Wild Joe's Is Saving Its Last Night for Christmas Stroll

On his first day as the new owner of Wild Joe's, Ron Gompertz met the ROMEOS. That stands for Retired Older Men Eating Out. They came in early every day, took their favorite chairs, read the paper and refilled their coffee. In a column for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, he wrote that they told him, "We hope you won't be changing anything."

He changed plenty, and the ROMEOS stayed anyway. By the end of the column they had approved of the changes and were still coming in every day.

That gives you a sense of what leaves 18 W. Main St. after Saturday, Dec. 5. Wild Joe's Coffee Spot plans to close for good that day, after 25 years downtown. The shop chose the evening of the 46th Annual Christmas Stroll for its last hurrah, a night of Santa photos, horse-drawn wagon rides and a lighting ceremony downtown. That fits a business that always worked more as a room people shared than as a coffee counter.

The Lease Ended

Wild Joe's announced the closure on Instagram on Sept. 28. As the Chronicle reported, the post said the lease would be "involuntarily terminated" and that "a new business is already in line to rent the space." Co-owner and manager Erica Brubaker told the paper she wasn't given the chance to renew.

The same story said the building's owner is an active member of downtown's Business Improvement District. That's the arm of the Downtown Bozeman Partnership that works with landlords and property owners. A separate arm, the Downtown Bozeman Association, works directly with businesses, and Wild Joe's is one of its more than 400 members. The organization that runs the Stroll counts both the closing tenant and the building's owner among its members.

The note Brubaker posted on the shop's website reads more like a letter to regulars than a business notice:

"My heart is broken to think of the community of this space that will be lost, this amazing group of baristas, students, professionals, families, and retirees, who gather daily to share a space with each other. We see you, nearly everyday, and we will miss you."

That passage comes from wildjoescoffee.com, which also invites anyone interested in carrying the Wild Joe's name to a new location to email [email protected]. Brubaker told the Chronicle, "I'm hopeful someone interested in continuing the legacy in a new location will present themselves."

The Room Got Built One Requirement at a Time

Much of what regulars recognize at Wild Joe's today came out of a rough first few months under new ownership, as Gompertz told it. Before he bought the shop, he was a regular himself. He liked its jumbo tables, comfortable seating and historic pressed tin ceiling. Then the requirements started showing up:

1. The name. A USDA compliance officer cited the shop because federal rules regulate the word "organic." So Wild Joe's Organic Coffee and Tea House had to drop it, even though its beans and tea leaves were certified organic.
2. The sign. The marquee cowboy waving a coffee cup like a pistol came down. Brickhouse Creative designed the new name, Wild Joe's Coffee Spot, and a retro neon sign went up in place of the cowboy.
3. The building. Fire and safety code work meant taking out the ceiling and walls and installing fireproofing. The maple floors were refinished, and a second bathroom doubled the room's legal capacity.

Sales dropped during weeks of construction, then came back as regulars returned and curious newcomers walked in. The extra capacity paid off next. Gompertz asked recording engineer Doc Wiley of Peach Street Studios to install a professional sound system. The shop started booking local and touring musicians in folk, jazz, country, indie rock and electronic. Because Wild Joe's doesn't serve alcohol, he described it as a rare all-ages music venue in Bozeman and a late-night alternative to the bars for adults. In the same column, he described politicians holding meet-and-greets there and nonprofits hosting fundraisers.

Downtown Bozeman Partnership executive director Ellie Staley put the same idea plainly in the Chronicle's closure story: "Wild Joe's is certainly a gathering place in downtown Bozeman (and) has been for a really long time." When the paper visited at 7 a.m. on Oct. 1, a few days after the announcement, a handful of people were drinking coffee from mugs, most of them working quietly on laptops.

The Front Window Becomes the Goodbye

People who walk Main Street have probably noticed the front window more than the menu. The shop's website says it hosts monthly art installations, "thought provoking events, and community driven displays in our front window." The current featured artist is Steve Kelly, whose oil paintings and sculpture the site describes as abstract landscapes. Kelly earned a fine art degree at Montana State University and co-owned Botanica Fine Art Gallery from 1997 to 2006.

In December, that window will hold a memory display. The shop is collecting customers' memories of Wild Joe's for it, sent to [email protected]. The Chronicle reported that the window will stay up until the official closing after the Stroll. For years, the window gave space to other people's projects, so ending with everyone's memories of the place itself fits.

The website lists coffee, espresso and tea, breakfast burritos, paninis, soups and baked goods. The kitchen also serves pastries, salsa and other items made by other Bozeman businesses. The site also takes online orders. One detail from the Chronicle's coverage of the next tenant: Wild Joe's serves its to-go coffee in compostable rainbow cups.

Why Stroll Night Works for the Last Hurrah

The website asks customers to "join us for our last hurrah in our space December 5th during Christmas Stroll." Here's what is going on outside the door that evening, from the Downtown Bozeman Association's event listing:

This is the 46th Stroll. Wild Joe's will close on an evening when families, local nonprofits and food vendors are already out on the downtown streets.

What the Job Postings Describe for 18 West Main

Wild Joe's said in September that a new business was already lined up for the space. A Chronicle follow-up by Dan Astin connected that to general manager job postings on Indeed and the Montana Knife Company careers site. Both postings describe a knife company storefront with a Black Rifle Coffee Company shop inside, on the block where Wild Joe's has operated. According to the Chronicle, the Indeed listing reads, "We're opening our newest location on Main Street in Bozeman, Montana, complete with a Black Rifle Coffee Company shop inside, just like our flagship store in Missoula." The general manager job pays between $90,000 and $110,000, according to both postings. The company's careers page lists the job as "MKC X BRCC Bozeman- General Manager."

The Missoula store it points to is new. Montana Knife Company held a grand opening on April 11 for its 51,000-square-foot facility, which KPAX described as the company's new headquarters. The Missoulian reported that the facility includes a factory store and a Black Rifle Coffee espresso bar in the welcome area. The company's Missoula shop page lists the address as 8659 Robbins Road. The Missoulian also reported that the business started in 2020 in Josh Smith's Frenchtown garage, while he was working as a lineman. The company names Smith and Brandon Horoho as its founders. Black Rifle Coffee Company is a veteran-founded company that directs part of its proceeds and product donations to veterans, active-duty military and first responders, according to the Chronicle.

So 18 W. Main will still serve coffee, inside a retail store with a different purpose. The all-ages stage, the shared tables and the rotating window displays are what the space loses.

Main Street Has Lost a Coffeehouse Before

Bozeman has seen this before. Leaf & Bean opened its first Bozeman shop in 1977 and later ran a coffeehouse at 35 W. Main St. It left Main Street in 2015, according to the Chronicle, and a longtime resident brought it up while reflecting on the Wild Joe's news. As of Oct. 2, the shop's closure post had drawn more than 250 comments. Most shared personal memories or worried that Bozeman is changing too much for independent businesses to stay.

Those comments help explain the plan for the last night. Brubaker's note asks for memories, the window will show them through the closing, and the last day falls on Stroll night. Anyone who sat at those jumbo tables under the pressed tin ceiling can email a memory to the shop and stop in for a final cup during the Stroll, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 5.

Tyler Garrison keeps track of Main Street's storefronts as they change hands. If you have questions about life near downtown Bozeman as these addresses change, schedule a free consultation and we'll talk it through over coffee.