About Us

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What Brought us to West Yellowstone???                                                                   

 It’s probably the most asked question ~ Here’s our story…   It all started back in the late 1970’s, where Dave and I met, and worked for Dennis LaFever in Wisconsin. Dennis had just taken over the Bar n Annex from his brother, Miles. It was a small restaurant in central Wisconsin. Dennis married Jackie, also a restaurateur.  In 1984, they left Wisconsin and headed to Virginia City, Montana.  There they established the Virginia City Café.  In 1990, they moved to West Yellowstone and established “BULLWINKLES.”    We got married in 1989 and started our own restaurant adventures. Our first restaurant we purchased in 1990 was the “IDLEWILE INN” in St. Cloud, Wisconsin. It was a 1919 hotel that we turned into a Wisconsin supper club.  In 2005, Dave thought he needed to  have another restaurant… that one was in Plymouth, Wisconsin, and named it “SWEET BASIL”- an Italian restaurant.   Over the years, Dennis would make his frequent trips back to Wisconsin. He’d stop in to see how we were doing, have a couple drinks and a meal. He’d often say, “You two kids need to come to MONTANA!” At the time, we had the two restaurants, kids, a house, etc.??  Honestly, at the time, as awesome as it sounded, we never did anything about it. On November 13, 2018, Dennis lost his fight against cancer, and we lost a GREAT friend.   In July 2019, we were camping in Idaho and stopped to see Jackie at Bullwinkle's. We had a fabulous dinner with her and breakfast the next morning before heading back to Wisconsin. During that 20-hour drive back home, we got talking why couldn’t we do this now?  The kids are gone, all we need to do is sell the two restaurants and the home. Sounded crazy…maybe?? But, not necessarily impossible!! And then Covid, entered our lives…   In March of 2021, we got things going. In June, we sold our restaurant in Plymouth. July, we sold our home.  November 15th, we sold the Idlewile.  November 16th , we loaded up what we could and headed to Montana. On, November 22, 2021, on my 62nd birthday…  we purchased Bullwinkles from Jackie LaFever.         Dave and Brenda Panko