Ponderosa Social Club - Bozeman
Author: Traveling Diners
Ponderosa Social Club - Bozeman
Traveling Diners
It’s been a while since the Traveling Diners have traveled; but, with the beautiful January weather, we ventured out to dinner in Bozeman.
Many Montanans feel that Bozeman is no longer a true Montana town; the nickname Boz Angeles kind of sums up the feeling. But, Bozeman’s upscale large city feel comes with upscale shopping and dining.
We had heard good things about Bozeman’s Ponderosa Social Club and decided to try it. This time the Traveling Diners was quite a large group – eleven of us.
Before dinner, we met at the Devil’s Toboggan – a “well-appointed nostalgic, speakeasy environment” – for a drink before going to dinner. The Devil’s Toboggan encourages the speakeasy feel by being located in a dark corridor on the second floor of their building. There is no sign on the second floor indicating where the bar door is.
The Devil’s Toboggan is a beautiful bar with a comfortable, nostalgic feel. It was much like meeting at someone’s home for drinks. Vintage pictures in antique-looking frames covered the walls and the tables and chairs are more like you might find in someone’s living room. Our server was a charming, quick-witted young woman and made the visit very enjoyable.
The Ponderosa Social Club was quite busy. They have an area designed for large groups and we were seated there. Since the area was full it was fairly noisy; but not annoyingly noisy. We were still able to chat.
The menu is not extensive but has steaks, prime rib, salmon, shrimp and more. The special when we were there was a shrimp and crawfish etouffee. Since we had a large group, we were able to try many of the items on the menu.
Everyone in the group felt the food was very good. I was able to try the Ponderosa Social Club pork egg rolls as an appetizer. They were excellent.
I love Etouffee and had to order the special.
The etouffee was good – a very large portion of etouffee served with rice. The sauce was excellent – although not quite enough sauce. The dinner came with 2 jumbo shrimp and the crawfish in the sauce. I would have enjoyed a little more crawfish; but all-in-all, it was very good.
The salmon dish came with a good portion of nicely cooked salmon. Along with the salmon were honey-glazed brussel sprouts, a goat cheese polenta cake and a cranberry-mustard dijonnaise sauce. The salmon and brussel sprouts were excellent and the sauce was very good; but again, the dish could have come with a little more sauce.
We had a wonderful time at the Ponderosa Social Club and we plan to go back to try the Chicken Curry and Forest Mushroom Marsala!
The Devil’s Toboggan: website: https://www.devilstoboggan.com/ | call: (406) 587-4829 | email: INFO@DEVILSTOBOGGAN.COM | address: 113 East Oak St. Ste. 2b, Bozeman, MT 59715.
The Ponderosa Social Club: website: https://ponderosamt.com | reservations: (406) 577-8650 | address: 515 W. Aspen, Bozeman, MT 59715 | Hours: Monday - Saturday: 4 pm - 2 am and Sunday: 9:30 am - 8:00 pm.
