3 days Ago By Dan Astin Livingston Enterprise
WILSALL — The Bank Bar and Vault Restaurant, an iconic Wilsall eatery, could gain more fans from afar after a crew with “America’s Best Restaurants,” a national vlog production, media and marketing company, visited the establishment on Sept. 11. The second-generation, family-owned restaurant is the only bar in Wilsall, a Park County town with roughly 200 residents.
The place is undoubtedly unique, and was anonymously nominated online to be featured in the show. Patrons get small-town service with a smile, drink beer chilled in an early 1900s bank vault turned walk-in cooler, eat 100% locally sourced grass-fed beef, and can gander at a stuffed two-headed, six-legged calf, also locally sourced. “They’ve filmed most of the day,” David Shockey said.
Shockey owns the restaurant, formerly the Farmers State Bank, which operated as early as 1912, with his wife, Karen Shockey. The couple run the establishment with their daughter, Ashley Mugnier, a dozen employees and a little help from their young grandchildren. The Shockeys, who also own the Muddy Creek Ranch, a Wilsall commercial cattle operation, explained they took over the establishment around 2017, after the passing of Bob and Edie Tomasko, Karen Shockey’s parents.
The Tomaskos originally opened the restaurant in 2007 showcasing beef from the family ranch, where the restaurant’s supply originates. The Muddy Creek Ranch runs 200 head of cattle, shows and sells them across the U.S.
“Not many folks do what we do,” said Shockey. “We’re ranch-to-table. That’s what we do every day.
We’re proud of our menu and what we’ve put together. People drive for two to three hours to come to our restaurant.” The proprietor took a moment and mused at a taxidermy bicephalic hexapod calf.
The deceased two-headed, six-legged animal was born in 2011 on the family ranch and is on display in a glass case, on a shelf above the bar-back. The wooden bar-back is emblazoned with local cattle brands. “It has that small-town feel.
The food is great and the people are even better,” said J Russell, the show’s host and public relations coordinator for the vlog show. Russell, originally from Phoenix, Arizona, said the Wilsall stop was his fifth Montana restaurant visit. The Bank Bar and Vault Restaurant is one of roughly 1,700 joints the show visited in the U.
S. The America’s Best Restaurants crew visits roughly 800 eateries annually. “It is all about the business,” said Russell, who exuded energy and enthusiasm testing food, tasting drinks and presenting the bar’s western ambiance for the camera.
Russell recorded numerous takes at the restaurant for three hours with his two-person crew, for a 10-15 minute YouTube video. After 7-8 weeks post-production, the vlog episode is slated to air on The Bank Bar and Vault Restaurant Facebook page before it is uploaded to the “America’s Best Restaurants” YouTube channel, website, and other social media..
