HELENA — The historic Montana Club is older than Montana itself, and while the exclusive club shut down for a while, it has been given a new life and is now open for members.
"Our goal is to make this the third place for our members," said The Montana Club owner, Ajitpal Pannu. "First being your home, second being your work, and then this is your third place."
(Watch to learn more about the new Montana Club in Helena)
The second floor, which is the members-only club, officially launched in mid-July, and so far, they have roughly 100 members.
Pannu said, "The idea here is to have a welcoming space and, more importantly, a welcoming space where you are not showing up and waiting in line."
The work done for the exclusive dining space focused on replacing its plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems, and bringing the bar up to code while making it a more efficient workspace.
Beyond that, they tried to keep remodels minimal.
"I think it's going to be only a select crew of people who will be able to notice the differences," said Pannu.
Every Wednesday and Sunday, there is a members' dinner with all of the food being locally sourced.
There are six different membership tiers ranging from $35 to $150 per month, plus a one-time initiation fee of $500.
"Members still will pay for drinks and dinners," said Pannu. "When we do larger ticketed events, members will have special pricing."
All of the other floors will be open to the public, and the second floor can be rented for events by non-members.
"The idea has been [to] preserve as much as we can and, more importantly, embrace the way things used to be," said Pannu.
The next part of The Montana Club that will open is the garden room for high tea experiences available through reservations, which is projected to open sometime next month.
"They will have a full-blown experience," said Pannu. "Let's say it's a mother [and] daughter or a mother [and] son, the daughter or the son will have the ability to do a little bit of dress-up and have the high tea experience."
The cigar lounge and sixth-floor restaurant will be the final parts to open, but the timing of which one opens first will depend on when renovations wrap up and permits go through.
You can find more information about memberships and The Montana Club here.
