Happy Thursday, everyone! While out on assignment at Hungry Horse’s newest restaurant, Tex and Jerry’s, I got some big food news. And it involves tacos!

The kitchen at Tex and Jerry’s is in the hands of Mike and Andrea Scallen. Some of you may recognize them from The Columbia Bar, where Mike earned a reputation for his beloved Taco Tuesdays.

As Scallen told me yesterday, earlier in his career as a chef, he had a chance to work with a lot of cooks from Mexico and Latin America. When it was their turn to make the staff’s family meal, he said Mexican food was often on the menu. Eventually, Scallen turned to his colleagues and said, “You guys got to teach me how to do this the right way.”

It was a kind of culinary exchange, where Scallen said he shared some of his knowledge about sauces, butchery and charcuterie, and in return learned the ins and outs of a cuisine he had come to love.

But Taco Tuesdays sadly dissipated when The Columbia Bar closed in the fall of 2024. Tex and Jerry’s has been open for about a month with a limited menu focused on sandwiches and salads. That menu is set to expand in the near future. As word has gotten out that Scallen has a new food venture, devoted lovers of Taco Tuesday have begun appearing at Tex and Jerry’s asking when it’s coming back.

Well, I have news for you! Taco Tuesday is set to make its grand return next week at Tex and Jerry’s! (On Tuesday, in case you hadn’t put that part together.)

Full disclosure, this reporter is filled with regret for having never experienced the original Columbia Bar Taco Tuesday. But I heard plenty about it from friends and coworkers who live or lived in the Columbia Falls area, some of whom feared that one day the secret would get out about what they believed was one of the best food specials in the Flathead Valley.

Scallen was generous enough to share some details with me, despite my amateur status.

“We do the process. We don’t buy our product. We don’t flub it,” he said.

The process, means preparing as many as eight different taco fillings. Those include a beef barbacoa, pork carnitas (“with a heavier citrus note”), spicy Mandarin-glazed popcorn shrimp with a peach and mango habanero salsa, beer-battered cod with lime and cilantro coleslaw, chicken mole, a vegan filling with quinoa, black beans, corn and sweet potatoes, and a braised Chinese five-spice pork belly with watermelon-jicama salsa and lime crema. I think that’s seven, so we’ll just have to let that eighth taco filling remain a mystery for now.

I’m told they’re fairly big tacos, too, and some find that two is enough for one person. Part of what makes these larger tacos possible is that Scallen and his wife fry their own taco shells.

They’re also in the process of building up a tray of hot sauces. Scallen said at The Columbia, the hot sauce tray for Taco Tuesdays at one point reached almost 300 options, but generally it was around 100 to 150. It’s a work in progress rebuilding that particular wonder of the modern world, but regardless, it sounds like there will be plenty of hot sauce on hand.

After hearing all this yesterday, Tuesday can’t come soon enough. I’m officially dreaming of tacos. And Tuesdays, I guess.

Scallen says he thinks they will start serving tacos at the inaugural Tex and Jerry’s Taco Tuesday at 2 p.m. on Aug. 19, and will continue serving them into the evening. There are plans for live music on the back deck as well. Tex and Jerry’s kitchen is open until 11 p.m., with last call coming around 10:30 p.m.

Tex and Jerry’s is located at 8942 Highway 2 East in Hungry Horse. You can find more information at https://texandjerrys.com/.

Although I wouldn’t mind talking about tacos all day, there’s plenty of news today at flatheadbeacon.com, so let’s get into some news. I’m Mike Kordenbrock, bringing you the Daily Roundup…