Western Montana

I love to eat, and picking a place to dine for a date night isn’t the toughest choice for me because I’ll love almost anything. Though, there is one joint in downtown Missoula that my fiancé and I seem to choose rather often: Biga Pizza. It does seem a little funny to me that I of all people—a lover of distinct tastes, foreign entrées, and wild flavors—would choose pizza of all things for a date night. But Biga Pizza isn’t just any pizza joint; it is my absolute favorite!

The restaurant is right downtown at 241 W. Main Street. We live so close to it that we like to ride out bikes there, but there is usually plenty of parking either right in front of the eatery or within a block or two. The front of the restaurant is very welcoming and quaint, but once you’re inside you’ll notice that this pizza place is actually quite romantic and lofty. The set up feels like a cross between an urban hipster bistro and a tranquil Zen-type café. The art on the walls captures a contemporary au natural vibe, and each table is decorated with a candle and fresh flowers. There is also seating outside, which is limited and hard to get a hold of on nice days.

Okay, on to the food. Biga serves salads, soups, sandwiches, antipasto, and of course pizza. Pizza choices range from Create-Your-Own to Fennel and Sausage, Caramelized Goat, Mushroom and Arugula, Montana Meatball, and many, many more interesting and gloriously tasty creations. They are baked in a huge brick oven, and the flavors are unbelievably fresh, thanks to the owner’s choice of using local and organic ingredients. This evening we choose the Morel Mushroom pizza, the weekly special. Morel mushrooms are a rare species found mostly in northwest regions on previously burned forest grounds. They’re not something most people could even imagine finding at a grocery store, and I’ve even gone Morel picking myself—not an easy task. So when the season comes along I take advantage of the unique and absolutely delicious mushroom. Needless to say, the pizza was unbelievable!

On top of the great atmosphere and fabulous food, the service was wonderful. I love watching the pizza chefs throw the dough into the air like old-fashioned Italian maestros, and the B.Y.O. policy (Bring Your Own—Alcohol) is a great way to make sure you get to enjoy your favorite wine or beer with dinner. (They will provide you with a wine key and glasses if needed).

We didn’t save room for dessert, which is rare for me, but they do have an awfully good-looking dessert menu offering a variety of authentic Italian specialties.

We left feeling great. Not only did we walk away hand in hand, smiling and enjoying the spectacular pink sunset that draped across the sky outside of Biga, but we also felt comfortably satisfied as we carried our box of leftovers along with us. Those leftovers didn’t last long though. I have to admit that we inhaled those last remaining pieces of pizza that same night. Mmmmm!