The Midway Grill and Brews is a new restaurant opening this week in Billings inside West Park Promenade, next to Gainan's. The restaurant will offer lunch, dinner, and brunch service, with each dish made from scratch.
“Everything is going to be elevated. We are making our own bread, making our own cheese, doing our own pickling,” Matt Melvin, owner of the restaurant, said Tuesday morning.
Melvin said that he and his staff want to be the best in the industry in every aspect of the new eatery. The spot was home for years to a coffee shop attached to the former Hastings store, and more recently, housed two other restaurants.
Along with owning the Midway Grill and Brews, Melvin is the current general manager of the Petroleum Club downtown and has also opened 10 other restaurants in Billings in the past.
He said he wanted to create a restaurant that would help to establish an identity in the midtown area of Billings.
“Midtown is really cool, and it’s got a culture to itself. You can see it with the other restaurants that are opening up. We wanted to make this the anchor for midtown Billings,” said Melvin.
Melvin said that to be that anchor, he wanted to make sure to bring culture, music, and art to the restaurant and showcase the midtown area. He said that in the future, they will have live music, events, and feature local talent in the Billings community.
This will be possible with the help of the Billings Social Collaborative, a group that helps to connect members of the Billings community and organize events. The executive chef for The Midway also manages the social media for the Billings Social Collaborative.
"It's made up of artists and restaurateurs and people in the industry. We are just trying to come together and plan events for the town to keep that culture booming in Billings," said Jeremy Evans, the executive chef.
Melvin said that for food, he and his staff wanted to give people some options. They are offering to-go service, lunch service, and giving customers a fine dining option for dinner.
He said that each chef in the kitchen will have their own specialty dish, one of which being the Kick’n Chicken.
“It's on house-made sourdough with cumin aioli. It (has) fries on it, capicola, and then a rice flour tempura chicken breast. It's massive, lots of slaw on there. It's like eating a chicken football,” said Melvin.
Another specialty dish comes from the restaurant’s kitchen manager.
“What I came up with is basically our take on a White Castle burger, that’s all I am going to say as far as what is in the patty. Our house-made relish, our own version of a fry sauce on the other end of it, and a few different kinds of cheese. It is all made from scratch, all done in our own house,” said Cody Buhl.
Like other businesses, Melvin said The Midway Grill and Brews has seen the effects of the pandemic while preparing to open. But he says the staff’s teamwork was a unique quality that held everything together.
“One individual can’t run a restaurant anymore. We have a team of professionals. I lean on them, they lean on me, and it’s not going to work without that,” said Melvin.
The currents staff at the restaurant have all worked together at previous restaurants.
“We have all worked with each other in the industry before and now we are all coming together and it is kind of fun to be able to have our own project and get to show this town what we can do with a restaurant,” said Laine Patterson, front of house manager for The Midway.
“We are all just vibin' together as one big family. Being here just a couple months ago when it was just an idea in the future, it’s been amazing to see all the support from the people from working here and the people that will be coming in,” said Kyle Melby, marketing director for The Midway.
The Midway Grill and Brews will have its soft opening April 1 at 1603 Grand Ave. Suite 145A and Melvin says that there will be a few surprises for customers.
For more information, visitThe Midway Grill and Brews website.
