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Moose’s Saloon – A Spring Break Pilgrimage

Moose’s Saloon – A Spring Break Pilgrimage

By Kevin Finch on April 1, 2009

People in the know will travel for hundreds of miles for a pizza at Moose’s Saloon.

Moose's Saloon, Kalispell MT

Is it because you can’t get a better pizza closer to home?  Probably not.

I’ve tasted better pizzas all around the country.  But I still love Moose’s.

Maybe it is the sawdust on the floor.  Or the thick frosty goblets for beer (or soda).  Or the fact that most of the tables and booths set back from the bar exist in almost absolute dark.

Peanuts To Eat While Waiting For Pizza

The decades of names carved into the tables, walls, beams, and other wooden surfaces provide both character and reading material while you wait.  I recommend a flashlight to ease your eye strain if you go looking for the name I carved into the beam above booth seven or eight during a bachelor’s party seventeen years ago, but squinting at the walls and table top is more than adequate for the casual student of saloon patrons with pen knives.

Maybe I keep returning because of the massive bag of peanuts still in their shells behind the bar that the bartender serves up in paper french fry baskets.  I know I love the expectation you to throw the shells on the floor, and should note that this fact alone moved Moose’s to the top of the list of my twin boys’ favorite restaurants in the known universe.

And the pizza… competent bar pies with fairly standard toppings.  It probably won’t put the kitchen up for a James Beard award, but it does stick in your memory as satisfying food.

No…  the truth is that Moose’s is worth the pilgrimage to Kalispell Montana not for any one reason alone but because of the rare combination of many.  I’ll most likely be back in a booth the next time I visit the Flathead and the next and the next.  I may even let Peter order shrimp out of can on one half of one pie again.  This most definitely is not for any defensible culinary reason, but simply because it has turned into something of a tradition and what pilgrimage doesn’t rest on sacred tradition… even if that is something as curious as shrimp in a can.

If you have a Moose’s story, please share.  Or if you have a place that has inspired a culinary pilgrimage for you, do tell.

[caption id="attachment_377" align="alignnone" width="425" caption="Mr Cheese, Mr Shrimp, and Mr Canadian Bacon"]Mr Cheese, Mr Shrimp, and Mr Canadian Bacon[/caption]

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Eating With The Nordstroms

Eating With The Nordstroms

By Kevin Finch on November 5, 2008

cover of a Cafe Nordstrom menu

I have one shirt from Nordstrom.  It was a gift from a friend, Janet Moffit, who died from cancer just over a year ago.  I love my shirt, and think of Janet every time I put it on.

This affection, though, for my shirt or for Janet has never compelled me to wander into Nordstrom to sample the food in their cafe.  Call me food prejudiced, but there are Cafe Nordstroms in multiple locations.  In my book the place qualifies as a chain and I tend to scorn chain restaurants.  Prejudice point one.

It is also a restaurant in a clothing store.  Prejudice point two.  I don’t typically look to retail giants… even a high-end ones… for my food.  And you might recall Nordstrom started as a Seattle shoe shop.  The only link I can make between shoes and food is the smell of certain stinky cheeses.

Then prejudice point three: I assumed Cafe Nordstrom by definition would be solely the hang-out of a shopping set to which I will probably never belong.  I don’t fit into a Size 4.

This said, I need to come clean.  It turns out I’ve eaten ‘chain food’ food before and enjoyed it immensely.  My grandfather used to take me, my sister, and our cousins to McDonalds in Kalispell Montana when I was young.  The Big Macs I ate on those occassions are some of my best childhood memories.

As for prejudice point two.  I need to consider the source.  Part of a great meal is the setting and service and Nordstrom excells at both.

Then there was my assumption about Cafe Nordstrom clientele: one of the first people to wander in after I arrived was a guy who regularly works out at the gym where I am a member.  So much for prejudice point three.

As I waited to order, I did notice quite a few salad coming out of the kitchen: stereotypical food for the Size 4 shopping set.  Yet there is a possible alternative explanation; a great salad is a joy to behold and wonder to eat. And the first salad on the menu at Cafe Nordstrom is within striking distance of both.

I suggest you conquer any dining predjuces you have, and find the time to swing into Nordstrom yourself for the Chicken, Apple, and Goat Cheese Salad ($9.75).  Well dressed (ha) in a champagne vinagrette (okay, maybe I’m a little prejudiced still… CHAMPAGNE?!), the salad tops organic baby greens and romaine with chicken, fresh and dried apples, spice almonds, red onion (not much… bad for your breath during round two of shopping), and soft creamy goat cheese.

The flavors work like a great food ensemble, but my favorite ingredient was the goat cheese.  It is mild with the consistency of whipped cream cheese.  Chain or not… clothing store roots or not… shopping clientele or not… I’ll be back and I’ll be ordering a salad.

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