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(Image: Montana)
Montana specials circa 2013. Like we said, not much has changed (Image: CHS)
A few of you are old enough to have been here for the birth of a Capitol Hill dive bar. This week, Montana, E Olive Way’s tribute to small town dives celebrates ten years of good times on Capitol Hill.
Rachel Marshall described the plan in 2011 as “very divey and comfortable” and a “come as you are” kind of place with no “precious cocktails” but lots of beer and bourbon like the “small town bars all over Montana.”
Ten years later, not a lot has changed.
Montana was born out of a bar space first forged by The Buck, a short-lived venture from the Bleu Bistro family of food and drink venues that was purchased to make way for the project from the Montana crew.
The original setup squeezed operations for Marshall’s growing ginger beer venture in the back of Montana after years in borrowed space in the kitchen of 12th Ave’s Lark. In 2013, Montana spread out as Rachel’s Ginger Beer moved its production off the Hill.
Husband and wife team Marshall and Adam Peters, and Kate Opatz have grown Montana into a neighborhood staple and helped make its stretch of E Olive Way home to the homiest set of Capitol Hill bars around. Nearby Hillside Bar has been doing its thing since a little after Montana’s debut, while Capitol Hill vinyl bar Revolver has been spinning since its 2014 debut on the street. Meanwhile across the street, E Olive Way grandaddy The Crescent and its 70+ years of booze-y history is still going strong under new management even as new neighbors like the E Olive Way Uncle Ike’s and new development like the nearby planned eight-story project to create new apartments and a new home for City Market continue to reshape the area.
The Montana crew has also done its fair share of shaping Capitol Hill. On Broadway in 2014, they teamed up to create Nacho Borracho and its rotating cast of food and drink roommates. T’Juana Tacos holds down the Nacho kitchen window these days.
In 2015, Marshall debuted her Rachel’s Ginger Beer location in the 12th Ave Arts building.
Meanwhile, Opatz opened natural wine bar La Dive on E Pike in late 2019.
The pandemic, meanwhile, may have bent — but not broken — some of the spirit behind the collection of Marshall, Peters, and Opatz-related venture. La Dive, for example, shifted its business from wine bar to wine shop for a time during COVID-19 restriction. CHS talked with Opatz here about the early pandemic-era challenges at the bars.
This week with Seattle’s reopening hopes colliding with the Omicron variant, Montana is planning a Thursday night party to mark its tenth birthday. We know more about how best to stay as safe as we can while still finding ways to have a good time but it’s possible a Capitol Hill dive bar party isn’t for you right now. Montana has made it this far. Here’s hoping everybody can stop by to celebrate when it turns 11.
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Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.
Love the place even if I haven’t been able to go there safely recently. Here’s to another 10 years!