We left West Yellowstone fairly late as we didn’t have far to go and drove through the Gallatin National Forest which was very pretty. At Bozeman our room at the Rainbow Motel wasn’t ready yet but we were able to leave the car at the motel and walked into town. It was a lovely warm and sunny day and we didn’t mind the walk at all, especially not when we saw what a nice town it was! Bozeman is a college town and home to Montana State University and as such is full or bars, restaurants, galleries and breweries, all in a fairly small, walkable area and we ended up in a bar/restaurant called Fin where we watched the Champion’s League final and Brian had a couple of beers (my head was still not quite right so I had bottomless coke – I must have drunk a gallon – but it did sort out my headache!)
We went back to the hotel to unpack and use the slightly sketchy internet before heading out for dinner at Copper Whiskey Bar & Grill, where we had amazing burgers! They have burger patties with bacon minced into the patties and they taste amazing – though I’m sure they just add even more to the calorie count of the burgers! Brian had a plain cheese version, while I had the Mole Guacamole, with fried green chili, grilled jalapeno’s, pepperjack cheese, guacamole and ancho chili mole. Unfortunately, like everywhere else, our burgers came before we’d even had half of our first drink so it was a very quick dinner! We just don’t really do the whole dinner experience the way Americans do – they seem to either have appetisers to share, which they then take a lot of time over, or salads before their main meals (or entrees!). They then have the main meal and generally some dessert, which gives you a much better dining experience, where we just have one course and we’re out the door! Anyway, we found another bar, The Cannery down the road where we watched NHL and had some beer before heading back to the hotel.
Bozeman was a very pleasant surprise and is a lovely town, you’d be well advised to stay over here if you’re ever in the area! Though it gets very cold in winter of course!
Things I learned today: Either eat more course or take longer over your order, or your meal will be over long before you’ve finished your first drink – and then you won’t get to taste the whiskeys in the whiskey bar!!
Biltong and Burger 