Montana Gaming Group

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The expansion of business has included the purchase of the Pier 1 Mall in 2007 where the M-T Glass Liquor Store is located in Helena.  All this was accomplished while maintaining operation of a family ranch located at Belgrade.
    Prescott's hospitality business experience and success has deep roots, and goes back to her college days when she tended bar around Bozeman while studying business marketing at Montana State University. Her work ethic is grounded even deeper in her ranch upbringing and rural experiences.
    "I can fix stuff," she says of the lessons learned with a ranch lifestyle. “My daughter calls me 'MacGyver Mom.' Growing up in a ranch family, you learn to think and work at a very young age.”
    She first attended a one-room school at Mission Creek up Swingley Road south of Livingston, then attended rural grade schools at Ennis, Whitehall and Manhattan. She finished high school in Belgrade and Bozeman.
    Prescott started tending bar at the old Beaumont Club in Belgrade. She also worked the Holiday Inn in Bozeman, then moved to Billings and worked at the Petroleum Club and Sheraton Hotel. Returning to Bozeman, she worked in management at the GranTree Inn and Jr's Lounge. She also says she had an enjoyable career in radio advertising sales.
    In addition, she drove and delivered for FedEx for 11 years before managing a Budget Rental Car agency, then became a regional sales manager for Avis Rental Car. In 2003 she became the Customer Service Manager for the Yellowstone Jet Center. Talk about diversification!
    "Then I built this bar," she says of her current career, operating the 3,300 square-foot lounge and adjacent 2,500 square-foot bottle shop. The Office Lounge and Liquor Store is located in the former Ben Franklin store in Livingston's old historic business district.
    "We closed on the real estate Sept. 6, 2006, and The Office was open for business Dec. 6," Prescott recounts. "We did the entire remodel in 90 days and I was the general contractor. Scary, maybe, but I am a redhead!”
    She's rightly proud of the performance of the family's Helena Liquor Store, noting it performs in the top five statewide, but emphasizes The Office Lounge and Liquor Store was 15th in the state last year for non-agency store liquor volume; quite an achievement for a business starting at zero four years ago.
    The Office also operates a small kitchen that is open 10 a.m. to midnight or later every day, featuring "bar food" such as burgers, sandwiches, nachos and so on.
    Prescott apparently learned something about marketing in her MSU studies. The day the Tavern Times stopped by, the business was promoting in-house specials on a wide variety of upscale spirits, wines and brews. For example, domestic beers were $2.75 while crafts and imports were $3.50. Bloody Mary's were promoted at $3 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and beer and well drinks could be had for just $2 during a 4 to 7 p.m. happy hour. She likes to call it “Happier Hours.”
    A coming New Year's Eve party was to feature live music by Denny and the Resonators, with party favors and champagne at midnight. Hot buttered rums were featured, too, at $3.50, and buckets of six bottles of domestic beer were priced at $12 during professional sports telecasts.
    The place also features the usual gaming machines (six), pool tables (two), dart boards (two), video arcade games (two) and big flat-screen TVs (11), but  – and hence the name – The Office also has free wireless computer connectivity, free photocopies and free use of an on-site computer and printer, all these amenities nestled into a semi-private office-like nook at the rear.
    "We have had zero problems with the equipment," Prescott says. "I have more problems with my own (personal) computer."
    In addition, there are couches, arm chairs, end-tables and readings lamps, plants and even a Christmas tree, all giving the lounge a distinctly homey atmosphere. The floor is a textured and sealed poly-concrete, "bullet-proof," Prescott says.
    Of course there is a long, angled bar that will seat 20 and a dozen buddy bars that will seat many more. Fabric is draped from the ceiling in order to reduce acoustic echoes, which facilitates good conversation, Prescott says.
    "We have very good employees who all help with everything; some even helped build the place," Prescott says. "I treat them good and they treat me good." It takes 12 full- and part-time employees with a $250,000 annual payroll to staff it, she says.
    The right employees have helped Prescott develop the "right" clientele, too, she continues.
    "We get a lot of business people," she says. "We don't have 'problem' customers – no 'kids.' We have quality customers" and that means relatively high tip rates for staff. We're spoiled and blessed. My thinking is, customers react and respond to their environment. If it's nice and clean, they react that way."
    Indeed, the evening we stopped, the growing crowd was distinctly mature and apparently relatively upscale.
    "If the staff looks and acts professional," Prescott continues, "they are treated that way. They make more money and make me more money. Our bartenders wear white shirts and black slacks. The women may wear black skirts or black shorts in the summer. They look professional. It's classy but not stuffy or pretentious. It's the ambiance."
    But there is more to real success than simply running a good enterprise, Prescott suggests. "I try to participate in the local community," she says. "I'm on the Chamber of Commerce Board; the Rotary, Lions, Jaycees, Shriners, Kiwanis and Rainbow Girls; Vision Livingston (an economic development group), Downtown Building Owners Association, Park County Tavern Association, Montana Tavern Association ... I guess I'm kind of a busy-body.
    "I believe in the MTA motto" (which in part says): "No man has a moral right to withhold his support from an organization that is striving to improve the conditions within his sphere (– T. Roosevelt)." "I get a lot out of everything I participate in; it comes back to you."
    On a scale of one-to-10, Prescott rates her current business as an eight. "We could always do better; always make more money.
    "I've learned a lot from my years in work, management and business ... and outside the business. First, this is a bar! We must make money from the bar and that means closely watching the bar."
    Thus, The Office uses a Maitre 'D P.O.S. system, Posi-Pour bottle controls and a $10,000 13-camera security/alarm system.
    "We also must always stress customer importance. That is our distinction: We have a superior atmosphere and level of customer service. Everyone is comfortable here – teachers, construction workers, business people, neighborhood people, even little old ladies!"