BOZEMAN — Breweries and bars in Bozeman are expecting a boom in business this Saturday and it’s all because of the Cat-Griz football game.
The Rocking R Bar is easily one of the more popular bars in town. People flock there during the daytime for the dining atmosphere, but when the sun goes down — that’s when Tim Benson, the general manager, says they do their best business.
“All the extra excitement, it's going to be something no one can really plan for," said Benson. "It's going to be crazier than ever."
Benson says during the day they usually only have two bartenders and two waitresses. However, they’re preparing for a different scenario on Saturday.
“I think we’ll have a line out the door at 8 in the morning, I honestly do,” said Benson. “When it comes to nighttime and especially a Cat-Griz game, we have an absurd amount of staff. Six bouncers, three to four waitstaff, and six bartenders.”
Benson says there’s already a ton of preparing to do at the bar when it comes to gameday, but now with Cat-Griz and College GameDay coming to town, the inventory list just keeps growing.
“We doubled our order of lime boxes and I’ll probably have around ten pre-cut buckets of limes,” said Benson. “I just put in an order for a backup cooler to put extra Coors Light in the back and we just placed an extra order of 100 cases of Coors Light.”
That's 2,400 bottles of beer. If you stack them, they would almost be as tall as the Empire State Building.
As for the fans looking for more craft beer, Bridger Brewing says they’ll also be seeing a surge in sales.
“We have 18,000 people walking by this location on gamedays,” said Hayden Wilson, the head brewer at Bridger Brewing. He said they’re expecting to see most of their customers come in after the game.
“They’ll be getting out around 3 o’clock, so we’re definitely anticipating a waitlist and getting slammed,” said Wilson.
Benson said even though the bar will be crowded, they’re more than ready.
“That’s just what Cat-Griz is all about,” said Benson. “Just really fun, exciting, high energy.”
