By DANIELLE MARTIN/Montana State News

On a drizzly Sunday afternoon Bar 3 Bar-B-Q in Belgrade is hardly full. With the weekend brunch rush just ending, a few employees sit at the bar at the end of their shift along with a few regulars. The room is bright and inviting despite the weather with picnic tables lining the windows overlooking the train tracks that run through the center of town.

A sign shaped like the state of Montana says “Drink Local” and old black-and-white photographs adorn the brightly painted walls. As a train rumbles by a few feet from the window a servers says, “Oh no the train, sometimes we have to shut the windows it’s so loud.” The patrons don’t seem fazed, though, as they continue sipping and chatting away.

In the remodeled blue warehouse the room is a mixture of innovation and nostalgia. Todd Hough, the owner and brewer of Outlaw Brewing located inside Bar 3 said he fell in love with beer after a trip to Belgium in 1996 and knew he wanted to make it his career.

Hough isn’t there yet, but the customers and employees have nothing but great things to say about him. One local on his way out the door says, “Todd is my favorite brewer. He’s just weird and funny and great.”

A server offers small book and says “All you need to know about Todd is in this book.” It is “The Mustache Growers Guide.” She points to the cover and says, “It’s a cross between that one and that one” pointing to two outlandish mustaches and the other employees laugh.  Continue reading “Brewmaster loves sharing his passion for beer” →

By JACQUELINE BLACKWOOD/Montana State News

Tiffany Lach, owner of Bozeman’s local Sola Café, strives to create an environment that is “all about the people” with “good food plus good thought.” Lach’s ultimate goal when opening her café was to focus on creating an environment where people from the community can gather and enjoy delicious, locally grown food.

Sola Café is a local restaurant that makes “everything from scratch using only the freshest ingredients sourced as locally as possible,” according to the restaurant’s website. However, in Montana with winter weather that lasts longer than the growing season, it is difficult to find all the necessary items year-round.

Ingredients are often brought in from more Western states which have the available crops. However, Lach explains that they always try to remain as local as possible.

“It’s as much about quality as it is about local,” she said. “If it’s not good quality, we’ll buy from farther away.” According to Lach, quality depends on how the food is grown. She said, “If it’s grown with a bunch of chemicals or pesticides we won’t buy.”

According to Lach, one of the primary reasons she strives to buy local products is to aid the local Bozeman economy and to provide good food for the community. Continue reading “Cafe more than a business for its owner” →