Restaurant with southwestern twist opens on Electric Ave.

Some may not remember that the Wine Cellar next to the Garden Bar used to be the Post Office in Bigfork. It’s also possible that some of Bigfork’s residents and visitors may not know about Owney, the U.S. Postal Service’s first mascot.

Once Bigfork’s newest restaurant, Owney’s, has their grand opening on May 25, everyone will know.

Ken and Sara O’Connor know both of these things very well and they are making both a part of Owney’s. The O’Connors are the current owners of Ken’s Coffee, just down Electric Avenue from where Owney’s is set to open at the Wine Cellar’s previous location.

The O’Connors came up with the name when they found out the building used to be the post office and that Owney was a stray dog adopted by the post office and regarded as good luck.

“We wanted something that went with the feel of the town, that’s why we named it what we did, to bring the history into the business,” Ken said.

In addition to paying homage to the building’s history, the O’Connors aim to keep things as local as possible at Owney’s with local beer, wine, and art. Guests will be able to drink Flathead Lake Brewing Company’s beer or wine from regional vineyards while enjoying local artwork such as Stacy Dykeman’s paintings or Jon Erdmann’s photographs, which are currently on display.

“Montana has the most fabulous beer, hands down,” Ken said. “It’s hard to pick a favorite local beer and select what you want to have (on tap).”

“That was the hardest part for Ken, tasting all that beer,” Sara said with a laugh. “But for me, it was tasting all the wine.”

Owney’s will be open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily with the option for carry-out beer and wine. And, unlike the Wine Cellar, Owney’s will be open all year.

One of their goals is to make Owney’s a family friendly restaurant. When the O’Connors first visited Bigfork in 2010 they said they felt that they didn’t have very many options for places to go with their children, one of which was five-years-old at the time.

Part of that goal means having American-style food with soup, salads, cheese steak, and their southwestern spin on a Reuben sandwich with roasted pork and jalapeno slaw.

The O’Connors moved to Bigfork in February 2011 from Tuscan, Ariz. after spending a week vacationing here. Ken said that while sitting on the runway after their trip that he told Sara he didn’t want to leave, so they came up with a plan to move to Bigfork and open Ken’s Coffee.

Things were going well for the O’Connors, so well that they found themselves quickly outgrowing the shop.

“At Ken’s (Coffee) we enjoyed coming up with new recipes and things, but we’re limited there,” Sara said. “People were getting addicted to my chicken tortilla soup and it was overwhelming the space.”

They describe their food as “stuff you will recognize, but in a new way.”

The O’Connors plan to keep Ken’s Coffee open while also operating Owney’s.

Fortunately their sons, Devan, 16, Dylan, 13, and Aidan, 7, will be helping in addition to the six part-time servers they’ve hired and the two kitchen workers they are still looking to hire as of May 17.

“Another restaurant owner in town said they consider us peers, not competitors,” Sara said. “So that kind of comradery and the ‘all in it together’ is a wonderful aspect of Bigfork.”