A Philipsburg Afternoon
On Sunday, we spent the afternoon in Philipsburg. Like most towns in Montana, it has calmed down considerably from the summer rush, and while I saw a few other visitors on the street, for the most part the town was very quiet. Our first stop was UpNSmokin Barbecue because by the time we got into town, it was closer to two than one and we still hadn’t eaten lunch. UpNSmokin is a very recent addition to the Philipsburg scene. They opened their doors a little over a year ago, and just moved into a much bigger place. They were recently ranked 47th out of the top 100 at the Jack Daniels BBQ cook off. The menu only has five or six items on it that change a couple of times a day, based on what they feel like cooking. After a delicious meal of tri-tip sandwiches and potato salad, we hit the street.
Most of the businesses in Philipsburg cluster together on Broadway, in a collection of historic century-old buildings, which makes wandering up and down the street a perfect way to spend an afternoon. First stop, the sapphire shops. Philipsburg started as a mining town, and sapphires have become a major business in the town. Opal Mountain Gems, Gem Mountain, and the Sapphire Gallery all offer on site mining experiences using traditional placer mining techniques. These three, along with other shops in town carry a beautiful selection of custom jewelry and art.
We wandered through several sapphire filled stores before we made our way, as all visitors to Philipsburg must, to the Sweet Palace. This is important, so listen pay attention: the Sweet Palace is NOT OPEN ON SATURDAYS. If you visit Philipsburg on a Saturday, you will get jewelry and antiques and art and beer, but no candy. You will be sad. If you come any other day of the week, however, you will get all those other things and candy. Plan accordingly. In the Sweet Palace’s glass fronted kitchen, just up the street, you can watch them make fudge, craft chocolates and pull taffy. Then go to the store and salivate over the thousands of selections, and eat a grizzly paw (Caramel, dark chocolate and cashews) or two, because dark chocolate is healthy, right?
Our next stop was one I had been anticipating with almost as much excitement as the Sweet Palace. Like UpNSmokin, this is a fairly new establishment, but they have quickly made a name for themselves. There’s no better place to drink a beer, the bar even has a chilled copper strip running its length so that your brew always stays cold. After numerous samples, we decided to split the spectrum. I got their seasonal imperial stout, rich and delicious and as dark as beer can get. My wife ordered the Razzu Raspberry Wheat. It was pink. Maybe this is nothing special, but I’ve never seen anything like it. She said it was like drinking raspberry lemonade, only better, because it was beer.
The essential thing, when writing a blog post, is that you eat as much as possible. So, after luxuriating for a long while in the Brewery, we headed across the street to the Doe Brothers Soda Fountain. Doe Brothers serves enormous scoops of Wilcoxin’s ice cream, a Montana classic. Sure, it was just ice cream in a cake cone but, like everything in Philipsburg, it was generous, handcrafted, and delicious.
Tags: towns, Philipsburg, food, sapphire mines, breweries, candy shops
