Eddie’s Cafe and Mercantile, Apgar Village, West Glacier, Montana

You enter Glacier National Park from West Glacier by a road that takes you by a small grocery, a pizza place, and sundry other stuff, and then you pass the entrance and drive on to Apgar Village. The is a village commercial area within Glacier National Park that is accessible without the permit required for the main attraction, the Going to the Sun Road. It’s where you catch the Red Bus for the west side tour. The village includes a lodge and cabins, a camping area, an outfitter, and stores where you can buy coffee, bear spray, clothes, and souvenirs. Best of all, Apgar sits on the shore of Lake McDonald, the largest lake in the Park.

The view is gorgeous, even with an unsightly obstruction marring the photo.

There’s a beach of multi-colored pebbles, and a long and popular pier.

And there’s a restaurant, Eddie’s Cafe and Mercantile.

Nancy and I ate dinner at Eddie’s twice, the first time after our Red Bus tour of East Glacier, and then again on our last evening in West Glacier. Eddie’s has indoor seating, but we joined the crowds and sat at one of the tables that line the long porch. Apgar Village is a busy area, with its activity and auto traffic, but it offers glimpses of the lake and the feel of nature at its best.

Our server the first night was very friendly, outgoing and upbeat. She enthusiastically encouraged diners to order drinks and desserts, but in a nice way. Nancy ordered the Going-to-the-Sun Thai wrap, and was able to have it served as a bowl. She chose chicken over the tofu option, and added a side salad.

It came with peanut sauce and a Thai slaw as well as rice. It was okay.  The accompanying side salad, most of which was obscured by the rim of the bowl, actually was quite large.  Nancy said that it was fresh and the ingredients were varied “enough.” It had a generous portion of parmesan slices.

I ordered a Cowboy Burger and asked that they hold the barbecue sauce, which I expected to be treacly sweet, especially in an area where they seem to add huckleberries to everything.  And I chose onion rings for my side.

That onion ring atop the burger isn’t a stray. It’s part of the Cowboy Burger, and a good part at that. I gave a half-hearted try for a rare burger, but there’s nothing rarer than a rare burger in or near the Park. It came well done and unavoidably dry, but the onion, a good dose of mustard, and those raw onions helped a lot. And the onion rings themselves were a hit.

It wasn’t a great meal, but frankly, we got about what we expected, and setting expectations reasonably avoids a lot of angst. 

Nancy and I returned to Eddie’s after a beautiful afternoon of hiking around Lake McDonald. Not all the way around, but in the vicinity. The hike landed us back in Apgar Village, and at that point sitting down seemed like a good idea, and Eddie’s the place to do it. We found a table and I congratulated myself with a nice cold Hat Trick IPA.

After looking at the menu, we both switched to a Turkey BLT, basically a traditional club sandwich, one without the slices of ham and cheese, etc, and without the extra slice of bread. We limited ourselves to chips.

Here’s a side view of my sandwich.

Now that was much better than the Cowboy Burger.  The bread had been toasted and lightly buttered. The turkey was ordinary cold cuts, and the bacon was crisp and had been cooked recently. It’s a good combination, properly executed, and improved by my addition of mayonnaise and a little bit of mustard. The mustard may surprise you on a club sandwich, but it adds balance and a little sharpness. Try it.

Again we had a good server, friendly and attentive. It was a good meal, a nice change of pace. I recommend the sandwich. If you go to Glacier, and I really hope you will, you’ll want to visit Eddie’s.

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