Perhaps the most famous Montana restaurant of all was in Meaderville, an old suburb of Butte that was destroyed by the open-pit mine back in the 60s. The place in question was called the Rocky Mountain Cafe, operated by a man named Teddy Traparish, and it was THE place to eat in our part of the world. Being a Montana establishment, the speciality of course was beef -- in giant portions.
The cafe had a national reputation by the 1930s, and was soon getting rave reviews from well-known celebrities. The famous journalist and What's My Line? panelist Dorothy Kilgallen reported, "No one who has never seen a Rocky Mountain steak will believe me ... but to put it as accurately as possible, my steak was the size of a Saturday night roast for a small family ... And it was the greatest steak I have ever tasted."
My favorite description of the Rocky Mountain Cafe is found in the John Gunther book Inside U.S.A., which I've mentioned here before. Gunther wrote,
... two miles from Butte, in the suburb of Meaderville, is one of the best restaurants in the United States. Here, under the very shadow of the gallows frames and with the dollar slot machines making a splendid clink, coatless miners buy Lucullan meals. I don't mean to sound ungracious, however. I will never forget Mr. Teddy Traparish and his Rocky Mountain Cafe. The steaks are seven inches thick, and cover half an acre.Tragically, the Rocky Mountain Cafe closed forever in 1961, as the Anaconda bulldozers worked to tear apart Meaderville. It's one of those things that makes me believe I was born a generation too late.
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