Growing up in Montana allowed me to experience an extensive selection of barns in a large variety of ways; I’ve swung from the rafters of a barn to drop into hay on a hot summer day; I’ve been a bridesmaid in a wedding held in a barn; I’ve investigated barns in the light and in the dark, but, until recently, I’d never had a meal in a barn while BMX bikers rode insane trails on big screen TVs on either end of the building. It wasn’t until I visited the Hop Lounge [93 Rowland Rd, Bozeman] that I was given that opportunity. And, in my experience, one trip to the Hop Lounge will lead to many more trips to the Hop Lounge—for the convenience, the affordability, the friendly staff, the tacos, the trivia...

I spoke to Kevin Porto, head of operations, to get all the details and history of the Hop Lounge. Kevin moved to Montana 14 years ago, first to Missoula for photography school, then to Big Sky, where he worked as a server and bartender at Chopper’s for three years, and then to the Flathead area, where he held various jobs at Flathead Lake Brewing Company for eight years, ending up as a brewery rep. His experience in the service and beer industries helped him make a smooth transition to owning and operating a Bozeman’s Choice restaurant/bar.

Angie Ripple: How was the Hop Lounge conceptualized?

Kevin Porto: The idea came up around 2018 and I pitched it to my two business partners, Ben Reed and Brian Soule, as an all-Montana craft beer tap room with 50 tap handles. I thought we had gotten to the point that, as a state, there were enough breweries that were brewing award- winning, world-class beers, and that it would be a really cool concept to try and bring all those styles, all those breweries into one place. One of the other parts of our concept is that most of the beers are on rotation; we only have four or five tap handles that are pretty constant, the rest is on rotation with seasonal and very rare one-off styles.

We really wanted to open a unique space in a unique building. Luckily, we found the historic 1919 barn, which was the old Book Barn, and we just fell in love with the space, the open loft feel. It was originally built as a dairy processing farm in a town between Manhattan and Belgrade, called Central Park. Both the old Northern Lights barn and the Hop Lounge Barn were bought for $1 and moved to their current locations just off Huffine Lane in the mid-1990’s.

AR: What would you like people to experience when they walk through your doors? 

KP: Basically when people come in, they’re greeted by the cashier; we do things a little different: you order and pay for your food downstairs, then go upstairs to the dining room / taproom area, and we bring the food up when it’s ready.

As far as the experience, it’s casual, it’s quiet, it’s a little darker, and we’ve got tables and booths so you can pick your spot, and if you want a nice quiet conversation, you can go into the really tall booths, and then the rest is kind of like a German beer hall kind of vibe.

Our slogan is ‘Beer, Chicken and Vinyl.’

We initially weren’t going to do food, but the layout of the building was kind of too big to not do food, and too small to do a full menu. So we developed a rotisserie chicken-based menu. The music side is, I used to DJ in Chicago back in the day, and I have a really big vinyl collection. So we have a DJ booth with some turntables, and we’re really big into the music side of it. 

AR: What would you say makes Hop Lounge unique in the Bozeman food scene?

KP: One of the things that separates us from some of the other taprooms, especially ones in town here, is that we actually go pick up beer from breweries that don’t distribute to Bozeman. So we always have exclusive stuff on tap that you won’t find anywhere else.

I go out to the Flathead area quite a bit because I’m familiar with the area; we bring in stuff from Bias Brewing and Ronan Co-op from Missoula; we bring in beer from Tamarack, Conflux, Guild, and OddPitch Brewing. And then we’ll have stuff from 2 Basset in White Sulphur Springs, and Galleys, up in Lewiston. We really love developing relationships with the newer breweries. We just did an event with Sawdust and Steel, the new one out in Three Forks.

We’re pretty much the only one that’s doing rotisserie chicken roast; you don’t see a lot of rotisserie chicken around. We’re west of town here, where it’s kind of all booming, and there’s still not much to choose from out towards Four Corners. I used to live west of Four Corners; another thing that was really appealing about this space was that, sometimes, going downtown can be a challenge as far as parking and all that.

As far as unique, I’m sure I’m missing a lot of stuff, but our bar top is a solid piece of Black Walnut, and the Gallatin River is carved into it. We had some engineers plot it out to scale from West Yellowstone to Four Corners, so it’s an accurate representation of the Gallatin. That’s kind of our showpiece as far as the dining room area.    

We have Trivia Nights on Tuesdays. Since we are big into music, we’ve partnered with KGLT, and every Thursday we have a different DJ from the radio station come and spin records. And we’ve got two of the largest television screens in town; we like to play outdoor adventure stuff—skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, biking, that kind of stuff.

AR: What menu item do regulars keep coming back for?

KP: Everything is based off our fire roasted rotisserie chicken, and we make everything fresh in house, from scratch. We have no microwave. No freezer. Our most popular items are probably chicken tacos, and then (I’m a little biased, obviously) I think we have the best nachos in town. We hand cut the tortillas to order and deep fry them for the chips.

And, since we do have such a simple concept, we have 14 sauces, and we mix it up all the time, so you can have a little bit of a different experience even if you’re ordering the same menu item. Our 50 Montana draft beer rotators are also a big draw.

AR: Do you have a favorite menu item? 

KP: Yes; mine would be the Carolina pulled chicken sandwich. We serve it on a toasted potato bun. It’s our shredded chicken with scratch-made Carolina sauce and fresh coleslaw. 

AR: What do you personally enjoy most about being part of the Bozeman community? 

KP: I can’t put my finger on it, but something has always drawn me to Bozeman. Being from the Midwest, coming from Chicago, I’ve always loved living in the mountains. I went all over Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho, and there was just something about Bozeman that really stuck with me. I really like the general attitude out here; it fits my personality really well. And all the outdoor activities… I think a lot of people move out here for skiing and snowboarding, or fishing, and I love doing all of that.

AR: Is there anything coming up that you would want readers to know about?

KP: Well, we do intend on doing a really fun Oktoberfest at the end of September out on our patio. It should be open by then. Our deck upstairs is open now, but the patio is just being wrapped up.

We’ll also keep doing our KGLT nights on Thursdays from 7-9 PM, and Trivia every Tuesday beginning at 6:30 PM. I recommend coming early for trivia; we often are full by 6 PM, so don’t be late.

With your interest piqued, lunch or a night out at the Hop Lounge sounds like a pretty great adventure. If you haven’t had the chance to experience a Montana barn, this is just about the best chance you’re going to get.