Hip Strip Eatery Closes
515 Restaurant, We Hardly Knew Ye
By Dillon Tabish, 3-20-08
Photo by Emily Haas
The Hip Strip just got a little less Hip.
The 515 Restaurant announced Wednesday night that it was unexpectedly serving its last supper—pork belly, cassoulet, trout, dumpling, rib eye, traditional crème brulee, fine wine—and then closing its kitchen for good.
A paper sign hung on the door Thursday morning, saying “Closed. Thank you. I love you guys!”
The inside of the old Crystal Theatre was dark with tables and chairs aligned as if customers might be welcomed in any time. But then chef and co-owner Paul Myers slowly opened the door.
All he could say was, “We value everybody’s patronage.”
Beyond that, well, it was just too fresh for him, too urgently defeating.
I assume this was not what he expected, especially after being nominated for one of the country’s highest culinary honors just days before, the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef Northwest. Thousands of entries were mailed to the James Beard Foundation, but Billings-native Myers made it into the top 20, the lone Montanan. Other local awards called the 515 Missoula’s best restaurant, and Myers its best chef.
This isn’t the first time a local place like 515 has fallen through the cracks in Missoula, and it won’t be the last.
In an interview less than two weeks ago, Myers told me 515 was having a tough time getting customers, but that only meant his crew was just going to work even harder to make it happen because, he truly believed, Missoula would someday embrace their locally-minded restaurant.
I’ll be honest, the college budget I’ve had for about five years now kept me from checking out 515, and for a while there I wasn’t even sure what 515 was. Pizza and burgers are about as gourmet as I go. So when I first walked into the old Crystal Theatre-turned-restaurant I had no idea what to expect, especially once I was greeted by Myers’ young son “Frankie Blaze” who acted as quasi-host and welcomed me to “his” restaurant. I asked him if he was the famous chef, and he giggled and stuck both hands of fingers in his mouth. “No,” he replied. His mother Carrie came out from the kitchen and swept the young entrepreneur up, telling me her husband was downstairs.
I found Myers alone, quietly squeezing out fresh garlic sausage like a sculptor. He wiped his hands on his stained apron before shaking my hand. He began explaining to me why he had left the big city (New York and Seattle) to set up shop in Missoula.
He loves Missoula, he told me. He wants to raise his family here. He and 515 offer something different and he hoped Missoula would come to embrace that.
He told me about a new happy hour they had added, hoping to draw more customers. At 5:15 p.m. you could get a local-beef hamburger and hand-cut fries for $5.15, and local beers for a dollar off. Seeing an opportunity to ditch Burger King and feel better both physically and mentally about myself, I quickly came aboard. I wasn’t the only one.
An award-winning restaurant owned by locals striving to remain local. Sounds undeniably Missoulian to me. No doubt Myers’ talent will be gobbled up by restaurateurs in bigger markets like Seattle or Portland, but his heart will remain in Montana, a love that didn’t quite support his labor.
So it goes.
Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.
Comments
Add your comment below
I don't know why it's so hard for creative restaurants to make it in Missoula. Any theories on that?
I salute Paul Myers for his talent and his efforts, and as a fellow entrepreneur I empathize with what I know must be a very difficult and painful situation.
Hrmpf.
Too bad someone who had actually eaten at the restaurant couldn't have written this column.
It's incredibly sad to see a place that takes a local, ethical and creative approach to food and drink go under, and I hope to god it doesn't speak to the encroaching yuppification of Missoula.
Something tells me as business rental costs continue to rise to ridiculously inflated levels, family operations like 515 are going to be really, really squeezed, and our choices will continue to get worse and worse, see also Ciao Mambo, et al. Please support the independent folks (Blackbird, Betty's, Big Dipper, Biga, Shakespeare, Ear Candy, the Badlander, Walking Stick, Nature Boy, Bernices, etc. etc.) who pour their time, resources and love into making Missoula what it is. A vibrant place where you can get a burger made from local beef, or pork belly, or squash soup, or seasonal vegetables, or you know, the list went on and on until recently. Just because one can get a burger and a Pabst for around $6-7 lots of places, doesn't mean that food/drink is anywhere near the kind of economic engine for where we live that the local stuff is, or for that matter, that it's anything near the flavor and quality of what 515 dished up.
Uggggh.
You are and will always be rock stars. And to the family that you created and became, although dysfunctional as the best of them, I will forever be grateful. I love you and all the 515 staff.
xoxo j9
much love,
danzig
Painting over Sheila Miles paintings with Gray was a mistake. I felt the atmosphere was more institutional and uninviting. I also didn't thing the exterior with the 1960's cedar siding added to the historic building could get any worse, until the 515 owner painted it black.
Huh! Who knew? We could have done that from time to time. I agree that the atmosphere might have been an issue. Also, the prices were too high for us to eat there on a regular basis.
It will be missed.
What to say? Thanks for letting me be a part of it. Won't ever forget the late night family meals, kick-ass people, trout salad, tallboys, dancing outlaw, special water and on and on. Sad they never got it. Inimitable place and time. See you on the other coast sometime I hope. Love you all,
Brandon
It's funny, a well-dressed (although not entirely well-spoken) Missoula store clerk admitted to us today (as we were walking around downtown mumbling "what do we do now???) that the menu really didn't have anything she "liked" and the atmosphere was kind of "lacking". Oh well, she is, I suppose, entilted to her opinion.
In my opinion, is that great restaurants like 515 are not always about what you "like" but more about the opportunity to take part in a sort of edible performance art; cuisine that one must usually travel to NYC or SF to enjoy. I suppose that all this comes at a price. But let me assure you, my town of Bozeman is flush with $9 cocktails, restaurants with hip inviting atmospheres and $35 entrees...most of them simply gilded lillies compared to the creative and tasty chow served up in a friendly and personal environment created by the good folks at 515.
Beef tenderloin with a huckleberry reduction, anyone? Throw a rock in any direction.
Pork belly?
Hello???
Is anyone there???
Goodbye 515, we'll miss you.
Brae Bullard's failures were hardly a reflection on the chef or the cuisine offered from the kitchen. James Beard Awards and nominations for these awards are not given for restaurant business skills; they are given for demonstrating excellence in being a chef in the culinary arts. That's why Paul Meyer was nominated for the "Chef of the Year" award and not restauranteur of the year. "all show and no go"?.... Ms. Adams, the sound of your ignorance is deafening.
Over staffing and a collective inability to sustain with in the given budget was the demise of 515. No one single handedly ran the business into the debt that ultimately closed the doors. The failure is reflective of all three owners, and the choices made by each.
Other basics include realistic marketing. The fact is, that most people learned about 515 when closed.
I ate there twice. Each time the service was HORRIBLE.
It was the sort of place where the waitresses had an attitude that they were artists or actresses, yet were so talentless that they couldn't artfully act like waitresses. For the ultra high (for missoula) prices, service should have been much, much better. Otherwise, no matter how good the food, it is no different than going to a finnagen/4B's type place and having plates slapped down in front of you.
I've lived in missoula for over 30 years and have always liked going to good restaurants, as much for the atmosphere and hospitality, as for the food. As many people who like eating out, I can cook for myself and family quite well, but I go out for something more. Sadly, 515 was plagued by waitpersons who were arrogant and lazy; the chefs may have been able to survive in NYC or Seattle, but their wait staff would never have made it.
I would have gladly gone to 515 many more times, and have encouraged my friends and employees (read: I have money and hang out with people with money), the place, in the end, was
1) badly run as a business
2) invisible
3) arrogant
4) rude.
Missoula can support a high class restaurant, however the 515 was just lame. regardless of what others (like the writer of this article who by his own admission never ate a meal there nor frequents high-end places) thought; their opinions come from lack of experience with truly great restaurants.