Hennessy's slips quietly into Kalispell history

From Friday-night seafood buffets that were "beyond belief," to St. Patrick's Day parties more lavish than New Year's celebrations, Hennessy's Restaurant and Lounge was the place to be for many decades of Kalispell's history.

Memories and a few tears flowed along with the coffee and drinks last week as longtime waitresses, cooks and customers reminisced about Hennessy's glory days. The once-bustling restaurant, which adjoined the WestCoast Outlaw Hotel, closed quietly Thursday to make way for the new location of the Bulldog Pub and Steakhouse.

"This was one hopping place when I first started," waitress Dana Toren recalled between taking orders on her last morning shift. "You'd have to work with these people to know what we had. We were like family."

Toren started waitressing at Hennessy's in 1974, when her husband was going to school and she needed a part-time job to pay off a car loan. She went to work full time the same day she applied and has been there ever since.

Taking her last day in stride, she joked with customers, telling them she had always vowed to eat something off everyone's plate on her last day, just to see people's reactions.

"The first guy had no sense of humor," she said. "He asked 'how many link sausages do you get with breakfast?' He thought I was serious until I told him I was joking."

Many of Hennessy's waitresses logged exceptionally long stints. Martha Reading worked there 34 years; Toren put in 30 years; Emma Davis worked 29 years and Dottie Berger waited on Hennessy's customers for 27 years. The kitchen staff was equally faithful. Barb Hunt was a cook for 22 years.

The longevity was attributed in part to union jobs that paid well. More importantly, the women said they stayed because of the owners, Buck Torstenson and Dick Dasen, who built the Outlaw Inn and operated the hotel and restaurant complex before it was bought by Cavanaugh's several years ago and later taken over by WestCoast Hospitality Corp.

"They were the best," Toren said of Dasen and Torstenson. "We worked every holiday and they pitched in and worked right along with us. With them, you weren't a number."

Hennessy's employees are now unemployed and contemplating where life will take them next. They know other restaurant jobs won't pay the wages they've come to rely on, and many are worried about being able to pay for health insurance.

Customers inundated the loyal staff with flowers and cards, thanking them for their service.

"All the customers are pretty special," Davis said, her eyes a little misty as she remembered her favorites.

The "regulars" made the job memorable.

"Oh my God, I could cry," Toren said. "I had 10 little ladies in here for breakfast this morning who wanted to say goodbye."

Customers came in groups through the years - the card ladies, the lawyers, the loggers.

Hugh and Myrtle "Micky" Hennessy built the original Hennesy's Steakhouse in 1948 at 1500 Third Avenue East.

"It was just a little log cabin when I started," said Janie Gillin, a former longtime waitress.

Several of the old cabins remain, though they were moved to face east after the Outlaw Inn was built, and were used as guest cabins for many years.

The restaurant was called Hennessy's Chicken & Steak House at first, according to Polk's Directory. Documented history of the business is lacking, but longtime residents say Buck and Rusty Torstenson bought the restaurant from Micky Hennessy in about 1968, and eventually Hennessy's moved into new quarters at the site it had occupied in recent years. It continued to flourish after the Outlaw Inn was built adjoining it.

Kay Koster of Kalispell was at the restaurant on its final night, and lamented the loss of her favorite dining spot.

"It was a nice, quiet place, refined, well-mannered," she recalled. "We just loved it. There was good food, good service; they made us feel important. I think we'll just eat at home from now on. There's no other nice place to go."

Regulars Steve and Sheri Mason of Stevensville, who travel to Kalispell regularly on business, had breakfast at Hennessy's on Thursday. They, too, said they'll miss the quiet, respectable atmosphere.

"We'll miss the friendly people and good service," Sheri Mason said. "They were like family; they're funny and very entertaining."

Steve Mason said he feels bad for the employees losing their jobs because of corporate decisions.

Dorothy McGlenn remembered when steak dinners cost $3.85.

"And the Friday fish buffet was beyond belief," she recalled of the event that had a waiting list every week.

Beverly Sankovic, a hostess there in the 1970s, recalled the restaurant's Stump Room, with a table built around a tree.

"It certainly was patronized by local people," she noted.

Saturday was the last day the Bulldog Pub and Steakhouse will be open at its location in the KM Building. The business will move into the Hennessy's space beginning today, with the Bulldog lounge scheduled to open at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The restaurant opens Wednesday.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 728-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com