Creating a unique experience with bar-hotel combination

SEELEY LAKE - After its building was purchased four years ago by Jason Moe of Moe Opportunities, LLC, the Moe-asis bar and hotel is now on the brink of being fully operational this upcoming summer. Located on Highway 83 just north of Seeley Lake, the bar opened Wednesday, May 12 and the hotel will hopefully be open around the beginning of July. Named after its owner, Moe-asis Manager Katelyn Lewis said the goal for the bar and hotel is to have an inviting environment for both visitors and locals.

"We want [the bar to be] a place where locals can come hang out, grab a cold drink and see friends," Lewis said. "A place where tourists can swing in and see who we are as a town. We want the hotel ... to be somewhere locals can have family swing in and stay for family adventures and important moments. A place for tourists to come and stay instead of passing through."

Lewis met Moe while she was working at Ace Hardware in 2018. After she learned that he had purchased the property, he decided to have her work as a bartender. As their collaboration continued, Lewis was eventually promoted to a managerial position.

Lewis said they originally planned to open last summer but because of COVID-19 they had to postpone their opening for a year. 

This year they planned to open the bar before the hotel because it did not require as much renovative work. While the bar serves food, currently it is all pre-cooked. They are currently working on the logistics to determine how they can offer a full menu with the space they have available. In the future, they are considering purchasing a mobile food truck to serve customers parked in their RV area.

While they considered opening the hotel next year to "get our feet wet," after The Resort at Paws Up privatized the two main hotels in Seeley Lake this year, they decided to open it a year sooner so visitors would have another option for lodging. 

"As much as it can be a love hate relationship with the locals and tourism, we all know that that's how we survive," she said. "It's what brings in our incomes. It's what creates our jobs. And so when we look at not having those kinds of hotels here, we know that people are passing through, they're staying somewhere else, they're probably eating dinner somewhere else because there's nowhere to say. And so that was our big thing is to try to create more places and rooms for people to stay so that that money stays in our town and people are eating here [and] going on adventures here in Seeley."

She said crews will soon be remodeling the hotel and sheetrocking the interior. Once the hotel opens it will have 16 rooms available.

Regarding amenities, Lewis said that they would keep it "generic" but that they would be pet friendly. Booking for the hotel will go through Lewis. They hope to soon set up a website so booking a room or RV spot can be done online.

They are also in contact with the U.S. Forest Service to see if they can have permission to not only set up RV parking spots on their property but also finish setting up a hiking trail that would lead to a public access dock on Seeley Lake.

Lewis expects her biggest challenges going forward to be adapting to her new position and navigating through the various requirements necessary to operate a business like this. She also anticipates having to carve out a niche for the bar so it can stand out in the community.

"To be a mile north of town, you have to have something that makes it worth coming out here to see us instead of just walking down the street to one of the other bars in Seeley," she said. "So we want to be unique. We want to stand out. I'm trying to find that niche that defines us."

Lewis is a seventh-generation Seeley Lake resident and is excited to continue being involved in the community she grew up in. Her grandmother and mother both actually worked in the building when they were both 16 when it was known as the Elkhorn.

"I'm just excited, period," she said. "I have a lot of friends around this town ... and already in the last two weeks, I got to see all of them again. And that's probably one of the biggest things I've missed about working in the public is all of the friends and all of the people that are longtime locals that hang around here 24/7."

According to Lewis, the building was built in 1947 but relocated to its current position in 1949. From then it operated as the Elkhorn until the end of the century where it eventually transformed into the Base Camp Bar and Casino.

Currently Moe-asis' operating hours for the bar are 5 p.m. until close Wednesday through Saturday. After Memorial Day, they will have switch to summer hours and open at 3 p.m. The building is located at 3363 Highway 83. Find the Moe-asis on Facebook.

"We've had a really positive reception so far [with] tons of locals coming out," Lewis said. "So we've been pulling till two o'clock even on weekdays."