by Michael Howell
There is a new and unique taco shop in Hall, Montana. If you are driving from Deer Lodge and take the turnoff at Drummond, not far along the Pintler Scenic Route to Philipsburg, you pass through the tiny town of Hall and you drive right by the Tres Rios Tacos.
If you stop to have a breakfast taco, cup of coffee or a bowl of homemade soup, you will find something more than a place to eat because Tres Rios Tacos is more than a diner. It’s an authentic Montana “roadside attraction.” Owner of the new business, Tahj Bo Kjelland, already has some local arts and crafts on display.
“I am open to looking for other vendors with authentic Montana products,” said Kjelland. “I want to be a connoisseur and ambassador, as far as commerce on Highway 1, to artisans and craftsmen, innovators and out-of-the-box thinkers and Montana folk who were either born here or came here and fell in love with the topography.”
It’s also a place to just plain relax. Some old style country music is on tap. And if you really want to stay and relax, because there really is a lot to see and do in the area, you can stay overnight at the Airbnb accommodations located on the second floor. The three person/two bedroom space has been in operation for only a month and gotten five very positive reviews. Relaxing? Two out of the five used the word “peaceful” in describing their experience. The views are mentioned, the beautiful location, the quiet town and the great host.
The building is a roadside attraction in itself. It’s got some history. But it was also made into something very special by its former owner, Tahj’s dad, John Kjelland.
“The building is steeped in my father,” he said of the place. “It is the legacy of an artist.”
Kjelland said that as a child he didn’t understand it at the time when his father came home from Vietnam suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). His father had not been in combat but worked on an aircraft carrier making sure that the bomb bays on the aircraft were functioning before takeoff. He found enabling the ongoing bombing to be extremely disturbing and was about to go AWOL when an understanding commander put him on kitchen duty for the short term of duty he had left.
“I have his American flag here,” said Kjelland. “He had a pretty strong opinion about the war machine, but he was very patriotic. At the same time he was also very aware of the genocides that also took place in this country.”
Kjelland’s grandparents, his dad’s parents, lived in the Bitterroot valley between Darby and Conner. But sometime in the 1980s his father decided that the Bitterroot had become “too overrun.” He came across a place for sale up Pattee Canyon in Missoula and moved into a 100-year-old cabin with no running water and only an outdoor toilet for the next 10 years.
Kjelland composed a short life story in praise of his father for the online program “Tell Us Something.” It was recorded on December 3, 2013 and is entitled “Flat Rock.” His father, an avid outdoorsman who liked to hunt “for sustenance only,” told him that he could live on a flat rock if he had to. The theme of the storytelling that month was “promises.” Tahj got his dad to promise him at the time that he would buy a home before he turned 45 years old. His dad wrote the promise down on some notepaper and they posted it on the wall.
While living near Missoula, John Kjelland did fine woodworking for 10 years out of a shop space he rented in Missoula. He was more than a carpenter. He was a furniture conservator and did historical renovation work as well.
Then, one day, he saw this place for sale in Hall. They made an appointment and went out to see it.
“After inspecting it he said me,” recalls Tahj, “‘she’s got good bones’. He said he could work with it.”
Kjelland said his dad built the two-bedroom addition on the second floor and the shop space, which he’s now converting into kind of a bunk house. “So when I have an Airbnb going upstairs I can be comfortable downstairs.”
His father, who hunted alone, died of a heart attack last year just after killing and field dressing a deer. Kjelland said when he was given the news he heard his dad’s voice saying, “Go get that deer.” So he did.
He said that he has rented the property out and done upgrades over the last 14 years. “I held on to the property and always had this dream of opening something here,” he said. “I bought these Buffalo Jerky signs from a guy that had a business called Get Out of Dodge and sold buffalo jerky. I bought all three signs for $100 and held on to them for a decade.”
Then he started working with buffalo as part of a non-profit group for youth in Assiniboine Country and worked on the Buffalo Unity Project. He ended up with a mounted buffalo that a friend of his took in Yellowstone. The mount hangs on the wall in the taco shop. He said his Western Montana upbringing and the affiliation with the indigenous people that comes with that and the artisanship of both his father and mother infuse the place.
“This building has supported me through undergraduate school and through graduate school,” said Kjelland. “It has always been here, a sanctuary of sorts.”
Kjelland said he loves cooking and is dedicated to locally produced and organic but is also aiming to keep it affordable. He will be using Manix Beef from Helmville in the tacos. He has worked professionally as a cook and ran his own taco cart in Missoula over a five-year period. He said he learned the basics from the Latino family he married into.
“We all gathered for tacos every Sunday,” he said.
Here at Tres Rios Tacos, however, it will be on Saturdays, only. Once things get really rolling, he said, if the demand is there, he might consider a Thursday-Friday-Saturday schedule or even a Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule.
In the meantime, Saturday is the day.