Drive-in may not be the right word. I pulled around back to park, and while menus were posted outside, your best bet at placing an order is to walk through the front door and grab a seat at the original horseshoe dining counter. On the menu, my eyes immediately gravitated toward a single enticing word: nutburger. That, an order of fresh-cut fries, and a bottle of Coke on the rocks would be lunch for today.

In a lot of newer joints, a nutburger would be, say, “a Nut and Vegetable Pattie on a Toasted Whole-Wheat Bun, Baked with Raw Cheddar Cheese, and Topped with Sprouts, Tomatoes, Pickles, Vegenaise, and our Special Sauce.” But at Matt’s, nutburger meant one of their old-fashioned quarter-pound beef patties slathered with an exotic mixture of chopped peanuts and mayonnaise (no “Vegenaise” in sight) and your choice of toppings on a standard bun, all tucked into an old-school folded paper pocket to keep every drop of greasy nuttiness beside the burger.

The burgers are tasty enough to stand on their own, but the nuts add a roasted saltiness straight from the sundae bar. And those old-school handmade fries are as good as they get–even better with a few drops of nut sauce. You may not be able to literally drive-in to Matt’s, but since it’s right off of Montana’s two interstates, there’s no excuse not to stop by.
Matt’s Place Drive-In
2339 Placer Street
Butte, Montana
(406) 782-8049

So I’m not taking any chances with waiting to report my recent discovery of Good Dog, an honest-to-goodness hot dog cart camped on the northeast corner of the Capitol lawn. You won’t find it there every day, but if you do, cancel any other lunch plans you may have and enjoy a locally made sausage from the Real Food Store served on a locally grown-and-baked bun from Wheat Montana. (Real Food doesn’t make frankfurters–yet–so Good Dog gets those from a ranch in North Dakota.)

This is the kind of food cart I would run if I could get out of the office enough. Real Food makes the best sausage around, and with a few return visits you can taste all of them at Good Dog: bratwurst (solid and subtly seasoned), andouille (mace and allspice notes punctuating a hot cayenne baseline), italian sausage (zesty fennel and red pepper), chorizo (deep red chili seasoning with garlic and oregano), and chicken apple sausage (slightly sweet with sage).

Good Dog offers three sausages a day, including the basic frankfurter and one each of hot and mild sausages, grilled to order over a gas-powered hibachi mounted to the side of the cart. There’s organic lemonade and root beer to drink, and homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert. My walk home to let Lena out brings me past Good Dog’s location, and I haven’t yet been able to turn it down when the cart is set up. (Here’s to hoping it stays open into the cooler months, or at least reopens for the Legislature.)

Food carts, like roadside stands and the odd hardware store snackbar, deserve our attention because they provide a cheap way for people to offer diverse foods (don’t take my word for it–listen to an economist). For my money, Montana’s most distinctive, most “local” food comes from such unorthodox outlets like Good Dog. So attention Helenans and visitors to the Capitol: Go there now. (And let me know about any of your favorite Montana street food.)

Good Dog
Southwest Corner of Sixth Avenue & Roberts Street
(across from the Montana Historical Society)
Open for lunch, closed occasionally.

The 2.5 million red-blooded American men aged 18 to 34 who buy Maxim magazine each month will likely drool even more than usual at the September issue. In addition to the magazine’s standard fare of scantily clad models, “actresses” and NFL cheerleaders, there’s a feature on “America’s Top 10 Meat Hogs” – artery-clogging sandwiches piled high that only a carnivore could love. And checking in at No. 2 on the list: The Nuke, a longtime staple at Helena’s own Staggering Ox.

(For some reason the article doesn’t appear on the IR’s website, and the Gazette’s headline refers to a “Helena burger,” which would come as a surprise to the folks at the R&B, Rialto, and Stinkyburger.)

The Staggering Ox, a ferny deli with other branches in Missoula and Spokane, is gradually taking over a local strip mall with its sprawling two-story dining hall cum art gallery–a big improvement over empty retail space. (They once advertised wi-fi, but I don’t whether they still have it.) The Ox calls its sandwiches “Clubfoots,” and they come in hefty cylinders of white bread baked in coffee cans. The winning Nuke (Ham, Turkey, Roast Beef, Swiss, Provolone, Sharp Cheddar, Lettuce & Sauce) actually is on the tamer end of the Ox’s topically-named (and apparently trademarked, but I haven’t figured out the html for the tiny “tm” symbol) Clubfoot sandwiches, which range from the “Yo Momma Osama” (Gyro Meat, Bacon, Black Beans, Gorgonzola, Pepper Jack, Onions, Salsa and your chioce of sauce) to the “Mount St. Helens” (Ham, Turkey, Roast Beef, Pepperoni, Turkey Pastrami, Swiss, Provolone, Sharp Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, Onions, Green Peppers, Mushrooms, Black Olives, Sunflower Seeds, Lettuce & Sauce).

The Clubfoot bread doesn’t add much to the sandwiches other than extra dough, but it’s worth tearing out some of the relatively bland bread to get to the Ox’s daunting selection of ingredients (often from Montana, including roast bison at times) and tangy homemade sauces. You might say that the fresh deli-style Clubfoots don’t belong with true “Meat Hogs” like first place winner the Fat Darrell at R.U. Grill & Pizza in New Brunswick, N.J., which Harrington describes as “a gut bomb featuring chicken fingers, fried cheese sticks and french fries stuffed into a hoagie roll.” Maxim’s Meat Hog article isn’t yet online–and I personally don’t subscribe (honest!)–though I’d be interested in what else made it on this list.

The Staggering Ox
400 Euclid in the Lundy Center
(406) 443-1729