The Ox – open since 1883 with no lock on the door
By Tom Adkinson
July 23, 2021

Betty and her predecessors have been slaking the thirsts of the Ox’s patrons since 1883; image by Tom Adkinson

MISSOULA, Montana – The Oxford Saloon & Café – the very name makes it sound slightly trendy or even a bit sophisticated. It is neither.

What it is, however, is old, funky, appealing to visitors, a favorite with the very late-night crowd and anything but ordinary in a world of cookie-cutter corporate restaurants with in-house decorators and menu consultants.

Probably nobody in Missoula actually calls it the Oxford Saloon & Café. It’s the Ox. Plain and simple – it’s the Ox.

The Oxford Saloon & Café shares a downtown corner with a franchise sandwich shop, a financial services company and a sushi joint. Image by Tom Adkinson.

The Ox stands out – in a nice way, not like a sore thumb – at the corner of N. Higgins Avenue and E. Pine Street. A black and red canopy wraps around the corner, and some curious illustrations – one of a squatting cowboy sipping a cup of coffee – fill second-story windows.

Its own red neon sign hangs over the sidewalk, Budweiser and Miller Lite neon signs glow in the windows and another neon window sign alerts you to the 24-hour ATM inside.

The 24-hour ATM availability is notable. The Ox is open 24 hours a day every darn day of the year and has been since 1883. Perhaps. Without a totally historical record to back up any date, 1883 is the accepted year the Ox opened, even though the 1890 city directory doesn’t list it.

A vintage Rock-Ola jukebox is one of several electronic diversions at the Ox. Image by Tom Adkinson.

Regardless of when it opened, it built a reputation for inexpensive food and stiff drinks for loggers, miners, workaday guys and university students until 1955, when it moved one block north to its present location.

Its character didn’t change, but the neighborhood’s did over the decades, at least a little bit. While the Ox holds down one corner, its intersection neighbors are a Jimmy John’s franchise, a Merrill Lynch office and Sushi Hana.

You have to wonder what the loggers, miners and spittoon users of a century ago would make of a fast-food sandwich shop, a financial services company and a sushi joint in once dusty and rough-and-tumble Missoula.

A collection of Remington and Winchester rifles above the backbar helps confirm the western location of the Ox. Image by Tom Adkinson.

Enter the Ox from N. Higgins, and Betty behind the bar will serve you whatever you want after you’re through inspecting some historic photographs on the wall, a mounted bison head and a display of Remington and Winchester rifles behind glass high above the backbar.

No matter how thirsty you are, you won’t go broke. A cold draft beer is $3.25, and there’s not a whiskey in the house more than $4 a shot. That includes Jack Daniel’s, Maker’s Mark and Crown Royal.

The Ox is narrower than it is wide, and about halfway down the room, there’s a stark change. The bar ends, and a classic lunch counter begins – circular stools on stainless steel pedestals all in a row. There’s also a handful of tables.

Both in the window and on the menu, the Ox recalls some of the memorably named items that appealed to its original working class customers.

• “He Needs ‘Em” was brains and eggs.
• “Overland Trout” was roast beef.
• “Torpedoes” were franks and sauerkraut.
• “Married Man” was liver.
• “Under the Bridge” was beef stew.
• “Chippie in the Mud” was corned beef and cabbage.

Most of those items aren’t served now, but today’s menu is far from frou-frou. The big calling cards are eggs (poached, scrambled or fried, but not with brains), a one-pound ribeye steak and various permutations of the Ox burger. An Ox burger starts with either a half-pound or a full pound of ground beef and builds from there.

Chicken fried steak (more than 200,000 orders sold since 1986, says the website) is a hit, but ask for a taste of JJ’s Special Gravy before agreeing to have it ladled onto your steak. It packs a peppery wallop.

A side room off the main portion of the Ox is filled with several of Montana’s ubiquitous gaming machines. Image by Tom Adkinson.

Yesteryear’s stud poker tables are gone, but like almost everyplace you go in Montana, there are electronic gambling machines and a lottery ticket dispenser to tempt you. Nobody dropped quarters down the slot of the classic Rock-Ola jukebox on my most recent visit.

My server, Aurora, was pulling triple duty. She was server, cook and cashier. My companion and I helped bus the table.

“The volume ebbs and flows,” Aurora said when I asked what normal days are like, “but I can tell you what one of the busiest times is. It’s 2 a.m.”

That’s when Montana law shuts off alcohol sales. The Ox closes its bar – just like every other bar in town – and waits for the folks who need some sobering-up food or an excuse to stay out a bit later.

They know they can count on the Ox because its 24/7 operation is guaranteed.

There’s no lock on the front door, even if Aurora and Betty wanted to call it a night.