McDonald's franchisee sells restaurants, plans distillery

It may be hard to discern for the average customer, but all five McDonald’s franchises in the Flathead Valley recently changed owners.

Former franchise owners Scott Hadwin and his wife Michelle decided they were ready for a life change last year after Scott underwent some medical issues, so they surveyed their finances, and went through the complicated corporate rigmarole required to sell their local restaurants to another approved franchisee.

It wasn’t part of the plan when they decided to wind down their business presence, but rather than retire, Scott has taken up another local business venture: he plans to open a rum distillery with some friends at the defunct Monkey Jay’s Montana Moonshine distillery in Evergreen.

Many of the details still need to fall into place, and the crew is still working to perfect their product and finalize all the requisite state and federal permits, but Hadwin said he hopes to have bottles in bars and on liquor store shelves by the end of 2018.

Making craft liquor is a far cry from slinging Big Macs, but Hadwin said he is enjoying the transition.

“My whole life there has been one right way to do things,” Hadwin said. “McDonald’s has been a wonderful life, but it’s stressful.”

He likens making Big Macs and quarter-pounders at McDonald’s to throwing darts at a normal dartboard. Making a perfect burger is like hitting a bull’s-eye. The target is clear from the beginning, and success is easy to measure immediately.

Making craft liquor is more like throwing a dart at a board with 15 different bulls’-eyes. There is more than one way to make a great bottle of rum, and they plan to make several different varieties.

He and his wife bought their first McDonald’s restaurant in Whitefish in 1999 from his father Jim Hadwin. They later assumed ownership of Jim Hadwin’s other four franchise locations — three in Kalispell and one in Libby — in 2004. What Scott Hadwin, a longtime home beer brewer, really always wanted to do, though, was open a brew pub in the Flathead Valley. He doesn’t anticipate having a tasting room for the new distillery to keep overhead low, but this is still a big step in the right direction.

Now he’s happy to be in a position where he doesn’t have to depend on the distillery for a living, but he also has the time to invest in cultivating it into a successful business operation if their product proves popular.

“We’re in it to spend time together,” Hadwin said of the venture he’s starting with his friends.

He also said that although they plan to start small and no one wants to rush out a product, if they are successful they would be open to expanding in the future.

“Long-term, nothing is off the table,” Hadwin said.

He said he was used to working with just one business partner, his wife, and working with two other guys and their wives was also a unique undertaking in opening the new business.

Though the sale of the McDonald’s was finalized on April 15, Hadwin said they have kept on an assistant to help with the transition to the new owners, Chris and Bud Jahnke.

The Jahnkes’ purchase of the Flathead McDonald’s restaurants was a transaction that shook up ownership of the fast food restaurants throughout the western half of the state.

Both Chris and Bud grew up in the Flathead Valley, but had been living in the Bitterroot Valley and operating two McDonald’s restaurants there in Lolo and Hamilton for many years.

They were also recently pondering leaving the business and retiring, but when the opportunity came up to buy the Flathead restaurants they decided to sell their two restaurants to a Missoula-area franchisee and relocate to the place where they grew up.

Now they are in process of taking over the operation from the Hadwins. In the coming year the Jahnkes will likely oversee renovations to the Libby restaurant and the one near Costco on the north end of Kalispell, said Bud Jahnke.

Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.