blending milkshakes, dispensers for syrup, and three tall seltzer spouts. The menu features a root beer float, ice cream sodas, malted milks, and nut sundaes, plus “hot Silex coffee.” To eat, there is the Montana classic, a pork chop sandwich, and all sorts of hamburgers, including a Wimpy special (two patties on one bun), a hamburger with an egg on top, and a nutburger with ground peanuts mixed into the meat. On the side of any sandwich, you want Matt’s fine onion rings.

Pekin Noodle Parlor

117 S. Main St.

406–782–2217

Butte, MT

D | $

Pekin Noodle Parlor is a relic of Butte’s boom days as a mining town, when the small street out back was known as China Alley. An ancient sign on the wall says “Famous Since 1916.” Climb a small dark staircase to the second floor and you will be escorted to your own curtained dining cubicle. The setting suggests exotic intrigue, like an old Montana version of the Shanghai Express. When the food comes from the kitchen, it is announced by the rumble of the waitress’s rolling trolley along the wood-plank floor; the curtain whisks aside, and behold! Here is a vista of foreign food the likes of which most devotees of Asian cookery forgot about fifty years ago.

Chop suey and chow mein are mild, thick, and harmless; fried shrimp are girdled by a pad of breading and served on leaves of lettuce with French fried potatoes as a garnish; sweet and sour ribs drip pineapple-flavored syrup, and the house specialty—noodles—come in a shimmering clear broth with scallions chopped on top. Get the noodles plain or accompanied by strips of pork, beef, or chicken served on the side in a little bowl with half a hard-boiled egg.

The after-dinner drink-menu-that-time-forgot includes separators, stingers, White Russians, and pink squirrels. The thing to drink before a meal is a ditch—Montanese for whiskey and water.

Pork Chop John’s

8 Mercury St.

406–782–0812

Butte, MT

L | $

Pork chop sandwiches are now sold in many Montana restaurants. The place they were invented, and the cognoscenti’s choice, is a hole-in-the-wall on Mercury Street in Butte known as Pork Chop John’s. Although minuscule, John’s is easy to spot by its sign hanging out over the street: a portrait of three smiling pork chops named Wholesome, Healthful, and Delicious.

The sandwiches are patties of ground pork, breaded and fried to a crisp and served “loaded,” which means topped with pickle chips, mustard, and onions. (Mayo, cheese, and ketchup are also available, but must be specified.) They are a savory splurge, crunch-crusted and luscious inside. Enjoy them at John’s small counter or at one of three al fresco tables on the sidewalk, from which you have a view of the cramped back street that was the heart of Butte’s once-thriving (but now extinct) Chinatown.

Red Lodge Café

16–18 S. Broadway

406–446–1619

Red Lodge, MT

BLD | $

The Red Lodge Café is a good reflection of the character of Red Lodge, Montana: eager to please with all modern facilities, yet ingenuous and charming like a mid-twentieth-century tourist stop. The town (once, the home of mountain man Jeremiah Johnson) has been discovered by skiers and tourists heading down through Montana on the scenic route to Yellowstone Park, but it has not been overrun. Here is the real West, and this colorful café serves food to match.

For breakfast, you’ll want to eat jumbo omelets or blueberry buckwheat pancakes, and sip coffee long enough to eavesdrop on the conversations of locals and passers-through. The lunch menu features such stalwart items as country-fried steak and potatoes and buffalo burgers, as well as some fine deluxe hamburgers. For dessert, everybody has pie: apple or berry pie or, best of all, banana cream pie, which is a tender pillow of