New family restaurant features homemade southern food

Family and opportunity have brought southern comfort food to downtown Bigfork.

Kiska’s by the Lake opened in March and is family owned and operated.

Jory Monroe, Kiska’s front-of-the-house  manager opened up the restaurant with his mother, Jennifer Vickstrom, and sister, Kalea Monroe.

The restaurant business is nothing new for the family, Jory Monroe said. Both his grandmother and mom have owned restaurants, while he and his sister have worked in the industry.

With Kalea being skilled in the kitchen, Jory skilled behind the bar and Jennifer as a certified accountant they had all of the pieces they needed to run a successful restaurant, and talked about the possibility for years before opportunity presented itself in Bigfork.

Vickstrom has lived in Bigfork for the last seven years. When Owney’s restaurant on Bridge Street came up for sale last year, she brought the opportunity to her children.

“I jumped right on it,” Monroe said.

The family took over the storefront at the first of the year and spent two and half months fixing it up before opening.

Kiska’s features southern comfort food, including items that might be new to someone who has never been to the southern United States, such as hush puppies.

Though the family is from Alaska, southern dishes were common in their home, Monroe said, whose father is from Oklahoma.

“I grew up eating southern food,” he said. “Plus it’s awesome. You can’t go wrong with fried chicken.”

The family brought in Andy Fink as head chef. “We’re really happy we have him,” Monroe said.

As much as possible is made by scratch in the kitchen, including house-smoked brisket and pulled pork. Kiska’s prides itself on the care put into each dish and Monroe thinks it shows on the plates.

Monroe said he was a little nervous how some of the dishes on the menu, like chicken and waffles, would be received, but he has found the response positive. “That’s kind of a weird dish,” he said. “But it’s big in the south.”

Though the food is southern, the name Kiska’s ties the restaurant back to the family’s time in Alaska.

Kiska was the family dog when the Jory and Kalea were growing up. She was named after an uninhabited island in the Aleutian chain.

“She was an amazing part of our family,” Monroe said. “We kind of thought this was a way to honor her memory.”

Kiska, the dog, also inspired one of the restaurant’s signature cocktails, Monroe created called the Tipsy Kiska.

Kiska’s is having a grand-opening week starting on Easter Sunday with their first brunch. 

They hope to eventually expand and do special Sunday dinners such as Crawfish boils and smoked rib nights.

“All we’re really here for is to provide amazing food and drinks to people,” Monroe said.