Double K Ranch has the whole range covered: The original ranch in Darby with on-site meat shop, a deli and meat shop near Southgate Mall, a general store on Higgins, and—new over the summer—a restaurant and bar right next door. The business has grown fast since owner Dillon Kouf took over from his dad in 2019, and the new bar might just be the final addition to the herd.
“The whole goal was how do we keep all our beef here,” Dillon said, noting the challenges of wholesale like cold-calling and constantly starting over with new chefs. “We raise the animals on the ranch, we process them in the meat shop, they go to the restaurants, and that’s it.”
In the process, Missoula gets an upscale Western bar, complete with a giant mounted bison, art by local legends like Larry Pirnie, custom furniture and lighting, and plenty of guns, boots, and hats. It poses a stark contrast to the deli’s white and modern look. And many pieces of decor have a connection to the ranch to boot.
“The bison is just fun because it’s so massive,” Dillon said. “We actually processed it at the ranch and served here on the menu in our bison burger.”
To the left as you walk in, the far wall has old timber, a mural, and a little frontier history to tell.
“That is barn wood from the original homestead on the ranch that’s over 100 years old,” Dillon said. “I’ve always wanted to do something with it, give it a second life.”
And the mural was part of the historic building, preserved during the renovation to put in the bar. “No one knows exactly how old that is but it’s definitely old,” Dillon said.
All this comes together into a space that’s as likely to attract tourists as it is to be a local hangout.
“We built it wanting everyone to like it,” Dillon said. “We tried to have just enough Western in here that it’s a cool space but not like Western Disneyland.”
Definitely not—Double K is a real working ranch, and Dillon emphasized that’s why ribeye can’t be on the menu every night.
“Being a whole animal butcher, we can’t just order as many ribeyes as we need, we get what we get from the animal,” he said. The goal is to soon have steak on the menu as a rotating special, and to continue to educate the public about what ranch to table really means.
“There is a lot of agriculture in the Bitterroot and in Missoula,” Dillon said. “They know what it takes—there’s a difference between us raising beef and going to the grocery store.”
"The goal is to soon have steak on the menu as a rotating special, and to continue to educate the public about what ranch to table really means."