Iron Horse Brew Pub

Location: 501 North Higgins, Missoula, MT

This was my third time eating at the Iron Horse, and each time has been absolutely amazing.  Tonight was no exception.  I have actually started to wonder if they can make a bad meal.  It was a perfect night to eat outdoors, so we decided to take advantage of their ample outdoor seating.

We started with the Crab, Artichoke & Spinach Dip.  Upon first glance, it appeared there was way more pita bread than we could go through.  It always seems when you order these kinds of things that you either run out of bread or you run out of dip.  We soon discovered, though, there was more dip than we thought, and it was pretty much a perfect ratio.  And here's the best part - the dip was incredible.  We've decided it was one of the best we've ever tried.  

For dinner, we opted for the house specialty - The Tender 501, and we ordered a cucumber salad as the side.  Drop dead yummy on both accounts.  I started with the cucumber salad, while my husband started on the sandwich.  I almost didn't want to give my husband his half of the salad.  It was fresh and so tasty.  As I was drooling over that, my husband was literally moaning over the sandwich.

When I finally parted ways with the salad, I dove right in to the sandwich.  No wonder he was moaning.  We ordered the tenderloin medalions medium-rare, and the bread (which the menu lists as a Romano cheese hoagie) was super fresh.  Add in the caramelized onions and the Iron Horse's sriracha aioli sauce, and that thing was just melting in your mouth.  This is the first time we've done a sandwich instead of a dinner entree, and we'd gladly do it again if every result tasted like this.

We ended our meal with a Nuts About Beer cupcake, which *I think* comes from Bernice's Bakery.  Iron Horse hired a pastry chef who makes some of their desserts, but others are brought in from an outside bakery.  Previously, we ordered desserts that were made in-house, but this time we opted to try something new.  What can I say?  Beer + cupcake = tempting!

It was good but not great, and here is what I think happened.  It tasted like it had been refrigerated or frozen and then thawed out for us to eat.  The frosting was a bit hard, almost as if it hadn't thawed enough.  I imagine it's killer good when it's fresh.  It's a chocolate cupcake, made with Nut Brown Ale from the Bitterroot Brewery.  The frosting is a salted caramel buttercream.  I would love to try it fresh because I think I would reverse my opinion from calling it just a good cupcake to calling it a great one. With that said, we'll probably stick to ordering the in-house desserts next time.