A Hidden Gem in the Rural West Is a Food City of Incredible Quality

One writer discovers delicious food in a charming Montana town while en route for national parks.

My husband, and I were on the road for nearly a week. It was an epic trip. road trip Las Cruces, southern Mexico. New Mexico Just shy of the Canadian border, we made our way to West Glacier in Montana. We’d already plotted our return route via Yellowstone National Park and Colorado’s Million Dollar Highway before wending home along New Mexico’s old Route 66.

Our meals consisted mostly of greasy handhelds which we ate with lap napkins and in our pickup truck. Then my friend Margaret messaged me: “Are you anywhere close to Livingston, Montana? You Have This Italian restaurant is worth a try Campione!”

When you’ve clocked almost 22 hours of driving with half the total mileage still to go, adding time for a meal seems frivolous bordering on absurd. But as I assembled the next day’s ham and cheese sandwiches on three-day-old bread, my inner bon vivant cried out for handmade pasta and a carafe of good wine. I booked a table for dinner at 5 p.m., put on my best pants, and we added two hours to our journey to West Yellowstone so that we could stop in this small city in southwestern Montana. I was so glad that we did.

“Did we miss the exit?” I asked, as we pulled off 90 East onto 10 West amid rolling farmlands and zero evidence of a town, a trademark of historic rail settlements dotting the American West.

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The diminutive Livingston appeared as a grid of brick structures, low-slung and framed by the Crazy and Absaroka mountain ranges. During the few hours we spent wandering this picturesque town strewn with galleries and antique shops, we’d discover a budding dining haven that’s celebrating the edible bounty of Montana beyond bison and beef. We hadn’t even finished our pastas at Campione when I found myself already searching for excuses to plot a return trip to this corner of the Big Sky state, if only to squeeze in a couple more meals, not least of all at this memorable, Roman-inspired restaurant.

Colorful mid-century signage bedecked downtown’s Empire Twin Theater and historic Murray Hotel, into which we briefly stopped for a Montana pilsner at the lively, namesake Murray Bar. The U-shaped bar served woodfired pizzas. A few stools lower, a father and a daughter recount their mixed fishing success, and four 30-somethings agree on another round.

Campione was already crowded when we entered it shortly after its opening. However, the space felt very serene. Through the floor-to ceiling windows that line the façade, natural light filled the room. The elegant combination of exposed brick, a painted ceiling in tin-print and white hexagonal tiles floors gave the impression that this restaurant had been open for a decade (now 18 months).

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“The building [built in the 1890s] did a lot of the work for us,” partner Anthony Sferra, who also oversees baking, told me later. “We did a lot of renovating, but it was more of a reclaiming of the space — getting rid of the linoleum floors, taking stuff out of the windows.”

We enjoyed a glass of Sicilian Catarratto white with fresh, citrusy cantaloupe canoes, topped with prosciutto and drizzled in grassy olive oil. Fritto Misto was a liquid that oozed from the cone made of butcher paper. It contained toothsome squid and tender mussels. The crusts were made of cornmeal, which we then dunked into tangy preserved lime aioli.

Sferra, along with partners Jeffrey Galli (who oversees front of house and events) and head chef Joshua Adams, originally envisioned Campione as a quick-service mix between a Roman cafe and trattoria — the bustling sort of place where “you scream, ‘Pasta’s ready!’ across the restaurant,” Sferra said. “But because of the societal and public health restrictions surrounding Covid, we had to rethink the concept a bit.”

They collectively took their collective foot off of the gas and expanded the wine and food menus. Additionally, they spread tables out to provide a more complete service experience. They were still anxious and this was not because of the pandemic. These three service industry vets are all Livingston transplants — Sferra grew up in Australia, Galli in New York, and Adams spent his childhood in Taiwan. They weren’t sure how the community would respond to a restaurant that would feel at home in Park Slope, Brooklyn, despite knowing that Livingston was in need of dining diversity.

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“When I first moved here, it was just the Rib & Chop House and Second Street Bistro, which is a classic French-style bistro on the higher end,” said Adams, who’s been in Livingston the longest, since 2009. “Livingston had a more spaghetti Western feel — all steak and potatoes and pizza, but like Pizza Hut, Dominos style. There weren’t many options out there in terms of diversity of food. It was just totally focused on beef.”

A creative enclave

Campione sits at the physical crossroads of the city, which itself originated as the nerve center for thousands of miles of rail — and the first gateway to Yellowstone. The railroad station was the center of a grid-shaped community that included theaters, banks and restaurants. There were hopes for a population boom. As interstate highways slowly overtook rail and workers left, a prolonged economic depression left storefronts vacant by the ‘80s. But then came the writers and artists, drawn to what Galli calls “this really appealing, beautifully built space,” which became “a sort of haven for the liberal-minded in a greater, rural community of farmers.”

Livingston’s population of nearly 8,400 still includes a disproportionate number of artists and writers. Indeed, you’ll feel that spirit in the numerous galleries and studios that occupy downtown storefronts and when you wander the weekly farmers market, where artists rival the produce and meat farmers in number.

Adams thus kicked off Campione’s menu development in the spirit of compromise: building the perfect, luscious meatball — an Italian-American restaurant must — out of Montana-raised beef and pork, doused in housemade red sauce and sharp pecorino. But he’s keen to showcase the state’s lesser-appreciated homegrown bounty through a “Montalian” lens — including farro, barley and lentils (which accompany his cornmeal-crusted lake trout in anise-kissed cioppino broth), seasonal produce and herbs, and local lamb.

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The latter mingled with peak-season grape tomatoes and soft leeks in our order of summery lamb ragù, which coated a tangle of linguine sourced from an artisanal maker in town. Sferra’s pillowy focaccia — redolent of cracked pepper — was the perfect vehicle for getting every last bit of sauce off our plates.

Adams has earned trust and pushes diners to step outside their comfort zone with specials such as romesco-stuffed Sardinines and grilled bison hearts. There’s been a little pushback; the occasional negative review may lament the lack of chicken alfredo, Galli noted with a laugh. The community has welcomed them with open arms, and regulars come back up to three nights per week. (It helps that entree price points don’t exceed $26.)

“It’s comfort food — simple ingredients, simply delivered, but maybe in a way you’ve never had before,” said Galli. His favorite example is Adams’ manicotti — hand-rolled and stuffed with ricotta and sweet caramelized onions, then submerged in oxtail consommé with bits of shredded oxtail, mushrooms, and spinach.

“Classed up, but still really approachable,” Adams added.

Bozeman, Montana’s destination eaters and travelers like me who are on their way to the national parks are also embracing this opportunity. Team Campione believes it is a way to make this city flourish. After all, Campione translates to champion — which in this case “is not as much in the sense of the victor, but this idea of this restaurant as a champion for our community and for us, but also for the food scene in Livingston,” Galli said.

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We sipped on Marcona almond-espresso chocolate gelato while we waited. A server lit tabletop candles amid the pleasant din of conversation and clinking plates.

As the sun set, the golden hour began to descend, reminding us to get back on the road and reach our destination before it was dark. Yet some time during this respite from our endless rambling, we felt reinvigorated — to the rugged, vast beauty of the West that still awaited us, and to the delights that may come from saying yes to deliciously impractical detours.

Campione’s Livingston Restaurant:

• The Mint Bar & Grill for classic upmarket bar fare — simple food, done well. You can expect grilled ribeye steaks or pork chops with apples, as well as some of the best burgers around.

• 2nd Street Bistro in the Murray Hotel for traditional French bistro dishes that incorporate Montana’s bounty, as in bison striploin steak frites and ravioli with house ricotta, wild mushrooms, and leeks.

• Los Pinos Mexican cuisine and modern Tex-Mex: charbroiled chicken, house mole, or chicken fried steak smothered by ranchero sauce.