Somers never has felt like a complete town to me. Even as a kid riding up to Sliter’s Lumber with grandpa, I had the sense that a complete town needed more than a hardware store and two bars. In the current configuration of this intersection of several streets at the northwest end of Flathead Lake, there is a solid little cafe. In a previous incarnation, the spot next to Sliter’s housed a bank. I suspect the business is better now that they offer biscuits and gravy rather than free checking.
The Somers Bay Cafe, established in 1997, is popular not for newfangled Yippie breakfast items packed with tofu and wheat germ, but for the simple farm breakfast options offered at thousands of similar cafes across the country: omeletes and scrambles, French toast and pancakes, biscuits and gravy, as well as the prerequisite bowl of oatmeal. They do make their own multigrain bread (mine was a bit dry) and the chorizo sausage in several Mexican-leaning platters is made in house.
I’d call it a decent breakfast spot, but hardly one to survive for over a decade on comfort food alone. I think at least part of the reason it is packed so often is that it makes Somers feel a bit more like a real town rather than just a little spur off of Highway 93 with a few old buildings.
