by Victoria Howell
Roughly 40 years ago, the Bitterroot Star office was housed in a residence on Main Street in Stevensville and the owners lived there with their two children as well. Two neighbor kids visited often, a brother and sister, making friends with the children in the Star home and sometimes tagging along behind their mom.
Now, more than four decades later, those local neighbor kids have made good. They are Eric and Angie Loessberg and they own Mission Bistro, a popular restaurant in downtown Stevensville which was recently named Business of the Year by the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Eric and Angie grew up in Stevensville and are graduates of Stevensville High School. Both of them left the Bitterroot after high school, Angie heading east, working in customer service at coffee shops and bars, and putting in some time at upscale dining establishments in Martha’s Vineyard where she was able to absorb the finer points of how a restaurant should run. She recalls that she “was never coming back” to Stevensville.
Prior to the start of another busy week, Chef Eric Loessberg and sister Angie Loessberg take a moment to relax in their Mission Bistro dining room. Photo by Victoria Howell.
Eric headed to the Art Institute of Seattle, graduating from the culinary division. He ran various kitchens after graduating before ending up back in Stevensville as the chef at The Living Centre.
Meanwhile, Angie did come back to Stevensville, working at some local coffee shops including the New Coffee Mill, at the very location that now houses Mission Bistro.
The brother and sister team hatched a plan to open a restaurant, pairing Angie’s “front of the house” knowledge with Eric’s considerable cooking skills. They found some investors and opened Mission Bistro at a little house-turned-restaurant on Church Street.
A quick internet search indicates that the average lifespan of a restaurant is around five years, though many fail within the first year. About 60% of restaurants close or change hands within the first year, and roughly 80% fail within five years of opening, according to some sources.
However, the Mission Bistro brother-sister partnership beat the odds, proving to be a winning combination, and after two years they were able to purchase the historic building at 225 Main and move the restaurant there. Now, 13 years in, Mission Bistro has made a name for itself, offering Chef Eric’s menu of French-nouvelle cuisine featuring Northwest ingredients in a casual, service-oriented atmosphere. Top sellers on the menu include the nightly fish specials, pasta, and steak (this is Montana, afterall). They are cautious about changing the menu too often, but they do round out the favorites with more eclectic items like a lamb or game hen entree. They always start off with an amuse-bouche, a savory bite of appetizer, which almost certainly hadn’t been done in the Bitterroot Valley before Mission Bistro.
“Local food – local folks” is what Mission Bistro in Stevensville is all about. Photo by Victoria Howell.
Mission Bistro is open for dinners Wednesday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. and also serves a Sunday brunch from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. which has proven to be extremely popular. The biscuits and gravy and rosti dishes sell out nearly every week. They average about 150 people for brunch and just last weekend served over 200.
“It’s good to be busy enough that people have to make a reservation,” says Angie. She also said that the 10 p.m. dinner closing has been a wise decision, giving people an option when so many eateries in the Bitterroot close early.
Eric and Angie also own The Wild Mare restaurant in Corvallis, which they purchased about four years ago. According to Angie, The Wild Mare is “primarily a steakhouse, with a beautiful dining room and a country focus.” The Wild Mare has its own chef.
After 13 years running these restaurants, the two lament the higher costs of, well, everything. It’s common knowledge that the profit margin for restaurants is not great and is getting smaller, so it’s truly a labor of love. “We love what we do, but it can be a struggle,” said Angie, noting that in addition to higher operating costs, it’s hard to make up for the slow times that always come.
They have a solid staff of about 15, and Mission Bistro was recently voted “Best Wait Staff” in a local Bitterroot contest. “We work like a family,” says Angie, something akin to the staff in “The Bear,” a popular TV series about a Chicago restaurant. (Angie admitted that she enjoys watching “The Bear.”)
Mission Bistro also does catering, and has catered many special events for non-profit organizations in the area, including MPG Ranch, Emma’s House, Girls & Boys Club, as well as weddings and other private events, and of course, the Chamber of Commerce. They have served as many as 500 plated dinners at a single event. Mission Bistro was recently voted “Best Caterer” in the Bitterroot.
Angie and Eric Loessberg inside the small but highly efficient kitchen at Mission Bistro in Stevensville. Photo by Victoria Howell.
The Wild Mare was no slouch in the contest either, garnering “Best Steak,” “Best Romantic Dinner” and “Best Anniversary” spot.
Eric will be 47 in October and Angie just turned 44. Angie divides her time in managing both restaurants but is mostly at Mission Bistro during serving times and filling in wherever needed. Both have families and acknowledge that running the restaurants takes its toll on family time.
“It’s a lot of work,” said Angie. “You expect things to get easier and other people to take over some of the tasks,” which doesn’t really happen. “But that’s alright. This is what we do.”
As for Chef Eric, he’s been cooking now for 32 years. He said he recently had to spend a week filling in “on the line.” He said it was fun. “That’s really where I’m comfortable,” just cooking at the bistro.
“This is my baby,” said Eric. “This is what I really love doing.”