Bushwackers re-opens under new ownership

Joe And Tammy Haas and their family jumped into the restaurant business with both feet this month.

The couple re-opened Bushwackers restaurant and bar in time for the July Fourth weekend, with the Lincoln Bike Rally following the next week.

"It was kind of a crazy first two weeks," Tammy said.

The couple have been in Lincoln for just over a year, but their journey to becoming Lincoln's newest restaurant owners began in 2020, with a desire to expand their laser engraving business, Last Best Place Gifts.

During a trip up from Ennis to deliver some of their products to the Hi Country Trading post,

the couple decided on the spur of the moment to look around a little. They found that the former Lost Woodsman building fit their needs for the laser engraving business perfectly. With a desire to get away from the steadily growing Ennis area, they made the decision to move to Lincoln over the course of three days and signed a contract for the Lost Woodsman building within six days.

Joe moved their laser engraving business up to Lincoln in May of 2021, after retiring from a computer programming job. Tammy moved up later in the summer, leaving their gift shop in the hands of a manager who is planning to buy it within a couple years.

While the gift store in Ennis is successful and profitable – earning Tammy the Montana Small Business Person of the Year during its first year – Joe said the laser engraving business has almost doubled every year for the last three years.

"We started the laser engraving business because we were having troubles in our gift store ... getting product from people in a timely manner. So, in 2017 we said, 'let's do something ourselves.' It grew way beyond anything we ever imagined," he said.

Despite their other going concerns, the Haas' also saw Bushwhackers as an opportunity for their entire family. During a belated Christmas celebration in February, Tammy made an off-hand remark to her family about them coming to Lincoln to help them run a restaurant.

"Everybody said yes," she said.

"We never thought we would own a bar/restaurant, but it gave us the opportunity to have our kids come here and bring all the grandkids and start a family business," Joe said.

Their son Matt serves as the restaurants head chef, while their daughter Britt – whose husband ranches near Jordan – handles bartending duties. Matt's wife Jackie isn't directly involved in the business but takes care of both her four (soon to be five) kids and Britts two children.

"We do have two employees; we're certainly open to hiring more. And the engraving business, if it continues to grow the way it has, I'll eventually need to hire somebody," Joe said.

With their focus on family, the Haas's are taking Bushwackers in a slightly different direction, away from the steakhouse/saloon/casino model toward one focused on family dining.

"We're a restaurant that happens to have a bar in it," Tammy said.

While they do still have a handful of gaming machines in the bar, the back room of Bushwackers - which had been the casino, has been converted back into a dining room, that will be open to the community for meetings and events.

With the first hectic weekends out of the way, Bushwackers is now open Tuesday through Saturday and the Haas family is working toward getting that rhythm down while settling into their regular menus and lunch specials.

"We do have a small menu but the nice thing about it, with the chef's burger and the chef's pasta, it's different each week so it gives them variety each week," Tammy said.

The concept behind their lunch specials is based around casseroles or hot dishes that can be prepared in advance and will ready to be served for people who may have limited time for lunch.

Although neither breakfast nor espresso drinks are currently in the cards for Bushwackers, the Haas' are bringing in a mini-donut machine with an eye toward opening in the morning around 9 a.m. with just coffee and mini-donuts for locals who may just want to hang out in the mornings.

At some point they may look at adding a Sunday brunch, but Tammy said they would need to have the equipment and staffing in place for that.

Joe said they've tried to be sensitive about not infringing on some of the other restaurants in town. "We're trying to find the niche and the balance type thing."

Although the Haas' laser engraving business continues to grow, their focus for the time being is on the restaurant.

"Ultimately the goal would be to be a business we can turn over to the two kids; give them something long-term for their future," Joe said. "We'll own it as long as we need to and turn it over for them to take if forward."