As Pat Carloss opens his newest venture, Mercantile Steak and the KM Bar in downtown Kalispell, he reflects on how a kid from southern Louisiana found his way to the Flathead and what still makes it a great place to call home.
You opened Tupelo Grille in Whitefish in 1995, after operating a restaurant in Jackson, Wyoming. But how did you end up out west in the first place?
PC: I got a job in Yellowstone in the summer of ’85. My brother had gotten a job and was there for about two weeks before he convinced me to come out. [That brother, Kevin Carloss, eventually opened Cafe Zydeco in Bozeman, Billings, Helena, and Missoula, and still operates the Bozeman restaurant.]
I hitched a ride to Denver with a college buddy, then took the bus to Jackson. I got off the bus at 10 in the morning in mid-May. My brother picked me up and we were going to Mammoth, so we drove north through the Tetons, through Yellowstone, to Gardiner, all in one day. We got to Gardiner and I was like, “Done.” Seriously. I had been to the Appalachians, but I’d never been out west. I was hooked. 1,000 percent. That summer I worked in the employee dining room, slopping food, no idea I’d ever be in a kitchen as a living.
So how did you get into the restaurant business?
PC: A classmate of mine from Southwestern Louisiana [now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette] was managing a restaurant in Breckenridge. I went to see him in the spring after I graduated from college, and it planted the seed. We took over the lease of a turnkey restaurant space and we opened The Acadian House, a little Cajun restaurant. I did the cooking. Then, after four years, he bought me out and we moved to Whitefish and opened Tupelo Grille.
You opened Gunsight Saloon in Columbia Falls in 2018. What motivated you to expand to Columbia Falls?
PC: Downtown, there wasn’t a lot going on. I think every town needs a big, happy gathering place. It had the potential with the old buildings, and Ruis [Mick Ruis, a local investor and developer] was investing a lot, that helped. And O’Brien [O’Brien Byrd, who owns O’Brien’s Liquor store and refurbished the lot behind it for the community market] had a lot to do with it, telling me, “We need this.”
And what’s attracting you to Kalispell now?
PC: I love downtown, I think people are friendly. I love the architecture down here, I really do. The neighborhoods are awesome. I just think there's room. There's definitely room for growth. These other places are only going to help us, the breweries and all that. I believe you have to create an energy, and I think the more choices you have in a downtown, the better. I mean, Whitefish proved it. That was my proving ground. There's been tons of restaurants since we opened 26 years ago and it never hurt our business. It only helps. It makes people want to stay in your town, the locals too.
Read the full interview in PureWest's 2021 Pure Montana magazine.
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