We are open!

January 14th, 2011, was the big day. We opened our doors at 8 AM, not quite ready for a busy breakfast, but excited to greet new customers and old friends. We were a little slow, but it gave us time to make fresh bread, blackberry pie, and everything else one might need to open a restaurant. By the time dinner rolled around, things picked up.

Now that we are in our third week of business we have a new website up, a new blog, fresh bagels and cinnamon rolls, and our old menu with a few additions. Check it out at:

www.thecrossingbarandgrill.com

Come visit the new place!

Almost there!

We are getting close! After nearly a month of paint, sawdust, and Clorox we are getting ready to open the new Crossing Bar & Grill at Fetty's. The opening is dependent on the installation of a new state of the art hood system, but our projected opening date is around the 14th of January 2011. One of the changes we are most excited about is the addition of four seeded glass farm windows in the wall separating the bar and dining room.

In addition to physical changes at Fetty's, the name of the restaurant was also a big decision we had to make. We really wanted to keep the name and history of Fetty's intact, but also have name recognition from the Big Hole Crossing Restaurant. "The Crossing Bar & Grill at Fetty's" was the marriage of new and old and we hope it will be as popular as the Big Hole Crossing. We have ordered new signage and below is an example of what it will look like.

Please check back for updates on progress and a date for opening. We hope to keep posting pictures as the new bar and grill come together.

New Beginnings

Dear Followers of the Big Hole Crossing Restaurant,

After almost 6 months, we have finally come to closure and moved on to bigger and better things. The place where the restaurant stood as well as the Wisdom River Gallery has been reduced to a large flat dirt lot. Kay and Daryll Jacobson have decided to build a smaller business in their same location minus a restaurant. They offered us the lot next to them, where the restaurant previously stood, but after calculating the cost of building in that location as well as others around Wisdom, we declined.

We are excited to announce that we have instead decided to buy Fetty’s Bar and Café from Guy and Joni Peterson and make it our own. We have signed a buy/sell agreement with them and are at present just waiting for financing. We hope to take possession the second week in December and reopen by December 31^st.

Our plans include a name change but we haven’t settled on exactly what that will be. We will keep the wine and beer bar with food options on the west side and the full restaurant on the east side.

Thank you for all your calls and letters of support. We miss you and look forward to reopening in our new location and hope you will feel as at home there as you did in our old spot.

Sincerely,

Diane, Dennis and Ali Havig

4th of July Sunrise Flag Raising & Pancake Breakfast

In hopes of carrying on a 16-year tradition, the Big Hole Crossing Restaurant hosted the 17th Annual Fourth of July Sunrise Flag Raising and Pancake Breakfast this year at the Wisdom Community Building. Despite lack of griddle space, a few electrical shortages, and want of a better setup for washing dishes, we had a great turnout.

We missed the mosquitoes, meeting around 6:15am to watch the sun rise over the Pioneers. Diane Havig posted the stars and stripes, followed by a brief introduction by Dennis Havig of our guest speaker, Garth Haugland. A Korean War Veteran and current Beaverhead County Commissioner, Garth was kind enough to share his experiences and thoughts about America's Independence Day. Following Garth's inspirational words, the national anthem was sung by those in attendance and Diane ended the ceremony with taps on the bugle.

Everyone was then welcomed inside for breakfast. The menu included homemade buttermilk, blueberry and strawberry pancakes paired with some spicy sausage, fresh coffee and orange juice.

A big thanks to everyone who made it this year. We can't wait to celebrate in 2011!

FIRE!

The following is a letter from the Wisdom, Montana, businesses who suffered a devastating fire early in the morning of May 31st, 2010.


Dear Friends, Neighbors and Clients of the Big Hole Crossing Restaurant, Wisdom River Gallery, and Prudential Real Estate in Wisdom,

Memorial Day morning, we awoke to a fire at our businesses in Wisdom. The origin of the fire may never be fully known, but it appears at this time to be electrical in origin. The fire appears to have started on or near the mantle over the fireplace. The restaurant dining room was largely engulfed in flames by the time the fire fighters from Wisdom and Jackson arrived on site early in the morning. Fire, heat and smoke destroyed or damaged most of the art, clothing, and furniture in the Wisdom River Gallery. The Prudential Real Estate office suffered smoke damage as well.

First, a special thanks to the early morning risers, Mickey Helming and Mark Raymond of Wisdom, who reported the fire just after 6 am. Hats off to the Wisdom and Jackson fire department volunteers; they stopped the fire's progression and had the building secure in a couple of hours. One of our insurance company representatives said, "You must have a really good fire department; statistically, small rural departments rarely stop a fire that is this involved."

Thank you to everyone that has called, sent cards, offered words of support, prayers, and offered their help as we clean up and begin to rebuild. Although you may never actually remove the burnt chairs, tables or scorched pictures from the walls, your moral support means a lot to us and our employees.

We are still evaluating our options; restore the current building or build a new building on the site.
Our goal is to reopen the Wisdom River Gallery and the Big Hole Crossing Restaurant by early winter. We will give you updates as we move forward. Prudential Real Estate in Wisdom remains open for business in a different location.

Once again, thank you Mickey and Mark, thank you Wisdom and Jackson volunteer fire fighters, thank you friends and neighbors for your support, and thank God no one was injured in this fire.

Diane and Dennis Havig
Big Hole Crossing Restaurant

Kay and Daryll Jacobson
Wisdom River Gallery

Katey White
Prudential Real Estate


We have started a blog in hopes of keeping all of our faithful customers, friends and competitors updated on our post-fire progress at the Big Hole Crossing Restaurant.