MHS Research Center Program Manager
In 1984 Ray Risho, a chef and restaurateur from
Missoula, traveled across the length and breadth of Montana, stopping at
restaurants in every small town or crossroads that he found. As a former chef at Emmaus Road restaurant in
Missoula and a cooking instructor, Risho understood the restaurant
business. In his work as a wine salesman
in 1984, Risho visited and reviewed 450 different eating establishments across
Montana. The restaurants included
everything from the “finest continental restaurants” to small, family
cafes. The reviews resulted in the book Risho’s Registry: From Absarokee to Zortman,
A Town-by-Town Review of Montana Eateries.
In the course of gathering the information for Risho’s Registry, Risho also gathered
menus from many of the restaurants and cafés that he visited. Ray and his wife, Susie, recently donated
those menus to the Research Center at the Montana Historical Society. Their menu collection contains 288 menus from
87 different towns across Montana. They
represent all types of eating establishments, from the fanciest restaurant in
Whitefish to the local café in Saco.
This menu collection is important in that it is representative of the
restaurant business in Montana at a time before the wide-spread introduction of
national chains to the state. The menus are
from single location restaurants for the most part, although there are a few
restaurants that could be considered Montana chains, having multiple locations
within the state.
Menus provide a wealth of information, in both their
content and their design. They provide
us with information on the popularity of different foods at certain time periods
and, when looked at over time, can provide evidence of changing culinary tastes. They indicate what and how particular foods
were utilized locally and regionally.
The graphic designs of menus show the use of design elements over time.
The Montana menus in the Ray Risho Menu Collection
provide all of these different insights for restaurants in Montana at one
specific time – 1984. In that way, they
provide a snapshot of both common and unique foods being served. The collection contains menus from Montana icons
– Lydia’s in Butte, On Broadway in Helena, The Mustard Seed in Missoula – as
well as many establishments that did not survive the last ensuing decades. Fare in Montana restaurants in 1984 was as
diverse as the many towns that populated the state. Steak, burgers and pizzas share menu space
with German, Mexican, Oriental, Lebanese and Hungarian foods. Sandwich shops and pancake houses vied for
customers with supper clubs, inns and cafés. 
