Recommendations in Missoula, MT

We took a trip to Missoula, Montana, over the July 4th weekend to visit kin, and it was a wonderful escape from big city life. Missoula is a vibrant place for its size, and pretty cosmopolitan feeling. The downtown core is like a scaled down big city downtown, with galleries, restaurants, interesting shops, farmers' markets, chocolate shops, antique market, you name it. Everyone we met was exceedingly friendly and it didn't hurt that the weather was fantastic.

Let's start with my favorite subject, food. We started the trip, arriving on July 4 itself, and had a very nice bbq at someone's house just outside of town. Standard fare, burgers, but when we mentioned that the burgers were really good, the reply was, "oh, the meat is from my sister's farm". Don't hear that very often! We had 3 fine breakfasts. First was at The Catalyst, that had fantastic bacon and assorted tasty breakfast dishes. Next day was at Sean Kelley's, an Irish bar that also serves breakfast, and, interestingly, has the best Indian food in Missoula too, according to someone who lived in India for a couple of years. My sausage/soda bread benedict was fantastic. Last breakfast was at Caffe Dolce where we had a celebrity sighting -- John Lithgow was in line just ahead of us. He is quite tall! Breakfast items here were very tasty. I had a mushroom and goat cheese quiche, and they have a good selection of bakery items, and also a fine china emporium too.

Dinners. A new place is Plonk Wine, which is a wine bar/restaurant with an upstairs patio in which we unfortunately were just too late to get a table. But the inside was nice too. Food prices were more like normal San Francisco prices, which I guess is expensive for Missoula, but food quality and inventiveness were very good. On the other end of the price scale, and a great find if you are looking for Asian cuisine, is Vietnam Noodle Restaurant. From what we were told, other Asian restaurants in Missoula range from terrible to decent but not authentic; this place was good *and* authentic. They also sell some Asian cooking staples here, such as spring roll sheets, for home cooking.

Places to go. We went to Garnet Ghost Town, about 30 miles east of Missoula, with the last several miles on gravel road. It's an interesting place, with the remaining buildings stabilized by the BLM with money from the entrance fees.

During the July 4th weekend, the Arlee Pow Wow takes place. This is a gathering of Native American tribes with dance and drum performances/competitions, and other Native American cultural presentations. There is also a collection of stalls selling various Native American items, including some very nice (and expensive) artisanal jewelry.

Wandering around downtown: Some beautiful paintings at Dana Gallery, which was open late, along with many other galleries around town, for "1st Fridays". There are a number of street markets on Saturdays. There are two produce markets -- one is vegetables only, on the north end of Higgins Ave; the other is below the Higgins Ave bridge over the river on the southern end of downtown -- it has a mix of vendors selling ready-to-eat, produce, natural beauty products, and vendors selling assorted other items. There is also an arts/crafts market in between those two. Higgins was full of people having a fun day out on Saturday morning.

Another place a bit out of town, but a good destination if you like beer, is Wildwood Brewing, a very small artisanal brewing outfit that's, as of 2013, less than a year old. It's just outside of Stevensville on US93 south of Missoula, housed in a barn moved piece by piece from Wisconsin. Their beers are very nicely drinking beers, not overly hoppy or bitter tasting. One of the owners told us that it's relatively easy to brew more bitter tasting beers because the bitterness can be used to hide flaws in the brewing, whereas the styles they brew require much more precision. We hope they do well.

Finally, can't forget to mention Big Dipper Ice Cream on Higgins just south of the river bridge. Lots of interesting flavors, and lines that can get really long!