Managers of popular Park Café leaving

After 33 years, management at the Park Café and Grocery in St. Mary is set to change hands. The café and grocery are owned by the Hilton family of Columbia Falls, but the business has been operated since 1981 by Kathryn Heistand, her husband Neal Miller and her brother Rob Heistand.

The café is a renowned place to eat on the east side of Glacier National Park, famous for its pies. The café’s bakers make 17 different varieties. Former First Lady Laura Bush once ate pie there.

Heistand said the café sells about 5,000 pies a year. Heistand has no formal baking training — she said she learned to bake pies on her own by reading cookbooks and recipes from the side of a cornstarch box.

“I just started making pies, and it started getting busier,” she said.

Helen Hilton said the family has owned the buildings since 1952. She declined to comment on why the business relationship between Heistand and the Hiltons came to an end but did confirm that Hilton family members had plans to run the café and store next season, so it will remain operational. It just won’t have Heistand’s years of baking experience behind it.