‘Mr. Meaderville,' Teddy Traparish, known far and wide
"Henceforth you will please forget New Orleans, refer Charleston to the rubble heap, abandon San Francisco, repudiate New York and dismiss Boston utterly. For Meaderville is the native habitat of the Rocky Mountain Cafe, and the Rocky Mountain Cafe is the most incredible restaurant in (I swear) the world."
Gabriel "Teddy" Traparish lived the American dream and achieved it in one of the most unlikely places — a nondescript building in Meaderville overshadowed by the massive 140-foot Leonard Mine headframe.
Looks could be deceiving,
however, because nestled within those doors was Traparish's heart and soul, the Rocky Mountain Cafe — a place known near and far as one of the premier restaurants in the United States.
Traparish was just 19 when he came to the Mining City in the fall of 1906. A native of Dubrovnik, which is now part of Croatia, the teenager was on a mission to become a successful businessman, and he chose Butte as the place to achieve that goal.
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The young immigrant got a job as a swamper his first day in Butte — at the California, a three-story saloon on Main Street, which stayed open 24 hours a day. His pay was
$1 a day, and he labored for
12 hours a day. Traparish's work ethic impressed his boss and soon he was promoted to waiter and later, a bartender.
"That was a job. You never stopped," said Traparish, in a 1969 Montana Standard interview, of his bartending experience. "You never shut the faucet off, there were so damn many waiters. The three floors were full of men all the time."
In the early 1910s, the California closed its doors, but this time, Traparish didn't go looking for another job. Instead, he chose to go into business for himself. He stayed in Uptown Butte, opening the Idaho Bar at Park and Montana. The business thrived, largely because Traparish offered free lunches to his customers. To him, handing out free food made good business sense, and besides, as he once explained, "meat was cheap then."
By 1917, he and a friend, Fred Hugo, were in business together. For the next nearly 10 years,Traparish tried a number of ventures, including managing the Tannheuser Bar at 8 N. Montana St., opening a bar at 238 S. Main St., and later, a restaurant in Meaderville. It was rumored that he had made his first million by the late 1920s, but lost most of it when the stock market crashed in 1929. That apparently didn't stop Traparish, who had already found his niche when he and his partners, Peter Antonioli and Louis Bugni, opened the first Rocky Mountain Cafe at 53 Main in Meaderville.
The nightclub featured a dance floor, an orchestra known as "Antonioli's 11 Copper Kings," a gambling room (where it is believed most of the restaurant's profits were made), coal-fired ranges in the kitchen, and yes, a bar, even though Prohibition had not yet been repealed. T-bone steaks were the specialty. The restaurant's hors d'oeuvres, which reputedly filled the entire dinner table, included such delicacies as caviar, salad with French roquefort dressing, spaghetti, ravioli, celery, salami, smoked salmon, anchovies and crab cocktail. The price for a meal was approximately $1. Soon, people from far and wide would be raving about the new Meaderville restaurant.
According to Antonioli's sons, Dr. William Antonioli and Frank, both of Butte, Bugni dissolved his third of the partnership early-on and opened a restaurant down the street, the Golden Fan. Antonioli and Traparish remained restaurant partners until the early 1940s. By that time, Antonioli had taken over the M&M Cigar Store, where Traparish was a silent partner. The two men remained friends until Antonioli's death in 1959.
"He was a good operator," William Antonioli said of Traparish, who had acquired the nickname of "Mr. Meaderville." "He was one of those people who worked the establishment — he went from table to table, visited people and made himself available." Frank Antonioli agreed, but also noted that Traparish was a hard worker who stayed at the restaurant until 2 or 3 in the morning. "He was a good employer," he added.
By about 1935, the Rocky Mountain had begun to draw national attention. Rave restaurant reviews began appearing in such national magazines as the Saturday Evening Post and Readers Digest, and newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times.
Fire destroyed the restaurant on July 2, 1940, but it was quickly re-established down the street at Bugni's old place, the Golden Fan. The restaurant's reputation continued to spread.
Famed journalist Dorothy Kilgallen once wrote, "No one who has never seen a Rocky Mountain steak will believe me … but to put it as accurately as possible, my steak was the size of a Saturday night roast for a small family … And it was the greatest steak I have ever tasted." Of Traparish, she wrote, "There is a matchless quality of daring in the air with which he hurls viands at his customers for a charge that seems, to a New Yorker accustomed to New York prices, to belong to another, almost mythical age."
While Traparish loved the restaurant business, he also loved Cadillacs: Except during war time, he bought a new one every year for nearly 50 years. Some included a built-in bar.
"There was one year he didn't buy a Cadillac," William Antonioli said. "Instead, he bought a fancy Lincoln Zephyr." Frank Antonioli recalled that Traparish, who never married, would frequently grab a couple of friends and go for a ride. "He loved to drive his car," he said.
The business would continue to thrive for another 20 years. In 1961, mining encroachment was quickly changing the Meaderville landscape and the 74-year-old Traparish decided to close the doors of his cafe. In 1966, he donated the bar to the World Museum of Mining.
In mid-April 1971, Traparish bought his yearly Cadillac, but had only three short weeks to enjoy it. He died May 8, 1971, following a stroke.
An editorial in the May 13, 1971, Montana Standard said that "The death of Teddy Traparish is sad. It takes a kindly, colorful citizen from Butte. And it adds a note of finality to an era that fast is fading. Butte hates to give up both."
— Tracy Thornton is an editorial assistant and occasional writer for The Montana Standard. She may be reached via email at tracy.thornton@lee.net.
