organic restaurant in missoula

Here is the link the Burns Street Bistro, it's the joint that opened up adjacent to the co-op. I have been there a couple of times and enjoyed it. They do breakfast and lunch and make a point of serving fresh and local. The rumor I got was that it's the side project of a couple of guys from another place on Paul's top 5.

Burns Street Bistro

As with the co-op it's a tucked away locale and tough to get the drive-by crowd.

It would certainly benefit from some good word-of-mouth publicity!

Eating breakfast at riverside right now.

Started with cherry clafouti. Moved on to bacon and eggs. Clearly the bacon and the eggs come from an excellent farm. Both are excellent. The ham looks like bacon and the bacon looks like ham. The toast is served with strawberry compote - clearly something made here. The sausage patty is also obviously made here. I know that derrick gets whole pigs and breaks them down in the back. His knowlege of pork is exceptional.

I think the breakfast plate is eight bucks. Far to cheap for what you get.

paul wheaton wrote:Eating breakfast at riverside right now.

Started with cherry clafouti. Moved on to bacon and eggs. Clearly the bacon and the eggs come from an excellent farm. Both are excellent. The ham looks like bacon and the bacon looks like ham. The toast is served with strawberry compote - clearly something made here. The sausage patty is also obviously made here. I know that derrick gets whole pigs and breaks them down in the back. His knowlege of pork is exceptional.

I think the breakfast plate is eight bucks. Far to cheap for what you get.

Seconding the rave review. The sausage was herb-y-sage-y in a very pleasing way.

Derrick came out and said that this morning they are working on a new dessert for tomorrow night and brought us a sample. It is a lemon/elderflower custard with huckleberry compote on top and hazelnut brittle. So there are three distinct flavors plus three distinct textures. All in perfect harmony. At the moment I cannot think of anything that I have put in my mouth that has been better.

I had their bison tartar and it was amazing! One of the best restaurant I have been to.

paul wheaton wrote:Derrick came out and said that this morning they are working on a new dessert for tomorrow night and brought us a sample. It is a lemon/elderflower custard with huckleberry compote on top and hazelnut brittle. So there are three distinct flavors plus three distinct textures. All in perfect harmony. At the moment I cannot think of anything that I have put in my mouth that has been better.

Here's a pic!

The Roxy Theater (718 S. Higgins) serves organic/GMO free popcorn.

1. They use only Lifeline organic butter (from Victor, MT).
2. Organic safflower oil (and Endangered Species chocolate bars) from the Missoula Food Co-op.
3. Their organic popcorn kernals are bought at The Good Food Store.

Please support The Roxy: "Missoula's Community Cinema"!

Chris Sand wrote:The Roxy Theater (718 S. Higgins) serves organic/GMO free popcorn.

1. They use only Lifeline organic butter (from Victor, MT).
2. Organic safflower oil (and Endangered Species chocolate bars) from the Missoula Food Co-op.
3. Their organic popcorn kernals are bought at The Good Food Store.

Please support The Roxy: "Missoula's Community Cinema"!

Roxy FTW!

paul wheaton wrote:Derrick came out and said that this morning they are working on a new dessert for tomorrow night and brought us a sample. It is a lemon/elderflower custard with huckleberry compote on top and hazelnut brittle. So there are three distinct flavors plus three distinct textures. All in perfect harmony. At the moment I cannot think of anything that I have put in my mouth that has been better.

Took some special friends to the Riverside on Tuesday and since there were five of us, we tried all five desserts on the menu. This pot de creme won the most votes for best dessert even though all five were absolutely choice.

Riverside is gone. A sad day for Missoula.


In the meantime, I hit "the top 4" again, and stopped in at "plonk". I have to confess that for "plonk" - it's some sort of "wine bar" and I don't like wine (or any alcohol). So I suppose things are optimized for people who have taste buds in the wine space. For appetizers we got some cheese and charcuterie meats. All of the cheeses were the kind of cheese that somebody from france would groove on to go with their nasty wine. The meats were good. We also got fresh rolls. I would have liked great gobs of sauce with my fresh rolls. So I'm thinking this place is too froo-froo for me. The entree arrived and I thought that this would be a perfect entree for a child. A small child. And I'm a giant guy. So I was set to be disappointed and order three deserts to get me to some place where I could get a burger or something. But the entree was excellent. Clearly the chef knows his way around proper use of fat. It was freakishly delicious and surprisingly filling. I did not order any deserts, nor did I get something later. I was full for the night. It was a culinary experience. Oh! And one last little bit: the waitress was passionate at explaining that the pork came from a farm up north where the standards were "above organic".

We ate at Scotty's Table and were so impressed we ended up going back. And we were impressed again. Much better than my experiences a few years ago.

Red Bird fell a little flat twice.

The Pearl seems to have evolved into a place that seems to be THE place to go to for your 80th birthday. I remember having a stunning meal there four years ago, but lately it seems ..... not as good as the others.

The Silk Road is still a great restaurant. I guess it seems that that staff at Scotty's seem to be authentically excited about the food and the customers and staff at the Silk Road seem to be working their day job.

I ate at Cafe Dolce a couple of years ago. And then it occurred to me that I should add them to this list, so I went there for lunch and once for dinner. This was shortly after Riverside closed, so it is possible that I was judging them Riverside standards. At Riverside there was always enthusiasm for the people arriving, enthusiasm for food and enthusiasm for life. Plus the food was always epic. And the chef would come out to talk about his food passions and where all of the ingredients came from. At Cafe Dolce it seemed like college kids serving food because it was their job.

So here is my latest list of what I think are the best restaurants in town.

1) Scotty's Table
2) The Silk Road
3) Plonk
4) Red Bird
5) The Pearl
6) Cafe Dolce

If you are hungry a bit east of Missoula, Parker's Restaurant in Drummond serves local beef, as 125 or so different kinds of burgers. I don't know what else is local/organic, but the couple that run it are a chef from San Francisco and his wife that got bitten by the Montana bug. Yummy burgers, some of the best homemade fries, ever, and friendly people.

Now Missoula has a Chipotle's which touts itself as offering sustainable, locally sourced food.

And in reading a Missoulian article about Masala, which is just opening on Main Street (where the Walking Moustache was), it sounds like they source their meat locally and butcher themselves, using all the parts. I guess they have fans from their food cart, though I'd never tried it, though now they have the brick-and-mortar location just opening this weekend and Monday, in fact!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Good Food Store yet, because they do serve organic meals. Some of them are pretty good.

Also, I'm on the inside with the Post Office, and I know that grocery delivery may become a real thing soon. So hold on to your hats about getting food delivered to your home, and let's hope we can order from more than Albertsons.

And best of all is to cook at home with friends!

The Weston A Price Foundation was trying to come up with a cool restaurant rating system that would help bring up discussions about many things that permies might be looking for in a restaurant (with the exceptions of some vegan/vegetarians). I’m not sure how successful they’ve been but here are examples of their criteria from their website:

“Our 12 Criteria

From Scratch: Serves mostly (i.e., more than half of the menu) fresh food, prepared from scratch. Does NOT rely primarily on kits or prepared/partially prepared foods from commercial food services. More…

Local/Organic: Offers at least some locally sourced and/or organically produced food and/or 
wild-caught seafood. More…

Pastured: Offers at least some pastured animal foods.

Organs: Offers some dishes made with organ meats (liver/paté, sweetbreads, heart, kidney, brains, etc.).

Cooking Fats: Cooks (sautés) in natural fats such as butter, lard, tallow, duck fat, coconut oil, or olive oil; uses lard, duck fat, or tallow for frying.

Bone Broth: Makes own bone broths/stocks for use in soups, stews, gravies, and sauces (does NOT use canned broth or powdered soup bases).

Seasonings: Makes own seasoning mixes (does NOT use flavoring packets or MSG)

Salad Oils: Makes own salad dressings using olive oil or cold-pressed sesame oil.

Breads: Offers genuine sourdough bread.
Beverages: Offers lacto-fermented beverages (such as kombucha or kvass).

Condiments: Offers lacto-fermented condiments.

Desserts: Offers desserts made in house with natural sweeteners (such as raw honey, maple syrup, maple sugar, molasses, date sugar, palm sugar, coconut sugar, sorghum syrup, or malt syrup).

Alana Rose wrote:The Weston A Price Foundation was trying to come up with a cool restaurant rating system that would help bring up discussions about many things that permies might be looking for in a restaurant

The system is called 12 spoons. Here is the website: https://www.westonaprice12spoons.com/