Destinations

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The Big Fork Inn

Big Fork, Montana

JUST NORTH OF FLATHEAD Lake and a little to the east, if the one stoplight is green, you can zip through a town by the name of Big Fork, Montana, without even noticing it. From the highway, it has nothing to offer other than the obligatory roadside cafés, convenience stores and gas stations.

But stop. Head right on Big Fork’s main drag and you quickly see that this is no dried-up, tumbleweed town. There’s life here in the form of a new 435-seat playhouse built entirely on community donations, and there’s food for that life served in several good restaurants sprinkled throughout the town.

By far Big Fork’s best restaurant, and quite possibly the best between Seattle and Vail, is the Big Fork Inn, a culinary surprise in a land of fry cooks and Dairy Queens. Owners Bob and Susan Keenan have turned the inn into more than a restaurant;

it is a social center. On weekends, a fiveto 10-piece jazz band plays traditional dance tunes.

After a spin or two while waiting for a table, dancers are treated to a menu more akin to what you would

expect in Southern California, with fresh seafood, veal and chicken entrees holding center stage.

stage. If you get tired of dancing, and when you can’t eat any more, ask Bob about his R69 BMW. He says he’s going to restore it just in time for his mid-life crisis.

Camron E. Bussard

Information The Big Fork Inn Box 697 Big Fork, MT 59911 (406) 837-6680