Just below Main Street in downtown Bozeman is a world where old photographs, vintage curiosities, craft cocktails, comfort food, and local history unfold. At Est. 1864 Noir Bar & Restaurant, the past isn’t simply something to read about—it’s part of the atmosphere, and meant to be felt.

Named for the year Bozeman was officially recognized as a U.S. city, Est. 1864 takes inspiration from the city’s early days, including the red-light district that once occupied its alleyway. Inside, historic photographs from the Bozeman area share wall space with local artwork, taxidermy, and a back bar lined with roughly 375 bottles. The cocktail menu gives special nods to the characters and stories that helped shape the region, including local madam Kitty Warren. Add in a rumored ghost, blurry security footage, strange noises, the dark basement setting, and a passion for whiskey, mezcal, and creative cocktails, and Est. 1864 feels particularly at home in October.

We sat down with Blake MacKie and Luke Greenwood, the team behind the noir-inspired bar and restaurant to talk about Bozeman’s history, including inhabiting the building that replaced what was destroyed in the gas explosion in 2009, the stories displayed on its walls, and what makes this downtown spot unlike anywhere else.

Angie Ripple: Can you tell me how the restaurant was conceptualized?

Blake MacKie: I grew up in Texas, on a big ranch outside of Houston. My dad, who’s from Austin, always pushed that Texas was the Wild West. When I ended up moving here after traveling for many years and went through that first big winter here, I realized what it must have taken to survive when Bozeman was founded. I mean, just imagine negative 40 degrees, and if you don’t have pelts and you’re not hunting animals, you’re dead.

As I started digging through stuff at the Gallatin History Museum and the Historical Society of Missoula, I kept finding a story of survival. A photo we have in the Red Light Room of two horses pulling a massive amount of lumber is just wild.
I came across another photo of two horses and two gentlemen—a Native American, and a settler appeared to be walking in the snow. When I got closer to the photo and looked at it closely, it was two horses’ heads sticking out, and they were just buried in snow as deep as they could stand. And that epitomized what the Wild West really means to me: surviving in that era.

I believe the concept came from honoring that and glorifying how difficult it was to survive in general, an homage to what it took to settle here and survive here, including the Native Americans primarily, but what everyone did to survive and inhabit this valley. In 2021, I got involved with the OK Cool companies as a bartender, and ended up managing the bar at Brigade. Six months later, I left the company and started this place, and a year and a half later, bought Brigade.

AR: Our readers really appreciate local history. What would you like people to experience when they walk through your doors?

Luke Greenwood: The cocktails, the food—we describe it as a noir bar and restaurant. So it’s that darker atmosphere, with lower lighting, but we definitely want that atmosphere to feel warm and inviting as you come in. We want you to walk up to the bar, order a cocktail, take a peek at the food menu, and have the atmosphere keep you here to order dinner and try our food.

BM: This is a lounge-y mentality. We want people to sit for longer time periods, relax, enjoy, and feel like it’s your home. You’re not supposed to be rushed in and out; just have several drinks, have some food to complement it, take your time, and explore it.

AR: What makes you unique in the Bozeman food scene?

LG: That’s a good question. Our food menu is seasonally inspired, transitioning every fall and springtime. So right now, our menu has a lot of wild game and home-style cooking. One of our top sellers and very popular is the brown butter sage gnocchi with that wild boar ragu. It will definitely fill you up, especially on a colder evening. I always want to take another bite.

AR: That leads into the next question: what do regulars keep coming back for?

LG: I’d say on the cocktail side, the Cafe Noir is definitely our most popular drink. It’s our version of an espresso martini. We use local coffee for the espresso, and Willie’s Coffee Cream, vanilla, some salt, vodka, and an Italian biscotti liqueur.

BM: And then obviously that’s a great entryway into looking at our dinner menu. Luke’s and my background is all bar mixology, so that’s how we met. I lived in Vegas for ten years and bartended out there, so a big passion of ours is the elite bar program that we have, with 26 craft cocktails. The Café Noir and the Carajillo Cubano, the two coffee drinks are a lot of our sales. But you can absolutely ask one of our bartenders to do something different or off menu if you want. We have so many crazy different liqueurs, and the variety on that bar is impressive.

AR: Do you have a favorite food menu item?

BM: The gnocchi is the leader, without question. When I eat it, I’m just like, ‘wow.’ I worked Italian for ten years in Vegas, and it’s absolutely killer. It’s savory, and then it’s light, and it’s fresh. It’s got everything going for it, and I just love it. We pan-sear the gnocchi so you get a crispy essence that you wouldn’t usually expect. And our prairie pot pie. Our pot pie is very unique; it’s made with pheasant, and phyllo dough, so it comes out looking almost like the ridge of the mountains.

AR: Is there something that one of your regulars would know that someone who just walks in the door wouldn’t?

LG: Our service level. Our regulars know that Blake and I, as the owners, are always here in the building, being that maître d’, that general manager, bartender, whatever we need to be. So if a tourist comes in here, they’re not gonna necessarily be like, ‘Oh, there’s the owner walking around bussing a table or shaking up cocktails.’

BM: My answer would be the crazy liqueurs that I love to pull out and test with people I’ve met who have become regulars, that when we’ve had a good conversation, I go, ‘Hey, I got a new liqueur on the shelf that I’ve never had; you wanna try it?’ Then we try it, and it’s awful. And we still drink it to this day, and it’s just a ritual of, ‘Let’s suffer through this ‘cause we love your place and we love you, and let’s just hit...’ Becherovka and Amaro Sfumato are the two main ones; one’s from the Czech Republic and one’s Italian.

AR: What do you personally love most about the Bozeman community?

BM: The outdoors. That’s why I moved up here: to do what I love, which is mountain biking and rock climbing, and getting out to trek and hit peaks. I moved up here to get out of the rat race, and Bozeman reminds me of home, the big ranch in Texas. This is identical, but with mountains. Everybody has that mindset out here. They wanna live life. They wanna feel that natural kind of stress release. It’s a huge thing out here.

LG: I think specifically at 1864, it’s the relationships. Being a small business and restaurant owners, it’s seeing all those regulars come in, locals, being part of the small community, and meeting people every day.

Recently, we saw a couple who had sat at the bar on a first date come back for their one-year anniversary, which is really cool, so we brought over some bubbles to congratulate them on their one year.

AR: Do you have anything coming up in October that you want readers to know about?

BM: Usually we do a big bartender competition, but that’s with Brigade now. So this year we’re gonna deck it out down here and do a nice Halloween party, probably on that Saturday. Halloween’s my favorite holiday, so we’ll go all out decorating and having a big party.

Est. 1864 is more deeply rooted in Bozeman history than any other local dining establishment I can think of. From the numbers in their logo, handwritten by William Alderson, who ran Bozeman’s premier newspaper, the Avant Courier, for thirty years, to nods to other famous historical figures on the drink menu, and the plethora of historical images hung throughout the space, it’s a place where local history is meant to be experienced.

That makes Est. 1864 a natural choice for Halloween plans this year, especially if you’re looking for something beyond the usual October fare. But the noir experience isn’t limited to Halloween. Stop in any evening after 4 p.m. and settle into the dimly lit space for a drink, a meal, and a little time spent somewhere that feels removed from downtown Bozeman. From 4-6 p.m., enjoy $2 draft pilsners, $3 wines, $3 off appetizers, and $5 selected cocktails. Additional promotions for locals can be found at https://www.est1864bozeman.com/promotions/.