Yelp names Knead Café best in Montana
Seaborn Larson | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 8 years, 2 months AGO
A worldwide mobile app has named a modest Kalispell breakfast and lunch spot at the top of the food chain.
In a USA Today article on Monday highlighting the best eateries in each state, Yelp, a prominent restaurant services mobile app, listed Kalispell’s Knead Café as the best restaurant in Montana.
“I’m proud, but I’m kind of shocked,” said Mike McFeely, who co-owns the Knead Café with his wife, Sarah. “We have this rink-a-dink little place we’ve made really warm and cozy and people here have contributed to that.”
The Knead is located on Fifth Street West near the corner of Kalispell’s Main Street and is known for its wide range of ethnic foods, quality staples and classic music coming from the kitchen.
The eatery isn’t a large operation; it has just six employees and can seat 40 people. A lone sign hangs above the door, but the restaurant is tucked in the building with a handful of other businesses.
So McFeely was a little surprised to find out his kitchen serves the best food in the Treasure State. He first found out when a friend from Portland called to give him the good news, but McFeely initially thought it was a joke. Then, a representative from one of his contracted food services called with the same information and excitement began boiling over.
“I think that, in general, people get a clear sense that we love what we do; cooking, singing, laughing, joking, harmonizing to our music and doing this all together with each other and our customers,” McFeely said.
Yelp Public Relations Manager Brenae Leary said in an email that the rankings were based on a few different factors.
“With these types of lists, we determine ‘best’ on Yelp by looking at a few factors, including the number of reviews a business has and its star rating, among others,” she said. “We use those factors to create a score, and that score is what we use to rank the business in each state.”
In its 21 years in Kalispell, the Knead Café has had to battle its way to the top.
The restaurant launched in 1995, when McFeely dumped his UPS job in San Francisco to bring his family to the Flathead and start a restaurant. He recruited a cook he knew in California and the Knead was an overnight success story. The restaurant quickly outgrew its first location inside Montana Coffee Traders and when the café found its own location, life was good.
“At that moment, the Knead was making enough to pay the bills,” McFeely proudly said.
The owners adjusted the menu, changed locations again and were operating at a fast but magisterial rate. But about 15 years into the endeavor, the three owners, the McFeelys and the California cook, came to an impasse and things came to a halt. Eventually the ownership split, essentially dissolving the restaurant.
“In 2010 the lawyers arrived,” McFeely said. “We ended up losing the whole thing.”
The fallout led the McFeelys to a gardening and lawn-mowing career that lasted about two years until one winter, deep in the gardening and lawn-mowing off-season, McFeely decided to make another run with the Knead. With a $16,000 loan and a new space where his mother-in-law, Vivienne Montague, had retired her tea house, the McFeelys renovated the restaurant and opened the Knead Café on Jan. 10, 2013.
“I didn’t know if the Knead was relevant anymore,” he said. “We had to see if our fans would come back, and I swear to God, it happened slowly but surely from the moment we opened.”
The new space was much smaller and more manageable, McFeely said. Seating had fallen from 120 to 40 and the staffed had been paired down from 25 to six.
With fewer customers and employees to corral, the McFeelys have spent the last two years bringing a more personal touch to each plate and customer experience. They also treat employees like family and think that’s what helped boost the Knead to the top of the list when Yelp was examining ratings about a month ago.
“Every time I had a chance to come out of the kitchen, I would see faces I don’t recognize and I would go to talk to them and try to find out what their story is,” McFeely said. “I’d also ask how they got to us, which was usually TripAdvisor or Yelp.”
Along with a smaller crowd and an open kitchen near the dining area, McFeely likes to air a specialized playlist from his Ipod, which has 14,000 songs, for customers.
“My main formula is this: I come into work and crank the music up. I’ve got a diverse love for music; jazz, blues, Led Zeppelin… I just try to make it eclectic. There’s something for everyone.”
The other advantage of a smaller operation is the chance to fine-tune the menu. While expanding the available ethnic dishes, McFeely is also using more local ingredients and allergy-conscious options.
After the rise and fall of the Knead’s first coming and the resurgence that followed, McFeely just wants to create the most well-rounded experience for a mid-priced meal.
“In a restaurant, you have three things: atmosphere, service and food. If you get one right, you might not do that well. If you get two right, you’re going to do OK, but if you get all three of them right, you’re going to build a really winning formula.”
Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.
MORE IMPORTED STORIES
ARTICLES BY SEABORN LARSON
Flathead Bank acquired by First Interstate
First Interstate Bank on Wednesday announced it is buying Flathead Bank for $34.2 million in cash.