The annual fall lobster feast, like all Copper Cliff Cafe dinner events, is a family-friendly affair.
It's a curious sight - upwards of 120 mountain folks decked out in lobster bibs, trying to figure out how to operate stainless steel seafood crackers. And atop Potomac's Copper Cliff Road, it's become an annual early-fall phenomenon.
A robust group of local bluegrass pickers, jamming in a circle, provided the soundscape for the Copper Cliff Cafe's capstone event of the season earlier this month - as they have at every dinner since the operation's 2019 inception. For this year's lobster feast, Copper Cliff Cafe's fifth, Stevensville's Wildwood Brewing helped guests wash down the pound-and-a-half crustaceans - served alongside East Coast lobster feast staples including drawn butter, steamed corn, fresh bread and crispy fries - with organic beer.
Operating Thursday evenings from May through October, The Copper Cliff Cafe is a mobile food trailer that brings the Potomac community together for popular Thursday night supper events featuring a weekly blue plate special (think goulash, beef stroganoff and other hearty dishes), as well as a reliable range of sandwiches, salads and desserts. The operation is the brainchild of longtime chef, caterer and Copper Cliff Road denizen Jennifer "Niffer" Stackpole.
"The idea was to provide comfort food in a beautiful outdoor environment," said Stackpole, who's called the mountaintop spot home ever since she set up a teepee on it and started building her house, circa 1984.
Stackpole started hosting her community on the end of her driveway - a mountaintop paradise boasting staggering views of the Potomac Valley - in 2019, following two years of careful planning.
"There have been little improvements every year," she told the Pathfinder, pointing to a cornhole set-up, bevy of picnic tables, the 200-amp service she added a couple years back, freeing her trailer from reliance on a generator and the lobster feast's heated tent. "This year, thanks to [Potomac community member] Lynn Sainsbury, we added a zip-line for the kids, and rumor has it she'll be installing an 'adult' zip-line for next year. She also put in a tetherball court that will be ready for next season."
As for the origins of Stackpole's notion of ending her season with a massive quantity of fresh lobsters sourced straight from the cold Atlantic waters off of Marblehead, Massachusetts, she shrugs.
"It was just a brainstorm that took off," said the native of northern New Hampshire (i.e., lobster feast country). A graduate of the New England Culinary Institute, Stackpole has lived in Montana since age 17. Having worked as a chef for the Paws Up Ranch river camps and Montana Island Lodge, and as executive chef for Western Montana Mental Health Recovery Center, she started Balsamroot Catering during the winter of 2015.
Named for the massive golden wildflowers that blanket her property every spring and summer, Balsamroot Catering was a longtime fixture at the Seeley and Lincoln Farmers Markets, and Stackpole still uses the big red food truck occasionally, to cater special events and select festivals across western Montana, but mostly, it exists atop its eponymous road. Stackpole credits the creation of Copper Cliff Cafe to her passion for community.
"I started serving good food, and people started coming," said Stackpole, who began working on the event at a time when people perhaps particularly craved more community: the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. "It's a lot of work, and long hours, but when I look out that window and see everyone enjoying themselves, that's the most powerful thing in the world," she said.
Preserving that intimate community feeling is paramount to Stackpole. Although the Thursday night dinners - especially the lobster feast - increasingly draw people from Missoula and beyond, she prefers when the crowd doesn't exceed a few dozen. "I hate when people have to wait for food," she said. "I really want to get people fed as soon as possible, to maintain a well-oiled machine."
For the more complex machine that is the lobster feast, Stackpole has brought in the same "bonus crew" of food-service pro friends and colleagues for the past five years. She attributes the "great energy" of the regular Thursday night events to manager Cara Webb, a longtime food service pro and Potomac resident. A friendly and familiar fixture, Webb interfaces with customers, taking orders and running food, and also mentors the staff. This includes head waiter, Lucas Jurasovic, an enterprising Potomac 12-year-old and aspiring chef who just wrapped a third season serving his neighbors and soaking up everything Stackpole and Webb have to impart about food preparation and service.
Reflecting on Copper Cliff Cafe's past five years, Stackpole said she's been most surprised by how much people "love to be there."
"People have made friends, gotten to know their neighbors. And that makes me feel good, because as much as I love to feed people, I love community - that's what we need more of," Stackpole said.
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