Far East meets Wild West in Fort Benton

Far East meets Wild West in Fort Benton: Kimonos & cowboys
Grand Union event puts spotlight on Asian cooking, art

By POLLY KOLSTAD For the Tribune

The Wild West and the Far East merge this weekend at the historic Grand Union Hotel in Fort Benton, and the results promise to be quite tasty.

The Grand Union’s Kimonos to Cowboys event showcases Asian art, Western and Far East cooking class­es and the culinary creations of guest chef Barry Shinto, who comes to Fort Benton from the Cliff House restau­rant in San Fran­cisco.

Shinto teams up with Grand Union chef Nick Mehmke for Far East and Wild West menu tastings on Saturday and Sunday evenings and a Sunday morning brunch.

The tasting menu includes shrimp and crab pot stickers, boar satay, crispy duck breast and confit leg, gin­ger pork loin and roasted pheasant. Entrees range from $19 to $32.

Saturday’s tasting begins at 5 p.m. Lewistown’s Silver River band will play afterward. Sunday’s event begins at 5:30 p.m.

Costumes from the Far East and the Wild West are encouraged both nights, and reduced room rates are being offered.

Sunday’s brunch, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., features five-spice French toast, shitake mushroom omelet, sourdough ricotta pancakes and pan-roasted trout. Prices range from $19 to $24. Reservations are recommended.

Shinto is a graduate of the Los Angeles Trade Technical Culinary Arts Program and has worked with Wolfgang Puck at Chinois Restau­rant in Santa Monica, Calif., owned the Piranha Restaurant in Santa Bar­bara, and currently is working at the Cliff House in San Francisco. He will focus on Asian cuisine, primarily Japanese, Thai and Chinese.

He will lead a cooking class on Asian appetizers at noon on Monday. The class costs $70, and according to organizers, it’s filling up fast. At the end of the class, participants will sample what they’ve prepared.

A shuttle will take class members to the Riverview Green House for an Asian flower arrangement lesson.

Mehmke will offer his cooking class at noon on Tuesday, helping participants to create a four-course Montana meal with a French twist. The class costs $100 and also is filling fast. Students get to chow down after the class.

Asian art on display The Grand Union will offer a feast for the eyes as well this weekend. Inspired by the beautiful art she has seen during her travels to Asia, Grand Union Hotel owner Cheryl Gagnon will feature Montana’s Asian artists and those who create Asian art. Gagnon’s hus­band, Jim, works in Hong Kong.

Gagnon discovered Chiyoko Lewis, a Japanese artist who has mastered “Chigiri,” the Japanese art of making pictures from torn pieces of paper. Lewis lives in Livingston with her husband, country musician Jimmy Lewis. They met in Kumamo­to, Japan, when he played a concert there with Rob Quist. Lewis’s life has been featured in the documentary “Someday Flowers Bloom.”

Jewelry designer Toni Patrizio will show her line of jewelry, combining jade, coral, turquoise and Asian arti­facts with a New Age contemporary twist. Patrizio has designed for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and numerous boutiques worldwide.

The interior of the hotel will be decorated with large paper kimonos done by local artist, Vickie Meguire.


Event: East meets West in Fort Benton this weekend. She created the stylized gowns after a month-long stay in Japan.

Chinese porcelain, Japanese water­colors, Japanese rice paper, and West­ern oils, watercolors, pottery and pho­tography will be on display from Billings, Bozeman, Lewistown and Stanford artists.

The art will be on display all week­end with a special viewing on Sunday from noon to 5 at the hotel with Asian tea and cowboy coffee.

Fort Benton and the Far East Fort Benton’s long history has sever­al ties to the Far East.

The Asian presence in Fort Benton flourished in the 1870s and 1880s when the river town featured several Asian restaurants. Some of the town’s earliest Chinese residents clustered on Main Street, the site of a laundry for many years. A silk and tea merchant named Frank Lee Hung made his home there.

Japanese-American Tommy Masumoto came to the U.S. in 1900 and built the Club Cafe in Fort Benton. Later, he moved to Great Falls to open the popular Club Cafeteria.

For a complete schedule of Kimonos to Cowboys events and for reservations, call the Grand Union Hotel 406-622-1882