Lakeside, R.I.P.
A few months ago some friends took us on a drive out of town to the shores of Hauser Lake on the Missouri. The destination was a classic Montana roadhouse, and in the late winter dark beyond the bar service lights illuminated pleasure boat docks. We blew through the smoke and the din of video poker machines and entered a glassed door to a small sanctuary on the north end of the building. This place had a story behind it: Cody Smith, a young Californian who was introduced to the restaurant business at his uncle’s place in the Madison Valley, and later came to the Lakeside Resort for a year-round clientele.
The timbered walls gave way to a quiet whitewashed gallery of food-themed prints, and about eight tables topped with linen. A pleasant server presented us with our table, and a short menu and wine list. The selection of entrees were what you might find at the kind of supper club you’d expect on the county road we took–chicken, salmon, lamb–but the preparations were inspired, eclectic, even delicate. I can just remember the calamari, and salmon in broth (tomato?). I also remember looking forward to exploring the rest of the menu in future visits, maybe when summer came around and the lakeside deck at the end of the dining room opened.
But before I made it back to Hauser Lake, Smith left and the Lakeside returned to a tavern. I wasn’t too surprised, since it was all so unlikely to begin with: an inventive and ambitious chef, dedicated to great ingredients and paired with a room with a view, serving year-round at a summer season lakeside bar fifteen minutes outside of Helena. Still, at a roadhouse on some county road far from the resort towns, another Cody Smith will come along. Let me know if you find him.