Recently, in a Bozeman’s Choice Readers Poll, the community voted Feast Raw Bar & Bistro #1 restaurant in several categories, including being one of the best Bozeman restaurants and having the most inspired menu. We are so honored by this accolade! We feel that it’s remarkable to be recognized, and we are so proud of the work our team does every day to create such a special and memorable dining experience for our guests. Co-owner and Chef Steve Kuntz shares, “It’s our team that makes us one of the best places to eat in Bozeman, Montana. We work long hours, we work hard, and we really care a lot about the community we serve and the food we create.”
If you’ve dined at Feast, you can taste the care, creativity, and complex layers of ingredients that dance on your tastebuds. Nothing exemplifies this more than our lobster and grits, one of our signature dishes. Read on as we share the story of our lobster and grits dish, what inspired us to create it, and why you absolutely should taste this mouth-watering dish for yourself.
Feast Raw Bar & Bistro Signature Dish: Lobster and Grits
In 2014, when we were just three friends dreaming up the concept for Feast Raw Bar & Bistro, we knew that our restaurant needed to showcase surprising and delightful flavors—especially when it came to seafood dishes. That is why our signature dish, lobster and grits, is a dream come true. Not only is it exemplary of how we use creativity to elevate our dishes, but it also shines a light on how we craft our dishes to show a unique interplay of flavors.
For our lobster and grits, Chef Nikki Dupre had the inspiration to create something elevated based on the classic country food shrimp and grits. The dish started with a Cajun flavor profile. But because we are always looking for different ways to raise the bar when it comes to our menu, we changed out the shrimp for lobster. We chose lobster because it’s a celebratory protein. Many people associate it with celebrating or going out to have a big meal.
Next, we added a delicious whipped chipotle bourbon butter to the lobster for depth and fun. We also incorporated truffled honey to the grits. Along with these delicacies, Chef Nikki innovatively prepared an andouille sausage succotash with terrific flavor pops that tie back to the original Cajun flavor profile. Finally, we dolloped a beautiful saffron aioli to the dish. It adds a lovely, subtle flavor that plays well together with all the other elements on the plate.
However, once we had all of the elements together, we felt the dish needed a little more richness added to it. With some brainstorming, we knew just the thing to add. We’ve been working with Island Creek Oysters for a long time and started looking at some of their other offerings. They partner with the Sterling Caviar Company, which is based in Elverta, California. Sterling Caviar Company produces award-winning white sturgeon caviar. For us, it was the ideal ingredient we needed to take our lobster and grits dish to the next level. We thought the saltiness of the eggs was the perfect final complement to the dish. It was the most inspired way to take a humble county dish, shrimp and grits, and put it up on a pedestal and highlight what all those incredible flavors can do together.
Once prepared, all the ingredients become a beautiful celebration of food that works harmoniously on the plate. None of the ingredients by themselves take over the dish. Each element has its distinct place, and we feel it works really well. It’s a fun, unique dish you wouldn’t imagine working well together—unless you taste it! Then the dish makes perfect sense.
Lobster and Grits: An Exciting Explosion of Flavor!
When reflecting on Feast’s signature dish, Kuntz concludes, “I hope that when you try our lobster and grits, you enjoy an exciting explosion of flavor on your taste buds! I hope guests appreciate all the different flavors on the plate and think to themselves—I never would have put all that together; I’m so glad I ordered this!”
At Feast Raw Bar & Bistro, whether you try the lobster and grits or any other dish on our menu, you’ll appreciate that all the flavors are bold and exciting. We create layers of flavors and unique pairings, such as our carrot parsnip cake or pineapple habanero jam-topped salmon filets. We hope to delight your taste buds and give you a new opportunity to transform your dining experience.
If you’re ready to try the signature lobster and grits dish, maybe even pair it with a glass of rich and sweet Chateau Graville-Lacoste to tie into the heat of the plate, make a reservation at Feast Bar & Bistro for dinner tonight. Reserve your table online or call us at (406) 577-2377.