Opinion
Amuse Bouche: It was only a matter of time
Published
3 years agoon
Posted By
AdminBy Scott Mechura EBS Food Columnist
One of my favorite movies for a number of reasons, The Matrix, has a scene in which a villain has the protagonist in a compromising position. He delivers the line, “that is the sound of inevitability.”
And when you hear the first nail hammered, backhoe digging, or beeping of a truck delivering lumber to build the forthcoming Whole Foods in west Bozeman, that will be the sound of inevitability for our state and valley.
Do I like Whole Foods? Or as Austinites began calling it years ago, Whole Paycheck. You bet I do.
Addressed smack dab in the heart of downtown, I spent three years patronizing the Austin location in Texas, which incidentally is one of the city’s most popular grocery stores. Sounds silly I know, but you have to remember that the Austin Whole Foods is the mothership. The original.
One foot inside on one of those 105 F, humid July days, when the boat or lake aren’t an option and the instantly refreshing air conditioning, along with the spectacle laid out before you makes you think you’ve just entered the hip, hemp, and healthy version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
I hope Montana’s first will have the restaurants, bar, music, courtyard, and fountain and displays that Austin’s does. But it’s still a Whole Foods, nonetheless.
While this marks familiarity and comfort for some who’ve moved here from other locations, it invokes, “I remember when this town” for others. It all comes down to this: Bozeman is cementing itself as another micropolitan city, while trying to hold onto the notion of a small town with a big city identity.
Every phase of growth in Bozeman, from six floor hotels, box stores, and talented chefs to an ice garden and golf courses years ago, all speak to inevitable and predictable growth. Growth to feel like we belong, like we matter, like we don’t have to travel to other larger cities for what urban residents walk down the block for. To say “hey, we aren’t a one-horse agriculture town,” which we were as recently as 25 years ago.
But Whole Foods is different. It speaks to lifestyle rather than just life. It speaks to transplants yearning for something they moved away from yet want where they have now planted and fertilized new roots.
For example, when a Walmart opens in a rural or urban community, it figuratively shouts from the rooftops of buildings in super-sized fashion that it has arrived with prices and merchandise you no longer have to worry about.
Whole Foods, now owned by the logistical and merchandizing blitzkrieg that is Amazon, brings with it a certain mindset. It comes with a built in following who’s loyalists rival those of Trader Joes.
Generally speaking, the Gallatin Valley is active. We recreate 12 months out of the year, fill our gyms and mostly try to eat healthy. It not only physically feels good, but it makes us feel whole (pun intended) as fellow shoppers to give our cart a nano second review as they pass in the aisle. We fill our shopping carts with Fit Wine, kale, almond milk, Greek yogurt, grass fed beef and any number of raw nuts and seeds because we can and now, we’ll soon have access to the healthy, hip shopping equivalent to the promised land.
In other words, we’ll have a Whole Foods.
But a word of caution. Whole Foods earned its nicknames, such as “whole paycheck”, or “whole foods markup” for items such as the notorious six dollar head of cauliflower. With COVID-19 making our food banks more important than ever, can our valley afford it?
Scott Mechura has spent a life in the hospitality industry. He is a former certified beer judge and executive chef at Buck’s T-4 Lodge in Big Sky.
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april, 2024
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We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a
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We all are familiar with using a limited palette, but do you use one? Do you know how to use a limited palette to create different color combinations? Are you tired of carrying around 15-20 different tubes when you paint plein air? Have you ever wanted to create a certain “mood” in a painting but failed? Do you create a lot of mud? Do you struggle to achieve color harmony? All these problems are addressed in John’s workbook in clear and concise language!
Based on the bestselling “Limited Palatte, Unlimited Color” workbook written by John Pototschnik, the workshop is run by Maggie Shane and Annie McCoy, accomplished landscape (acrylic) and plein air (oil) artists,exhibitors at the Big Sky Artists’ Studio & Gallery and members of the Big Sky Artists Collective.
Each student will receive a copy of “Limited Palette, Unlimited Color” to keep and take home to continue your limited palette journey. We will show you how to use the color wheel and mix your own clean mixtures to successfully create a mood for your paintings.
Each day, we will create a different limited palette color chart and paint a version of a simple landscape using John’s directives. You will then be able to go home and paint more schemes using the book for guidance.
Workshop is open to painters (oil or acrylic) of any level although students must have some basic knowledge of the medium he or she uses. Students will be provided the book ($92 value), color wheel, value scale and canvas papers to complete the daily exercises.
Sundays, April 14, 21 and 28, 2024
Noon until 6PM.
$170.
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14 (Sunday) 12:00 pm - 28 (Sunday) 6:00 pm
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Please join the Arts Council of Big Sky for free music from Jacob Rountree at the Wilson Hotel Lobby Bar from 5-7 p.m.
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Please join the Arts Council of Big Sky for free music from Jacob Rountree at the Wilson Hotel Lobby Bar from 5-7 p.m. on April 24.
Jacob Rountree is an alternative/indie songwriter living in the stunning alpine of Montana. Contemplative yet playful, his lyric forward style is reflective of his love for philosophy, poetry and quantum physics.
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(Wednesday) 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
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The Wilson Hotel
145 Town Center Ave
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Trivia from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Waypoint in Town Center. Participation is free, food and beverages available.
Event Details
Trivia from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Waypoint in Town Center. Participation is free, food and beverages available.
Time
(Wednesday) 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location
The Waypoint
50 Ousel Falls Rd