The Montana Club, a celebrated bar, dining room and gathering place in Helena that was founded by frontier movers and shakers in 1885 — four years before Montana became a state — will close its doors after one final toast on March 29.
The club, which also holds a notable place in Black history, has been in financial straits in recent years, leading to a bankruptcy filing in November. (The club is not associated with the Montana Club restaurant chain.)
Before it reorganized in 2018 as a cooperative open to the public, the private club attracted an elite membership that would be right at home in the TV series “Yellowstone” — the mining, livestock and timber barons, and bankers, politicians and lawyers who steered the state’s fortunes over the years. (In fact, Cole Hauser, a star of the show, is a descendant of Samuel Hauser, a Montana territorial governor and a founder of the club, according to Charles Robison, its current president.)
“For a long time, everyone who was shaping the state belonged to the Montana Club,” Mr. Robison said.
That said, one of club’s most significant figures was a bartender who made culinary history there a century ago.
Julian Anderson tended bar at the club for 60 years beginning in 1893. He served not only members, but also many famous guests, including Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Anderson quietly entered posterity in 1919 by becoming only the second Black bartender in the United States to publish a cocktail book, titled “Julian’s Recipes.” (The first was Tom Bullock of St. Louis, who wrote “The Ideal Bartender” in 1917.)
Mr. Anderson’s legacy lives on today. He was one of the inspirations for “Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs and Juice,” the latest work by Toni Tipton-Martin, whose books have chronicled Black contributions to American cuisine.
“When I learned about Julian’s 1919 recipe book, I knew I had to add it to my collection of rare Black cookbooks,” Ms. Tipton-Martin wrote in an email. “Like Tom Bullock’s collection, Anderson’s catalog of classic cocktails formalizes a behind-the-bar pedigree that can inspire the next generation.”
Mr. Anderson, whose parents were enslaved, was particularly famed for his mint juleps. The mint came from his own backyard. He died in 1962 at age 102. His portrait still hangs in the club’s second-floor dining room.
The building has four owners. In 2022, three of them brought a lawsuit for unpaid assessments and interest against the Original Montana Club Cooperative Association. The association, which runs the dining and event facilities, owns a little more than half of the property — a 1905 building designed by architect Cass Gilbert after the original club burned down. This conflict eventually led to the bankruptcy filing. The building and liquor license are now up for sale.
There may yet be hope for the establishment. “Certainly, there are people interested in buying the club as a business and reopening it,” said Mr. Robison, a Montana lawyer and lobbyist who had his wedding rehearsal dinner there. “It’s possible this is not its final night.”
The March 29 farewell is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. and continue until closing. Mr. Robison confirmed that mint juleps will be served.
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