By Lynette Zwerneman
For the Montana Tavern Times
Do bar owners and beverage distributors know how to party?
Boy howdy!
This idiom was proven well enough the evening of January 8 when the Gallatin County Licensed Beverage Association descended upon the Best Western GranTree Inn in Bozeman, for their annual benefit dinner and get together.
The dinner raises money for the association, which last year contributed to various local nonprofits such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, Reach Inc., The Bobcat Transit System and the Montana Meth Project.
Present also at the 300-plus participant event were representatives of businesses supporting the bar and beverage industry including bankers, laundry business owners and such, as well as bar and tavern people from around the area.
"A lot of people do business with, and benefit from, this industry. That' a lot of who is here," observed Melanie "Mel" Hathaway, manager of JR' Lounge in Belgrade and hard-working GCLBA secretary and organizer of the event.
Tickets for two to the affair were $150 and included drinks, the opportunity for winning some pretty good door prizes or to participate in a substantial calcutta raffle and lots of socially induced fun.
The evening began at 6 p.m. in the GranTree' poolside Atrium. Lights were left low and white tablecloths and flickering votive candles gave an elegant flair to the cocktail hour, enjoyed by men in black broad-rimmed felt hats as well as ladies in glittery dresses. A few of either sex chose to be casually chic in new blue jeans and fit right in.
It should be mentioned at this event, ladies are provided with a lovely rose corsage, just for showing up.
After socializing and beveragizing, revelers later adjourned to the hotel' ballroom around eightish for a family-style meal of salmon and beef and a wide assortment of edible accompaniments.
The familiar white tablecloths, stainless candle sticks, those cute little liquor bottles and bottles of fine red and white wine adorned the dinner tables. Oh, and lots of beverage glasses.
One thing was clearly evident, besides the fact everyone appeared to have an enormous good time: not a wine cork disintegrated, not a champagne stopper went awry and nary a drop was spilled. These are the pros, remember?
The dinner is usually presided or, in all actuallity, ruled over by more-than-three-decades-long GCLBA President (or as he is affectionately known, "Prom King") Ralph Ferrarro, owner of Ferraro' Fine Italian Restaurant, located a few blocks up the street from the GranTree.
This year Ralph had laryngitis or some such malady, so his daughter, Angela Fry, officiated at the gala.
Angela was totally in her element at the dinner, and not just because of blood ties: her husband, Bill Fry, owns the Filling Station and the Haufbrau.
When asked to comment during the dinner, the ever-jovial Ralph smiled, and hoisted his "for medicinal purposes" hot beverage.
(A few days afterwards a recovered Ralph said he was real pleased with how things had gone as "everyone had a good time and the GranTree did a good job with the food.")
"Angela did a great job of keeping things going," observed E.R. Young, manager of the Chico Saloon at Chico Hot Springs Resort.
E.R. has the classic barkeep touch for making you feel guilty about staying home to watch serial killer shows on late night television: "Haven't seen you around much lately," he admonished, after I had initiated, "Hey E.R., how ya doin'?"
"Well, I've been around," I mustered, vowing to take a drive out to Chico to savor the live music menu some weekend soon.
E.R. said Chico Hot Springs, though located in neighboring Park County, likes to support the Gallatin County Licensed Beverage Association.
"I had a nice time. It' always good to go and see old friends in this Industry. We all work hard. It' nice to have a night off," he philosophized.
Some of the politicos who attended were former Bozeman mayor and current Bozeman City Councilman Jeff Krause; Bozeman area Senator Gary Perry, (R); and Mike Wheat, Democratic candidate for Montana Attorney General.
Another celeb-type present was Patrick Stratton, East Main Liquor Store employee and star of one of the famous East Main Liquor "E-Team" commercials, the most recent one featuring the UM Grizzly raiding a Bobcat tailgate party.
As in the other T.V. spots, The E-Team gets the liquor back.
"We're your hometown liquor team; we save parties," commented Patrick about East Main Liquor Store, after being recognized by several event goers.
In regard to the calcutta raffle: I have observed, and in my previous life in the service industry worked, events featuring calcuttas and for the life of me I still don't understand them. This one featured names on a wall and a rolling metal basket--which must have a proper name (Editor's note: "Tumbler"?)--filled with numbered ping-pong balls. Some people got really excited when someone else picked out a ball. That' all I know.
Harrington' Pepsi Cola Bottling sales reps Greg Hansen, Kirby Salsbury and Tim Armfield won and shared the Calcutta Grand Prize of $2,000, proving once and for all, you really can't have a winning party without "the mix."
When asked what they were going to do with the money, one of the Harrington' employees quipped, " We're going to buy some drinks," which was amended by another of the trio to "We're going to buy our customers some drinks."
At events like these, it' impossible not to mix business with pleasure and vice versa.
As Misty Kuhn, one of Melanie' coworkers at JR' Lounge who helped out at the GVLBA dinner commented, "It' the best time!"
...'t il next year!
Other Calcutta winners that evening included: Southwest Montana Building Association who pocketed $500; Dave Jarrett Insurance who walked away with $300; and $200 winners Jackpot Casino, Friendly Tavern, Owenhouse Hardware, Western Plumbing, Mountain West Bank, 45th Parallel Reality and Jack Catron.
The live auction items and winning bidders (in parenthesis) were: an $800 gift certificate to Meridian, Inc. (Levi Knott); a Panasonic 50-inch high-definition plasma television installed by Schuster Systems (Kristine Plastino); a guided fishing trip for two, a Winston fly rod, a night for two at Chico Hot Springs and Samsonite luggage (Rick Ogle); VIP tickets for two to Bristol, Tenn., for the NASCAR Sharpie 500 in August, a Jack Daniels Car Replica Hood and liquor basket of Jack Daniels (Dave Jarrett); and eight bottles of premium wines donated by Cardinal and Bronkens distributors (Kevin Kent).
Ten liquor baskets, containing not just libations but also liquor themed T-shirts and hats were passed out randomly during the evening, as were 10 - $50 dollar bills.
The liquor basket contents existed due to the generosity of Southern Wine/Spirits West, Young' Market Company, Barton' Brands and Future Brands, LLC. East Main Liquor Store also had a hand in putting the baskets together.
Other "door prizes" for those who had the good fortune to purchase a ticket were: a Jagermeister coat courtesy of Young' Market; a Kodak digital camera and printer provided by Town Pump and a laser printer from the Profitech company.
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, February, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.