{"id":3954,"date":"2014-10-01T07:04:06","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T13:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=3954"},"modified":"2014-10-01T13:25:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T19:25:51","slug":"newest-downtown-restaurant-has-familiar-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2014\/10\/newest-downtown-restaurant-has-familiar-faces\/","title":{"rendered":"Newest downtown restaurant has some familiar faces"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Commons\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

The lunch hour was pretty lively Tuesday at Commons 1882. This is the dining area near the ground-level bar.<\/p><\/div>\n

Standing in the kitchen of his brand-new restaurant, Jason Corbridge said his life has come full circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where I fell in love with food,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That was 15 years ago, when he was 21 and started working at George Henry\u2019s Restaurant, a downtown landmark at North 30th Street and Fourth Avenue North.<\/p>\n

George Henry\u2019s is now Commons 1882, a partnership between Greg Oliphant, the general manager, and Corbridge and Henry Kennah, the two chefs who will run the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Commons 1882 \u2014 so named because it was built as a country house in that year \u2014 had a soft opening Thursday and Friday, closed for the weekend and opened again Monday. The partners did a Facebook blast Tuesday, but before that they got the news out by word of mouth and Facebook messages to a few friends and fans.<\/p>\n

Oliphant said the \u201cvery quiet opening\u201d last week gave them \u201can opportunity to learn what we didn\u2019t know about ourselves.\u201d He said there was a marked improvement even from Thursday to Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that Thursday was bad,\u201d Corbridge added. \u201cBut Friday was golden.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Partners\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Partners in the new restaurant are, from left, Jason Corbridge, Henry Kennah and Greg Oliphant.<\/p><\/div>\n

Corbridge was best known for his tiny restaurant, Caf\u00e9 DeCamp, which he ran for three and a half years before closing it in February 2013. He attracted a big following with his endlessly inventive dishes, for an evolving menu that regulars couldn\u2019t wait to peruse.<\/p>\n

He and Kennah have known each other for many years, Corbridge said, and 10 or 11 years ago they had some \u201cserious differences. But over the past seven or eight years, we\u2019ve become very good friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennah has worked as a chef in Billings for 14 years, most recently at the downtown Jake\u2019s restaurant, where he spent five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just know each other through food \u2014 similar tastes and interests,\u201d Kennah said.<\/p>\n

They had long talked about working together someday and are clearly enjoying it now. Kennah said they are \u201copenly critical\u201d of each other, challenging each other\u2019s ideas and pushing each other, as Corbridge said, \u201cout of our comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Asked how they clashed in the kitchen, what sorts of things they differed over, Kennah asked a question of his own: \u201cWhat\u2019s a good mashed potato?\u201d<\/p>\n

To answer that question, he said, you have to decide what kind of potato you want to use, whom you buy it from, what style you\u2019ll use to cook it, whether you\u2019ll use buttermilk or cream, whether you\u2019ll prepare it with a mixing bowl or a food processor. Multiply that conversation by every dish, every ingredient, and then expand it to include the entire kitchen staff of nine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe included our whole staff in our development,\u201d Corbridge said.<\/p>\n

Yes, they are serious about food, and as committed to buying fresh and buying local as Corbridge ever was at Caf\u00e9 DeCamp. He\u2019s probably even more committed, Corbridge said, given how many opportunities to buy local have cropped up in the relatively short time since he closed DeCamp.<\/p>\n

Oliphant got involved when mutual friends introduced him to Corbridge a couple of months after Caf\u00e9 DeCamp closed. Oliphant was a partner in the Koinonia restaurant on the South Side in the 1980s and early 1990s and has worked as a food broker for 35 years.<\/p>\n

\"Bank\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Commons 1882 sits on Fourth Avenue North in the shadow of the First Interstate Bank building.<\/p><\/div>\n

Kennah was also brought into the mix, and the three of them looked at lots of concepts and locations before settling on George Henry\u2019s, which had been vacant since 2009. Corbridge, who said he used to be afraid he\u2019d have a heart attack trying to run Caf\u00e9 DeCamp by himself, is finding the new arrangement much less stressful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a relief to know Greg\u2019s out there and Henry and I are sharing duties back here,\u201d he said, referring to the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Oliphant will continue working as general manager, Corbridge said, but eventually he and Kennah want to own the restaurant themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intention is to buy this restaurant from Greg in five years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Commons 1882 has the same general layout as George Henry\u2019s, but it has been remodeled from top to bottom and now includes two full bars, one on the ground floor and one upstairs.<\/p>\n

\"tacos\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Ashley Woodward Butler shows off a freshly made plate of tacos de pescado.<\/p><\/div>\n

There are numerous microbrews on tap from around Billings and the state, a small wine menu and a selection of special cocktails, including a Black Walnut Old Fashioned and Adventurers of Huckleberry Gin.<\/p>\n

The menu has some 25 items, counting lunch dishes, hors d\u2019oeuvre and dinner entrees. The restaurant will be open only for lunch on Mondays, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, lunch will be served from 11 to 2, with hors d\u2019oeuvres served starting at 3 and dinner from 5 to 9. It will be closed on Sunday.<\/p>\n

There will be seating for about 130 people inside \u2014 upstairs, in the main dining room just inside the Fourth Avenue entrance and in the dining room near the downstairs bar on the east side of the building \u2014 and 32 seats on the outdoor patio. All indoor seating areas will be available at all times, Oliphant said.<\/p>\n

The menu, which includes wine and beer suggestions with most dishes, is full of mouth-watering creations. On the hors d\u2019oeuvre menu, a lamb terrine with almonds, Flathead cherries, chamomile, sweet potato, amaretto yogurt, dried apple and honeycomb is said to go well with an Exem Bordeaux or a Sweetgrass American Pale Ale.<\/p>\n

Lunch? How about a Montana bison burger with sharp white cheddar and smoked Flathead cherry barbecue sauce, with a glass of 10 Spoon Flathead Cherry dry wine or an Imperial Red from the Great Northern Brewery in Whitefish?<\/p>\n

And dinner? Perhaps a \u201cbroken ravioli of smoked tomato and forest mushroom\u201d (ingredients too numerous to mention), accompanied by a Santa Ema Merlot Reserve or Abyss Bourbon barrel aged stout.<\/p>\n

Commons 1882 employs 42 people so far, and everyone is getting used to the building, the menu and one another. Corbridge said the \u201clong but fruitful\u201d search for a new restaurant is starting to feel like a great success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m delighted to be pushing myself and to have a home,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever wanted \u2014 not only to create a good environment for my guests, but for my employees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Standing in the kitchen of his brand-new restaurant, Jason Corbridge said his life has come full circle. \u201cThis is where I fell in love with food,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,17],"tags":[167,1150,1437,170,1149,1438,166],"class_list":["post-3954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-culture","tag-cafe-decamp","tag-commons-1882","tag-george-henrys","tag-greg-oliphant","tag-henry-kennah","tag-jakes","tag-jason-corbridge","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}