Resort restaurant gets new owners
By LYNNETTE HINTZE
The Daily Inter Lake
They're "The Young and the Restless" - literally.
Longtime local restaurateurs Pat LaTourelle and Bob Riso, and Riso's son, Luke, have formed a corporation called The Young and the Restless Inc. and recently purchased Hellroaring Saloon, one of the most popular restaurants on Big Mountain.
The bar and restaurant, located in the historic Big Mountain Chalet, will open simultaneously with the ski resort.
"We want to bring it back to the glory days," LaTourelle said.
The change in ownership brings the restaurant full circle for LaTourelle, whose husband, Jon Bos, started Hellroaring Saloon in 1975 in the O'Piccollo's building near the railroad viaduct in Whitefish. He moved the business to Big Mountain in 1981, where he operated it for a year as Schule's Copper Bar and then returned the business to its original name.
LaTourelle sold Hellroaring Saloon to Sean and Kari Saadi after her husband died in 2002.
When Riso, who was Bos' friend and one-time business partner, heard the Saadis were contemplating not opening the restaurant this season, he and LaTourelle devised a plan of action.
"We've been patrons here for 23 years," Riso said. "It was a selfish thing, really. We wanted to be able to come back here."
Riso has a long list of accomplishments to his name in the restaurant business. He started Dos Amigos in Whitefish in 1983 and then built Dos Amigos and Rocco's in Kalispell in the mid-1980s. He and Bos were partners in First Avenue West in Kalispell when that restaurant opened in 1993. He later owned Cafe Kandahar on Big Mountain, and recently sold the business to Kandahar chef Andy Blanton.
Restless in retirement, Riso jokingly said he didn't want to answer his wife's recurring question: "What are you going to do today?"
So he's back in the business.
LaTourelle said she's the second half of the "restless" duo. She operated Whitefish Lake Restaurant at the golf course for 23 years and wrapped up that phase of her career at the end of 2000. She now operates a business called Arrangements with business associate Nancy Gordley.
LaTourelle, too, was anxious to get back in the restaurant business.
She'll be bringing back some memorabilia that's been in storage since her husband's death, and will add it to the already eclectic smattering of photographs, notes, antique ski equipment and T-shirts that sprawl across the knotty-pine walls.
If memorabilia on the walls is any indication, the Hellroaring has been a social hub for decades.
Bos' spirit continues to live on at Hellroaring. A humorous sign posted near the entrance notes that "Price of drinks subject to change, according to attitude. Jon Bos."
Patrons this season will notice changes in the menu, but it will still offer generous portions of comfort food such as pasta dishes, steak and seafood.
"We have the best soup maker in the world, Betty Conkling." LaTourelle said.
John Ventresca is the head chef.
"It'll be good food and good times," Riso said.
Riso's son has grown up in the restaurant business and will take an active role in managing the Hellroaring. All three partners will be actively involved, LaTourelle said.
They've negotiated a deal with resort operator Winter Sports Inc. that will allow Hellroaring Saloon to be a permanent fixture in the base area. The restaurant will remain in the chalet for another couple of years until the building is razed or relocated.
At that point Hellroaring will move into the Mogul's building, and Mogul's will move to a new hotel/convention center planned at the resort.
Eventually, Hellroaring Lodge will be part of the new commercial development planned around the base of Chair 1 in the master plan.
"The mountain has worked hard to preserve the character of this building in the new Hellroaring Lodge," Riso said.
The plan all along has been to re-create the Hellroaring atmosphere in a new facility.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com