The 2020 Food Issue
Showcasing the region's signature dishes, far-flung culinary corners and foodie fanatics
By Beacon Staff
Despite its brevity, the month of February can seem drearily long in the Flathead Valley, with its impenetrable grays, fleeting days and bracing chill testing the hibernal fortitude of even the most stoic winter denizens.
Even on the darkest days, however, food and its attendant communal culinary traditions beams light into our daily lives, drawing us out of our hunched postures and reanimating our spirits.
To celebrate this bond, every year at the Flathead Beacon we turn our editorial attention toward sharing recipes for delicious discovery, interviewing bakers whose pre-dawn milling helps keep the chill away, talking to the premier chefs of the Flathead Valley to learn their secrets and canvassing our readers for their favorite foods.
This week, we celebrate the finer things in life and learn that perhaps the best thing about a great meal isn’t the food on the table but the people around it.
Bon appetit!
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Uncorking Flavor on Flathead Lake
At Woods Bay Wine, bottle shop features fine wine and cuisine
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
From their outpost on Flathead Lake’s eastern shore, David and Emily Meester could, if they were so inclined, employ a liberal definition of the term “rare” — there are sparsely populated segments of Montana where a cheeseburger and Coke would meet the criteria.
At Woods Bay Wine, however, the Meesters are truly offering something exceptional in the form of a bottleshop-restaurant hybrid offering top-tier wine and eats, all from their cozy cove off Montana Highway 35.
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Sweet Peaks in New Places
As its 10-year anniversary approaches in April, the ice cream company continues to provide local flavors while expanding to Texas
By MAGGIE DRESSER of the Beacon
The famous flavor infusions of huckleberries, Flathead cherries and local ciders and breweries that Sweet Peaks Ice Cream has been perfecting for the last decade will continue their southern expansion at a new location in Texas this year.
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Feeding the Future
Flathead and Glacier high school students get a crash course in farming, ranching and more at the freshly renovated H.E. Robinson Agricultural Education Center
By ANDY VIANO of the Beacon
Students at Kalispell’s two public high schools have options to fulfill the district’s elective course requirements and graduate. Among the choices in the career and technical realm, students can study business, learn industrial tech or prepare for their future with a family consumer science course. Or, they can hop on a bus from Flathead or Glacier high school every day and head south, to one of the few working farms operated by a school district in the state of Montana.
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Changing Tastes at Cypress Yard
Whitefish gallery and event space moves to become Mediterranean restaurant
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
Some things, like a hearty stew or rich bisque, take a long, slow boil to reach its fullest, most flavorful potential. The same could be said about Cypress Yard on Wisconsin Avenue in Whitefish.
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What is Montana’s Dish?
Turns out a simple question has a complicated answer
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
When I tell most people that I’m originally from Maine, they usually respond with something like, “Oh, Maine! You have lobster!”
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The Life of a Baker: Q&A with Rick Grimm
Ceres co-owner discusses launching the beloved bakery 14 years ago and growing it into a community cornerstone
By MYERS REECE of the Beacon
Ceres Bakery has been in the same location on Main Street in downtown Kalispell for 14 years, establishing itself as a beloved coffee and pastry shop, as well as a widespread purveyor of delectable baked goods. Its breads, buns and other goodies are available in seven grocery stores and 30 restaurants.