by Rebecca Schmitz
I get to travel around the state as part of my job, and because of that I’m in Bozeman tonight. Earlier this evening, I had dinner at a wonderful restaurant, Ferraro’s Fine Italian on North 7th.* Right next to me sat a table of tourists, two elderly couples well into their 70s. The women wore matching sweater sets and pearls, the men dress slacks and patterned button-down shirts: fly rods, trout, reels. The shirts must have been purchased specifically for roughing it in Montana. Why else would you wear a cliché? My eavesdropping met the volume of their voices halfway, because even though they talked about their homes in Florida, their accents and noisy enthusiasm betrayed an origin farther north. Conversation moved easily from mutual friends back in the Sunshine State to favorite cruise lines, the best selections on the wine list, Connie Francis and Frankie Avalon. I was distracted by my luscious penne ai quattro formaggi, so I missed how and when the topic of conversation turned, but shortly I overheard the men discussing a certain ice cream parlor on 61st that used to be a “front”, time spent in Sicily, and their close friend Lucky Luciano. Whoa. Suddenly, I was sitting next to a whole other type of cliché. The wives moved the discussion away from Mr. Luciano’s legal troubles with the U.S. Government to a movie the couples had recently seen, 3:10 to Yuma. Both men agreed the original, with Glenn Ford, was much better. Why? Because, as the older and louder of the two angrily proclaimed, “They shoot the guns, and you don’t just see the gun fire. No, you see the damage caused by the bullets. You see the blood. The movies these days, they’re so gory!”
*I’m not sure why anyone would bother with Johnny Crapino’s when this restaurant is in their town. Missoula should be so lucky.
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September 17, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Carino’s is a loud, hurried plate of Generica.
You’re in the Italian restaurant where the locals hang out when you’re in Ferraros. You never know who you’ll see hanging out there. And it’s got a lot of soft, casual, sound absorbing furniture so that you can converse with whomever you meet.
September 18, 2007 at 5:12 am
Unless you’re sitting next to a herd of Noo Yawkers.
Why do Bozeman folks go to Carino’s, Noodly? Every time I drive by (ours too), the parking lot’s always full. Thanks to Ferraro’s, you guys have an excellent alternative to chain Italian.
September 18, 2007 at 5:46 am
Carinos is cheaper and has a lot of seating. I think it’s all about “regional trade center activity”.
Ferraros generally is full of established clientele, from all over Montana, and the adventurous tourist. I’d guess the noo yawkers, whatever their faults, weren’t interested in touring the country to eat at a Carinos and shop in a Target in every town along the way.
BTW, didja check out the new library?
September 18, 2007 at 7:19 am
Ugh, Carino’s is awful. Lots of melted cheese on limp pasta and not an al dente noodle in sight. Mambo (new to the Hip Stip) is about the best you’re going to do for basic Italian standards in Missoula- the food is really quite good, but boy is that place loud! I’d love to see a quiet, relatively affoprdable place in Missoual where you could tuck into a back booth for an hour or more and enjoy a quiet conversation, a meal followed by dessert and spresso, the whole deal.
September 18, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I’ve eaten at Ciao Mambo once. The food and the service were very good, but it was like you said–loud, crowded and hot. Higgins Alley does Italian. I’ve had one excellent meal (veal piccata) and one horrible one (pasta carbonara–note to the chef: carbonara does not need both pancetta and Italian sausage unless the goal was to make it taste like something served at Pizza Hut).
I think the best Italian on this end of the state is Marie’s in Stevensville. Unfortunately, they’re only open during the summertime.
I didn’t see the new library, Noodly. I was too busy dodging the construction on Main Street. Are they putting in brick crosswalks at every intersection?
September 18, 2007 at 5:37 pm
That new library is gorgeous…
One of the things I like about Bozeman’s development – especially on Main Street, but you see it elsewhere, is that even the new buildings have a shade of ‘old’ in them – whether it is texture or materials. They aren’t trying to fake it, but the buildings have a throwback to the older buildings….
September 18, 2007 at 6:45 pm
As much as I love Missoula, I have to say it: Bozeman has a cooler downtown. The architecture, the atmosphere, the gorgeous old houses just off Main and Mendenhall…all you guys need now are some better bars. I wish the Ellen and the Rialto were regularly working theaters with live music and everything, just like our Wilma.
And I like the look of a lot of the newer businesses on North Rouse. They look like they’re using old agricultural and industrial buildings and restoring and updating them, but retaining the funky character.
September 18, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I just wanted to add, though, that hands down the best downtown in Montana is uptown Butte.
September 18, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I like Whitefish’s downtown – especially in the winter.
September 18, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Yep, we are doing the stamped concrete crosswalks, that look like brick, at every intersection. It’s a pain for the downtown businesses.
Thanks for the kind words about Bozeman. Keeping downtown viable is a huge priority and we hope that there is continued investment in downtown and around the new parking garage.
And north seventh (where Ferraro’s is) has a new urban renewal district and TIF laid over it, and a “complete streets” new urbanist design that is so radical that the MDOT is howling that it doesn’t fit their standards .
September 19, 2007 at 5:58 pm
BTW the textured concrete crosswalks are more than pretty. Blind people rely on the texturual feedback.
September 19, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Do you know how much of that was funded by federal and/or state grants?
September 19, 2007 at 8:19 pm
By “how much of that” I’ll guess you mean the Main Street project. Main Street is a federal highway under state jurisdiction, US 191. I do believe all of the overlay and upgrade project (corners, lights, overlay, crosswalks, crosswalk lights) was fed/state money except the fancy streetlights (over the stoplights) and the upgrade to those from cobra headed lights was paid for by the Downtown TIF.
September 20, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I’m entirely sincere when I say this–I love how this moved from a post about two of Murder Inc.’s foot soldiers vacationing in Montana to a discussion of TIF monies.
September 21, 2007 at 5:53 am
I was referring to the Main Street project. I was in Bozeman in late July – spent the weekend. It’s all looking good.
I thought, though, that they were supposed to be done with that about 2 weeks after I left – at least, that was the story in the paper while I was there.
I asked because our downtown could benefit from the same type of treatment.
TIF funds are for facilitation of non-motorized transportation, yet we can’t even seem to be able to get bike lanes for major transportation corridors yet alone improvements that facilitate both business and pedestrian movement.
{sigh}
September 22, 2007 at 12:05 am
The project will be done when snow flies… in hell.
At times, traffic has been routed in ways that resemble the scene from Animal House where the marching band ends up mashed together at the end of the dead end alley.