A life-sized G.I. Joe greets customers outside Sidewinders American Grill in Bozeman. That’s because this welcoming, family-friendly restaurant was founded by a group of U.S. Marine Veterans, who live by the Marine Corps values of “leaders eat last” and you “take care of your people.” Mr. Joe sets this tone for customers entering the restaurant, where people come first and owner Joe Rice and his Army and Marine Corps partners strive to make each person’s day better by exceeding their expectations through exceptional hospitality, good food, and first-class service.

Sidewinders American Grill is part of The Blue Collar Restaurant Group (BCRG), which is known for bringing us Tanglewood, Liberty Burger, the Merry Piglets, and Sidewinders, among others. I had the chance to sit down with Tyrel Thornton, Brand/Marketing director, and learn a bit more about this family-run, service-focused restaurant.  

Katie Thomas: How was Sidewinders conceptualized?

Tyrel Thornton: It started in Jackson, and there were two establishments: the Blue Moon Diner and Sidewinders Bar, which we call the OG. That was kind of your typical bar, with bands and stuff. And both of them were doing okay, but our founder Joe Rice said, ‘What if we combine these two?’ So Sidewinders was created, and those were Rice’s first three restaurants. So they basically combined the American diner theme of the Blue Moon with the OG Sidewinders bar and sort of focused more energy on the family-friendly diner atmosphere and less energy on the bar. So really, it’s that hybrid of those two concepts that brought about the concept of the Sidewinders you experience in Bozeman.

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

TT: A sense of appreciation, from us. We appreciate that our customers choose us; gratitude is one of our guiding principles. Bozeman has a lot of options when it comes to eating out, and when people choose us, we want them to know that we’re grateful. And specifically for Sidewinders, we hope to impart our pride of being part of America, and our appreciation for veterans and all active-duty officers. We offer discounts for veterans and uniformed first responders, including police, firefighters, and paramedics.

KT: What would you say makes Sidewinders unique in the Bozeman food scene?

TT: Well, we’re the only restaurant here that has that American patriotic, military-style branding. I think that’s our biggest differentiator. Sidewinders is just massive, and yet we’re able to provide a level of service that shows our customers that consistency is really important to us. From both a hospitality and a food point of view, we want our guests to know we are consistent. If and when we change something on the menu, we hear about it. Customers come back for our consistency – that’s really what we’re pushing for. Also, because we invest in those quality ingredients and quality preparation, our food tastes better than you’d expect from American-style comfort food. We hand-cut our fries in house, we make our pizza dough fresh in house every day. We’ve moved everything away from seed oils and are now frying things in beef tallow across all our restaurants. All of our juice-based cocktails are fresh-squeezed daily. We roast our own coffee with organic certified beans, the best beans that we can import. We could just order those things from a distributor, but that’s not what makes our food excellent. 

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

TT: Our number one selling item is The “S” Pretzel, our jumbo homemade soft pretzel. We sell 3,000 of those a month. Joe is the one who invented that thing. It’s almost like a hybrid between a calzone and a soft pretzel. And the chicken pot pie is a real crowd-pleaser. Again, these things are made fresh from scratch every day, and we feel like consistency of service drives people back. You can have the best soft pretzel in the world, but customers aren’t going to seek it out if they don’t get it in way that feels hospitable and consistent, as well as delicious. On the healthier front, our Chili-lime salmon is our new seasonal salmon dish, and so is our gluten-free Brussels sprouts appetizer.

KT: Do you personally have a favorite menu item?

TT: The pretzel! I like it best with pepperoni. I probably eat it once every two  weeks; actually, my usual order is the pretzel and rib eye, for dinner. The smash burger is my go-to for lunch.

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

TT: Being a contributing member of this community is something that I’m focused on personally as the brand director for the organization. We all feel like we have a duty to be more than just a restaurant in the community. We want to be part of what makes Bozeman great. We just did a concert in collaboration with Thrive, we’ve got a race this weekend called Those Who Serve that’s going to support three veteran/active duty nonprofits (Big Sky Bravery, Talons Reach Foundation, and Warriors and Quiet Waters), and every month we do a roundup across all the restaurants for a local nonprofit, everything from the Gallatin Raptors to Talons Reach. We’re trying to basically focus on kids youth sports and veteran and active-duty nonprofits.

KT: Do you have any other special events coming up?

TT: We’ve got the U.S. Marine Corps birthday on November 10th. We basically take that whole back room and get a couple cakes, have a local Marine cut the cake… Joe gives a speech, and then we provide free food to the Marines. For Veteran’s Day, which is November 11th, vets eat free across the whole company.

KT: That’s awesome. And what’s the best way for people to follow your events?

TT: The best way is signing up for our loyalty program, through our website, and then you automatically get into our email system. Also following us on Instagram. Folks can also find information on the BCRG website; for example, we have a direct link to the Those Who Serve race (https://www.bcrg.co/those-who-serve/).

KT: Anything else you’d like readers to know about Sidewinders?

TT: We’re going to have photos with Santa for the week of Christmas over at the Market. If people are interested in an option other than the mall. I think we had about 300 people come through last year. Also, we currently have this interesting collaboration between Talon’s Reach and Bozeman Spirits. Talon’s Reach is an active-duty nonprofit that helps active-duty special operators find balance and peace of mind by taking them on retreats and things like that; it’s an awesome organization. So we paired up with them and Bozeman Spirits to do a bottle, and we’ve also got a special cocktail on the menu with that bourbon. It’s another great way to support an exceptional Bozeman nonprofit organization. We’re proud to be part of this community.

As both the daughter and wife of veterans, it warms my soul to learn about the underlying principles of Sidewinders, and the BCRG as a whole. As it turns out, Sidewinders is more than just a place to get food that also warms the soul: when you eat at Sidewinders, you’re saying thank you to those who serve and protect our country. You’re also supporting the aforementioned local organizations that advocate for active and retired military, which is extremely important for soldiers actively serving in the military as well as for those transitioning back to civilian life. What a wise and thoughtful combination to bring to our growing community, where we love to explore restaurants and support local organizations. As the BCRG website greeting says, “Service first.”