I like the butcher shop sign as you enter, especially when they have quarters of beef hanging in the shop as it reminds me of my childhood in my father’s meat market and him staggering under one of those quarters as he brought it from the abattoir—I didn’t really know what that was ’til I was in college and I came across it in my single literature course—into the cooler. I remember him telling me it was a lot easier to help carry a wounded friend and fellow soldier a few years earlier.

You can have a burger anyway you want here. First of all, there is the size, starting at 1/4 lb and going up, I forget how big you can go. I usually take a 1/3 lb. burger but I like to leave it not smashed down as this one was. They look like they have a respectable amount of fat too. Then, if you order it medium, it will come with a little pink in the middle. This is a good thing. You can get some fixings on when it is cooking. I had a Swiss Melt with sautéed mushrooms—very nice—and some onions, a few too many for my taste, but they are easily brushed off, and of course the cheese, usually American because it has just the right texture which kind of sinks into the burger, but in this case I gave the Swiss a try. And then there are all the extras in the next room to add if you need them: a variety of decent mustards, and other foo-foo kind of things and some real seasonings etc.

I added an order of onion rings which were at least average. Only one bite pulled the onion out of its covering. I like a few pickles on the side. If the burger is not as good as you expect you can always put the pickles on it. A lightly toasted bun is really a good idea as well. And of course, some decent beer, which on this occasion was some Moose Drool straight from Bayern in Missoula MT. I have had some good beers from Red Lodge recently in case you are interested in micro-brews.

This was very good. Could serve as a kind of standard that all the fast food places should have to meet before being allowed to serve there burgers.

Big Sky Little League: Runner-up at Little League World Series

A parade and fireworks and speeches by big politicos, and crowds of people seeking their autographs and maybe 5 thousand fans giving them a big welcome back home.

Standing Room Only at Dehler Park for Returning Little League Heroes

Antique Glacier Park Bus Carries Coaches

Ever since the semi-final of the Northwest Regional Little League baseball tournament last week in San Bernardino CA, the Gazette and our local TV stations have been full of stories on the games, the players, the coaches, the fans, the parents and families, and for all I know the pets of the players, that the boys of Big Sky All-Stars right here in Billings MT are representing Montana in the Little League World Series. The news is swelling in volume since they won their opening game on Thursday against Rapid City South Dakota, 6-4. I see a lot of signs wishing them well and big ads in the Gazette. They play Lafayette Louisiana on Sunday at noon Mountain Time.

I heard about these fine young fellows in church last week from Father Zabrocki over at St Thomas the Apostle; my general surgeon, Barry McKenzie, hurriedly left for Williamsport after seeing me because he is the uncle of one of the players; and today I discovered that one of my daughters went to the Prom—I probably took a picture—with the head coach Gene Carlson, maybe 27 years ago. This is indeed a BFD as Joe Biden might say.

It is located in an undistinguished building on the edge of an undistinguished large parking lot off an undistinguished King Ave. If one drew a line between Lemon Grass and the places mentioned above it would be roughly a polygon of some sort, though not very distinguished I’m sure. Is there a name for this part of the shopping complex in that part of the city?

Open from 11am to 9pm Monday through Saturday. I don’t know the origin of the name of the place, I forgot to ask, but I will check that out the next time we go there. It’s only been open for about a month I was told by a personable young lady of the Oriental persuasion. She also told me that they are thinking about getting a wine and beer license, which I would have thought almost a pre-requisite for any restaurant wanting to stay open past, say 3 in the afternoon.

I know nothing about Thai food except that the two lunch specials that we had were very tasty. The Pad Ka Pow was a little on the spicy side I was warned by the waittress. There was some mix-up on the Mu Tod Pad Gra Tiam Prik Thai, which was supposed to have shrimp but didn’t but the pork was excellent anyway. I will have to check up on the all capitalized words to see if that is peculiar to Thailand too.

Service was quick, though not exactly accurate. The waittress was apologetic about that.

The prices seemed reasonable. The patrons were pleasant.

I think this place will be worth going back to, whether they get the beer and wine or not.

Pigs Ass Porter Tap

This fine brew comes from Belt MT and is being served at the Red Robin Restaurant in West Park Plaza, and, I suppose, at other fine dining establishments around Billings MT.

I was starting to get a little worried that maybe global warming or our recent financial messes had, like the swallows failing to come back to Capistrano, caused the annual migration of Salvation Army bell ringers to move somewhere else. But I was wrong. I saw my first Bell Ringer at Albertson’s on Rehberg and Grand on I think it was St Juan Diego’s Day. The cheerful ringer told me he was from Arizona and he enjoyed the cold weather.

This was the year that all the young would-be singers, actors and dancers in this area got a chance to do their thing. Willy Wonka was and still is for at least another couple weekends the big musical thing with a great many enthusiastic kids as Oompa—Loompas at Venture Theatre; Peter Pan is playing at Billings Studio Theatre; this years’ Nutcracker last weekend at the Alberta Bair featured a huge cast of dancers and singers.

We went to the Sunday matinee of Willy Wonka this weekend and thought that there were a lot of really good performances, especially Steve Zediker (Willy Wonka) and Tanner Bolin (Charlie Bucket) among the leads and too many to mention among the lesser players, except that I couldn’t take my eyes off one of the Oompa—Loompas. She was one of the younger ones and always had the same location stage down right, 2nd one in line: She was extraordinary, I wish I knew her name.

If you haven’t been there yet check it out. Still on from 9 Dec to 19 Dec. I thought Mace Archer was a wizard with the kids but Robert Brian Wood seems to have the touch as well.

The rest of the menu looked fairly interesting too. The owner was cooking this evening. He cares for his customers.

The usual for lunch is a toasted cheese sandwich and a variety of soups, most on the menu with a few specials for the day. Those are available in the evening too with a few fancier extras on the menu.