thelocaldiner.com

Except for the neon star luring burger lovers near and far, Matt’s Place (PDF) is a nondescript house backed by a railroad, down the hill from Uptown Butte on the far side of the interstate. Still, it has managed a designation on the National Historic Register, it being a prime candidate for Montana’s first–and now oldest–drive-in.

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

This St. Patrick’s day many Montanans lamented the closure of the M&M Bar after 113 years of 24-hour service. So here’s some great news (on the 100th Anniversary of Bloomsday, no less):

BUTTE — The M&M Cigar Store, a landmark here for more than a century but closed 14 months ago in a bankruptcy case, may be reopening soon.

Bud Walker, a real estate agent and Butte-Silver Bow commissioner, said he hopes to reopen the bar by late summer.

He said the family partnership deal with owner Patty Lisac, including its liquor license, may close in July.

So raise a toast to Commissioner Walker for taking up the mantle of a Butte institution!

And if you missed the opportunity to buy the M&M (asking price $195,000, but some construction needed to bring it up to code), you have several other chances to own a piece of history, from the Irish Times (the M&M’s St. Patty’s day stand-in), to the Anaconda Company’s pay office, to the Dumas Brothel (”America’s Longest Running House of Prostitution”). Let’s hope they all end up in good hands.

47 East Broadway
Butte, Montana

There’s a website called Chowhound that inspired me to write about good local food on the internet. The Uptown Cafe in Butte is the most famous restaurant in Montana, Chowhound-wise. Autumn and I came through Butte the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, and hoped to find some pre-parade revelry. But Butte was quiet that night, so we passed the bars and dropped into the Uptown.

The Uptown cooks creative, upscale take on traditional Montana supper club cuisine. (While I have heard that they pride themselves on seasonal entrees, the special was the same (delicious) maple and whiskey pork loin I enjoyed in the fall a couple of years ago.) You can start with a cocktail, wine from a short list of standards, or local or domestic beers, and they are all about as inexpensive as you’ll find in a restaurant this good. While the interior is simple and neutral, the walls displayed several large-formate black and white WPA-ere photographs of Butte, on loan from the Montana Historical Society.

The menu offers several lavish steak and seafood options, and we dove right in with Beef Wellington and Coquilles St. Jacques (scallops backed in a gruyere white sauce). But remember the supper club theme: first you have a bowl of cheddar soup or a salad, then cheese-breaded “clams maison” on the half-shell, then a side of undistinguished linguine, and then your main course. Had we been hauling ore all day, we might have still been hungry after these opening courses (and we didn’t even have appetizers), but by the time the entrees came, we felt defeated. All of the entrees should be big enough to stand on their own without the supper club-style excess. Still we plowed through, and the Beef Wellington managed to contain a tender filet inside the flaky pastry, although the brown gravy was more of a reduction that I could have used more of. Autumn’s scallops were small, and baked in a savory but not smooth gruyere sauce; between the two of us we could only finish half the dish, but it would have made a tasty appetizer as a smaller portion.

Dessert was out of the question, though their cheesecake varieties sounded just as over-the-top as the rest of the meal. We’d hate to miss out on one of the other rich entrees, so next time, we’ll just waive the first three courses in hopes of making it to the cheesecake.