For the record, it was the "Lodge at Whitefish Lake." It's fine, but at about 100$ a night I got much less than I get at my usual 50-70$ a night hotels. No free breakfast, slow wifi, no control of room heat (several of the conference attendees agreed that the thermostats had no effect on the room temp). My room was 71degs F the WHOLE TIME. I can't sleep that warm. I only had a sliding glass door to a patio, which was lovely, but no window to crack and leave open in hopes of cooling off a bit. The gas fireplace had 2 temperature settings, 1: world's biggest pilot light 2: center of the sun.
The good bits were the food elsewhere. I didn't try food at the "Lodge." The prices were not in my approved range for standard fare.
So, road trip!
Just down the road 1/2 mile was the Montana Tap House. The food...meh. Cheap and edible. It looked like the "cook" had to go out the back door and back in to bring food.
The brews though! Good! My colleague tried a beer and said it was excellent.
I had a beet kombucha on tap from Dark Side Fermenters. It was most excellent!!!
I know one of the fermenters...kombuchers...one of the people who owns the company who makes the stuff. OK, I sort of know him. He's adorbs. Hi Pete!
Had I known I could get them to fill a growler I would have gone to a thrift store and gotten one of those football-sideline-beverage-cooler things and brought home about 5 gallons. Damn. Next time.
The colleague and I headed south one day to tour some work relevant sites. Really.
We of course, had to eat as well.
Polson, Montana...who knew the food was so good???
First we stopped at Flathead Lake Cheese. Go get some. I don't even eat cheese (damn you dairy!)
I tasted a tiny bit. It was good. I got some for office gifts and it was well received. Smoked gouda and some garlicky cheese curds. The place is all solar and you buy cheese out the side window of the old house. It's the bomb.
Next door, across the alley actually, is the Cherries BBQ Pit. OMG! Brisket sandwich is awesome. For reals. It came with 2 sides, 8$ total. I got "ribbon fries" and coleslaw. A ribbon fry turns out to be a giant russet potato sent through a veggie spiralizer into hot fat. It was HUGE. And delicious. The coleslaw was quite nice. I also ordered some pork rinds for the table. They come sprinkled with the house rub. Very very very good. And huge.
This was the first time in ages I could not finish a meal. I took it with me and had it for supper. 2 meals for 11$ (including the rinds). I tried to buy a bottle of the jack daniels sauce, but the waitress lady never quite figured out that my saying "I want to buy a bottle of that" meant that I wanted to buy a bottle of that.
No great meals on the way home sadly. We had to just drive straight through. Oh well. I plan to take a road trip to the area again as a leisure trip and to bring my stretchy pants.
