Whitefish Has Range

The first thing we notice at Herb & Omni is the room itself. Dark-beamed ceilings. Gilded mirrors clustered salon-style across the walls. Pendant lights that belong in a Milanese townhouse. The space feels warm, ornate, and transportive. Even the cocktail menu suggests expectations are about to be rearranged.

Then the food arrives.

A potato chip topped with caviar signals the restaurant’s sensibility: playful, luxurious, unconcerned with Montana stereotypes. Chef Earl Reynolds, a Whitefish native and two-time James Beard finalist for Best Chef: Mountain, builds his menu around the products of northwest Montana, with seasonal ingredients from Flathead Valley farms and regional ranchers.

The foie gras appetizer arrives like a savory dessert: vanilla parsnip coulis, root beer gelée, huckleberry preserves, brioche. On the question of foie gras in a mountain town, Reynolds quips: “We are at the top of the food chain for the moment. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts.” Reynolds famously beat Bobby Flay on Beat Bobby Flay, a fact the locals mention as if the outcome was never in doubt.

Three plated dishes are arranged on a table, each featuring plant-based meals with greens and garnishes at a restaurant called Herb & Omni.

Herb & Omni brings a polished, playful approach to northwest Montana ingredients.

Photo by Brian Schott

From Seattle, Whitefish appears after just over one hour in the air. The town of roughly 9,000 sits at the doorstep of Glacier National Park, wrapped by lakes, forests, and trails. It retains the bones of a historic railroad town, but moves with the confidence of a place with a much wider perspective.

That became clear on our first evening, when dinner at Herb & Omni flowed directly into a release party for the Whitefish Review. Founded in 2007 and now publishing its 31st issue, the literary journal has become one of the most impressive small publications in the American West, publishing Rick Bass and interviewing John Irving, among other national and regional writers. The room was packed with ranchers, writers, and store owners. When musician Nick Spear launched into an impromptu solo performance of Devo’s “Whip It,” the crowd erupted like they had all been waiting for exactly that moment.

The cover of Whitefish Review magazine’s "Seeds" issue, featuring close-up photographs of colorful, detailed seeds against a black background.

Founded by Brian Schott in 2007, Whitefish Review publishes twice a year and gives this Montana mountain town a literary life all its own.

Courtesy of Whitefish Review

On a subsequent morning, we visited the offices of Whitefish Review with publisher Brian Schott. It is a busy, boisterous workspace where every inch seems devoted to making the next issue happen. The operation carries the scrappy energy of an early-stage startup, despite nearing two decades in existence. For travelers invested in literary culture, discovering something this ambitious in a mountain town suggested Whitefish had evolved into a different kind of destination entirely.

Going-To-The-Sun, No Cars Allowed

A person rides a bicycle on a paved mountain road with snow-capped peaks and green valleys in the background under a clear blue sky.

Before cars return for the season, cyclists get a rare chance to ride Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park.

Going-to-the-Sun Road, the 50-mile engineering marvel that bisects Glacier National Park, is one of the great drives in North America. It is an even better bike ride. Every spring, before the road opens to vehicles, the National Park Service allows cyclists to pedal sections of it in blissful, car-free silence—just switchbacks, thousand-foot drops into glacially carved valleys, and pristine mountain air. With e-bikes from Whitefish Outfitters, the ride was as effortless as it was exhilarating.

Two people ride mountain bikes on a narrow dirt trail along a rocky cliffside, surrounded by tall trees and forested landscape.

Photo by Brian Schott

Just outside of town, the Whitefish Trail—a 42-mile non-motorized loop ringing the lake—offers mountain biking for a range of ability levels: buffed singletrack winding through larch and lodgepole pine. Whitefish Mountain Resort, the area’s celebrated ski hill, transforms in summer into a lift-accessed bike park with 23 miles of trails, scenic summit rides with views of Glacier, an aerial adventure park, alpine slides, and the longest lift-served zip line in Montana.

Setting the Table

Wasabi Sushi Bar has been a Whitefish institution for 25 years, which tells you something about the town’s palate. Owner Paula Greenstein has built a sake program that would earn respect at any Japanese restaurant, regularly hosting sake-and-wine pairing dinners that draw enthusiasts from well beyond the Flathead Valley. Greenstein, so enamored of the beverage that she traveled to Japan to learn more, notes that it is the largest sake menu in the state. The fish is considerably better than you have any right to expect at altitude in landlocked Montana.

Three white plates on a gray surface, each with a different dish: seared meat with greens, a mixed vegetable salad, and seared scallops with vegetables and sauce.

Courtesy of Latitude 48 Bistro

For a hearty breakfast we beeline to Swift Creek Cafe, where the menu is ambitious: the Turkish Eggs—prime beef sirloin, hummus, cucumber yogurt, za’atar, Aleppo pepper, pickled jalapeño—are reasons to return. Latitude 48 Bistro is a convivial neighborhood gastropub, with a menu that ranges from lamb lollipops with spicy harissa aioli to fresh oysters and scallops. For dinner on the mountain, Buchanan’s Chop House & Whisky Bar at the Kandahar Lodge is the answer: a classic chophouse with Alberta beef, fresh fish, and cuts on the bone, paired with one of the most extensive whisky lists in the state.

The local bars reflect this outward-looking ethos as well. The Pride flag outside Bonsai Brewery conveys friendly, contemporary Whitefish. Lauren Oscilowski, Chef Reynolds’ wife, owns Spotted Bear Spirits, the conservation-minded craft distillery a few blocks away. She built the operation around environmental stewardship—her staff volunteers to maintain local trails—and sustainability figures into every decision. The Oaxaca Old Fashioned, with smoked chili syrup and chocolate-spiced bitters, is an evening’s ideal punctuation mark.

Downtown begs for a slow wander. Bookworks stocks the titles you’d find at a good independent bookstore in any literary city—fitting for a town that sustains its own journal. The Toggery sells the famous Glacier Rim hats, a local icon worth the luggage space. One must-visit boutique is Underscore Art and Jewelry. Owner Monica Pastor collects contemporary regional painting, sculpture, and photography, and designer fine jewelry from around the world. A few blocks away, the Dick Idol Signature Gallery shows the cowboys, wildlife, and fur-trade-era landscapes that carry the influence of the setting. The two galleries together make a useful index of where Whitefish sits: one foot in the contemporary art world, one foot firmly in the West.

Where to Lay Your Head

The Firebrand Hotel anchors the downtown end of the lodging spectrum: urban-inflected, steps from everything, with a rooftop hot tub that winds down the day in comfort. The Firebrand Bar has happy hour every day, live music, and craft cocktails befitting the town’s high standards.

The Lodge at Whitefish Lake occupies the opposite register—lakefront serenity, the Boat Club restaurant on the water, a spa, and the peace of falling asleep next to a magnificent body of water. The restaurant delivers the expected bounty of the Rockies, such as wild game ragu with bison, venison, and wild boar.

Two-story white house in the Whitefish range, featuring black and white striped awnings, flower boxes, and a front yard with green grass and trees.

A restored 1920s inn in downtown Whitefish, the Garden Wall Inn pairs house-made breakfasts with old-school hospitality.

Courtesy of Garden Wall Inn

A flower garden with a range of colorful blooms and green plants sits in front of a white picket fence on a sunny day in Whitefish.

Courtesy of Garden Wall Inn

The Garden Wall Inn offers something more intimate: a beloved B&B where owners Rhonda Fitzgerald and Chris Schustrom cook breakfast for their guests each morning. That smaller scale is part of the draw. Fitzgerald, a longtime local, seems to know every story in town. The newest arrival is Larch House, a 39-room boutique hotel in the historic Railway District, designed by Seattle-based Olson Kundig.

On the last morning, over those Turkish eggs, the startup energy at the Review felt like a metaphor for the entire town. Whitefish balances its mountain-town history with a cosmopolitan sensibility: a James Beard-nominated kitchen, a 31-issue literary journal, a deeply considered sake program, an Olson Kundig-designed hotel. All of it is built, maintained, and embraced by the people at the foot of the Rockies, who seem to have made a collective decision about what kind of place they want to live in—and who are genuinely happy to share it with new friends.

Plan Your Trip

Getting there:

Alaska Airlines offers year-round direct service from Sea-Tac to Glacier Park International Airport (FCA) in Kalispell, roughly 15 miles from Whitefish. Flight time is approximately 75-90 minutes.

Stay:

Firebrand Hotel; The Lodge at Whitefish Lake; Garden Wall Inn; Larch House

Eat & Drink:

Herb & Omni (reservations recommended); Wasabi Sushi Bar; Latitude 48 Bistro; Swift Creek Cafe; Buchanan’s Chop House & Whisky Bar; Spotted Bear Spirits; Bonsai Brewery

Do:

Whitefish Outfitters (Going-to-the-Sun Road cycling and Glacier National Park adventures); Whitefish Mountain Resort (summer biking, zip lines, and lift rides).