MISSOULA — While a few favorite Missoula restaurants have closed their doors, the food industry still flourishes in the Garden City.
Plonk Wine in Missoula celebrated its 10-year anniversary in September, marking a decade of an ever-evolving food and drink menu.
Michael Ochsner opened Plonk in Missoula in 2013 after seeing the success of his Bozeman location, which he purchased four years prior.
Ochsner joined Plonk six years after its inception in Bozeman, and Missoula was always on the radar for a second location.
“I would never own a restaurant in a city that I wouldn't want to live in,” Ochsner says. “You kind of have to have some kinship to the community to be able to invest there and spend the time.”
In 2011, Ochsner and his business partner found the perfect location on North Higgins Avenue, which at the time held an Army Navy Store.
“I remember, like, brushing off the fog of the Army Navy Store at 10:30 at night and looking in, and my business partner being like ‘these are the exact dimensions, this is the exact location we need to be in.’ And fast forward, I think two and a half years and here we are,” Ochsner says.
Over the past decade, the Missoula location has separated itself from the Bozeman Plonk. Its uniqueness is due to past chefs and employees who have left their influence on the restaurant, according to Ochsner.
“We've allowed it to organically evolve and become its own thing,” he says. “There have been many people who have taken us and defined who we are over the years. It's been pretty amazing to see the different evolutions of what Plonk has become.”
One of those influences has come from Abraham Risho, Plonk’s executive chef for the past 11 months. Risho has worked as a chef in Missoula since the 90s, making his start at his father’s restaurant, Perusia, in 1995. He then worked extensively at Rumor in Missoula before opening his own restaurant, Silk Road, in 2009.
Last year, Risho was planning on leaving Missoula but decided to stay and work at Plonk because of the culture and management at the restaurant. Several of his own protogées had experience at Plonk and raved about the autonomy given to the chefs.
“I love cooking because it has that creative outlet, and you get to create new things and I love exploring food and what we can do with it. And most places do not want to see that. Whereas Punk has been very supportive and appreciative of all those kinds of crazy things that you might come up with,” Risho says. “It's always an adventure and it's always fun to see what we come up with. And so having the ability to be able to do that and not be so stuck into the regimented menu is liberating and freeing.”
Through a pandemic and ten years of inflation and labor struggles, Plonk has persevered, partially due to its ability to retain quality staff, according to Ochsner.
“The team that we have, has created a culture that is very conducive to retaining people, and I think that we're pretty proud about the culture that we have, and I think it's probably added and contributed to feeling a little bit less of that labor problem,” he says. “I think we've created a culture within which people want to come to work.”
More than its staff, Risho says Plonk offers an eclectic atmosphere that fits into the Missoula community.
“We have a fit in Missoula because people want to have a place to go that isn't out on North Reserve that is local, you know, it's a local Montana company,” Risho says. “And we have a cool environment here, a good aesthetic about the place that you don't see in a lot of places. So it fits in Missoula because it's unique in that aspect.”
With over 400 bottles of wine from around the country, a variety of cuisine from five-course meals to appetizers and cheese boards and an extensive list of cocktails, Ochsner says there's a little something for everyone.
"It's it's kind of like a choose your own adventure situation, which is, I think, a large part of the beauty of it.”
Plonk is open from 3 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 3 p.m. until midnight Thursday through Saturday. Happy hour runs from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 10:30 p.m. until midnight.
