New owners vow to keep Great Northern Bar unchanged

The Great Northern Bar and Grill in Whitefish officially changed hands at 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 28. Aside from the name on the deed, nothing has changed at the treasured downtown watering hole.

Three days after the bar was listed on Jan. 13, the property was under contract. News of the sale spurred locals to fear the worst – an out-of-town buyer perhaps, who would sanitize the joint, or worse, raze it and build something more attuned to Texas or California. 

Whitefish residents can take a collective sigh of relief. 

According to Mike Anderson, the National Parks Realty agent who listed the property, a group of locals who have each lived in Whitefish for at least 15 years and wished to remain anonymous, joined forces to buy the iconic bar near the corner of Central Avenue and East First Street because, in the fast changing atmosphere of town, they wanted this bit of Whitefish to remain the same. 

Anderson and his son and business partner, Tyler Anderson, sold the property at close to the list price of $12 million. 

Mike said the new owners formed an LLC and purchased the bar so they could keep it “exactly the same.” He said they are local enough to know the integrity of the historic bar. 

“They want to keep the DNA of the bar and the local atmosphere 100% the Great Northern,” Mike said in an interview with the Pilot. “All the buildings downtown are changing with new ownership and facelifts. [The buyers] don’t want that. All the locals wanted the Great Northern to never sell, so they bought it to give the locals exactly that. 

“You still get the same old watering hole,” he continued. “It’s still the best damn bar in the state of Montana and they want to keep it that way.” 

Katie Akey and Scott Larken, daughter and son of Doug Rommeriem, the owner for the last 40 years, have been managing the business for about 20 years and will continue to do so. 

The staff won’t change either. 

"It's closing and recording today,” Mike said on Thursday. “Bar’s open today and it’ll be the same faces that you've seen for the last 40 years.”  

Mike worked as a manager and bartender at the Great Northern for 18 years before becoming a Realtor. He described Rommeriem as a musician who ended up buying a bar. 

Rommeriem said he felt “a little bit of relief and a little bit of sadness” on Thursday, as he’d been part of the Great Northern since he began bartending there in 1983. He cannot recall the price of the bar when he bought it, but thinks it was less than $1 million. 

He confirmed that the new owners aren’t interested in making changes, but they will repair a few areas that have been neglected over the last few years. 

"They're great people,” he said. “They're very philanthropic. They donate to a lot of  Whitefish projects and needs, and they love the town, very much so, and they love the bar. When it came on the market, they jumped at it.” 

Rommeriem had an offer on the place a couple years ago - even though he hadn’t listed it - fall through. That experience made him start thinking about getting out of the business. 

“That got us thinking, well, maybe we could stop doing this,” he said. “I mean, I am 77 years old. That’s pretty old to be in the bar business.” 

Rommeriem and his wife, Christine, have a camper they’d like to take to the coast. The two also plan on boating on Flathead Lake and playing lots of golf. He's delighted to see his grandkids driving the golf cart at the course. 

“I’m not going anywhere. My life is not gonna change that much,” he said. “I'm gonna still do the same things. I'm just not gonna go into the bar.”