New café coming soon to Bigfork

Overturned tables, empty booths, ladders, and tools clutter the front half of an empty restaurant with a new sign outside that reads “Tammy's Café.” In the back, booths and tables are neatly lined up as two women sit at a table surrounded by notes, a laptop, and their “mascot,” an American Pitbull named Buster at their feet. “

Tammy Douglas and Bob Hand are opening a new café, Tammy's Café, just north of Bigfork near the Cenex gas station and new Napa auto parts store with Cindy McDonald as manager and head baker. Douglas is bringing her skill and rapport garnered from working as head waitress at Woodsbay Grill for the last five years along with a long list of goals and plans as a first-time business owner.

“We want to provide somewhere comfortable and affordable for everyone to come and sit every morning,” Douglas said as she mentioned looking forward to serving coffee to the Dirt Bags on Friday mornings. “We're not going to do chili and sea bass or pheasant under glass.”

With a capacity of approximately 45, an outdoor patio, and a side room for private parties with a freehand tree mural painted by local artist Holly Poehnert, the café aims to cater to the local clientele without “costing an arm and a leg.”

The café will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and will offer homemade meals, desserts, and coffee in a “Montana atmosphere.” The café is anticipated to open at the beginning of March and is currently waiting for final inspections as the finishing touches are made on remodeling the interior.

Locally grown is the goal for the menu and includes a lengthy list of home-style meals for lunch and dinner, a build-a-burger buffet using Montana raised beef, hard ice cream from Big Dipper in Missoula, and produce from local green houses. An herb garden in the back will be used for rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, and anything else their menu calls for that can be grown in Bigfork's climate.

“We knew we had the opportunity to provide something much needed in town, to provide a good product, and to do what we wanted to do,” Douglas said. “We want to be people oriented and not about the dollar.”

McDonald joked about how people are “already stopping by and telling us what to cook,” as she explained how her baking is well known among Bigfork's locals.

McDonald brings 15 years of baking experience after owning her own catering business and working in restaurants in Polson. She plans on offering gluten free products, homemade muffins, breads, buns, pies, pastries and preserves.

A grand opening is in the works after all the “kinks get worked out” and the weather is nice enough for patrons to utilize the outdoor patio.

Douglas estimates the café is adding approximately 500 hours of employment each week to Bigfork with four cooks, seven or eight waitresses, a couple of dishwashers and a baker already hired and awaiting their first day of business in a few weeks.

Tammy's Café holds a full liquor license and it will be used primarily for beer and wine, but how it will be used for private parties will be determined at the owner's discretion.