Executive Chef Stefan Schleigh and the team at gute Laune embrace community to the core.
Bozeman’s New Würstbar, gute Laune
A team of creatives and creators came together to turn what was initially “a dream of a place that is open to the community of Bozeman” into a reality, says partner Erik Nelson. That place is gute Laune (lowercase G, please), which is German for “good mood” and is the Rialto’s second-story rancher-, butcher-, and community-led modern würstbar.
Nest Partners, owners and designers of the Rialto theater and The Lark hotel, turned what previously served as an event space into a welcoming restaurant and bar with the help of local design-build firm MFGR Designs and other area partners. The inclusive good-mood vibe is curated with sustainably up-cycled wood and metal interior finishes, Edison lightbulbs, exposed brick, and a white wall bearing a quote from the magazine Vienna Würstelstand’s manifesto that reads: “Society’s polished elite drink beer out of tin cans alongside those poor bastards doing the polishing, where all sorts of people come together.”
The attention to detail does not stop at the design of the space. To decide the menu offerings the team brought in local expertise to keep community as a central focus. Nelson of Nest Partners made it a mission to “be as good as they can in sustainable and local sourcing,” and so before the restaurant’s April 20, 2024, opening they reached out to Wyatt Nelson (unrelated to Erik Nelson) to help accomplish this goal.
Wyatt, owner of Montana Local Foods and the former meat manager at the Bozeman Community Food Co-Op, worked closely with the Nest Partners team and Executive Chef Stefan Schleigh to set up sourcing and a menu focused on local purveyors. He has an intimate understanding of food supply chains backed by relationships with ranchers, farmers, and processors. The restaurant’s menu consistently offers proteins, breads, and vegetables produced in the area.
The würst menu includes sausages from Meats of Montana, the award-winning sausage maker and butcher out of Big Timber, with similar offerings from Bozeman butcher Daniels Gourmet Meats and Sausages and the family-owned B-Bar Ranch. The breads and buns that the sausages are served on are baked by Bozeman’s On the Rise Bread Company.
Potatoes are brought in from Whitehall-based Bausch Potato, and many of the vegetable sides come from Amaltheia Organic Dairy. The menu has no shortage of vegetable options, with most of the shareable sides, which make up half the menu, being meat-free.
Those shareables aid in the restaurant’s stated spirit, where “everyone in our Bozeman community can come together and share in the spirit of great food.” They include classic German pretzels served with beer cheese, grilled cauliflower with chimichurri, and Belgian fries made with the Bausch potatoes. The menu also includes rotating specials that have included bone-in pork rib eyes and schnitzel sandwiches—which some patrons have urged the restaurant to add to the menu permanently.
With community and localism as a central focus, the team recently held a “beer dinner” and pre-sold tickets for a five-course meal paired with beers. Patrons sat at the communal long bench tables and shared good-mood food and drink together.
The bar in gute Laune has beers on draft from Montana breweries, as well as classic German ales. Half and full steins are poured with beer from Bozeman Brewing Company and Mountains Walking Brewery & Pub, while the imported beers include Bitburger pilsners, Hofbräu lagers, and Früh kölschs, to name a few. The full bar also serves classic cocktails, wine, with-the-times mocktails, and other non-alcoholic options. The bar side of the restaurant overlooks downtown Bozeman’s Main Street and has seating lined against the windows.
One way the restaurant serves the Bozeman community is by providing a place for late-night food. In good spirit, gute Laune is open until midnight, giving community members a place to enjoy locally sourced shareable food after an evening show at the Rialto, or when other food options past 10 p.m. are limited. The community has seen a number of hot dog stands open up shop on Main Street over the past year, but none with quite such an emphasis on community and localism.
- gute Laune is located above the Rialto at 10 W. Main St. and is open 5 p.m. to midnight, Wednesday through Sunday.
