Take a load off at the Break Room

The north side of campus has gained itself a new hangout spot. It’s the new neighborhood watering hole on the northeast corner of College St. and 11th Ave. intersection. The new bar — called The Break Room — serves beer, wine, mocktails, soda from an old-fashioned fountain and great food. 

After opening the doors of The Break Room, I felt an overwhelming sense of coziness and not just because they sell my favorite beverages. They have that chill, stop-by-for-a-beer-after-work energy that was missing near campus. Needless to say, they absolutely nailed the whole breakroom vibe. 

The owners spent months renovating the space to make it feel like a proper breakroom. Work began in March of this year as they prepared for opening day. “We did a soft friends and family open on the fourth of July, and then we opened two days later on the sixth,” Suta said. 

“I wanted it to be a place where anybody can come and find something they want to do. Whether it’s just sitting quietly or chatting with folks, playing a board game, reading a book or hanging out in the arcade,” general manager Kyle Suta said. 

The place is decked out with high tops, couches and a beautiful bar with corrugated tin that wraps around the base, supporting a huge countertop made of epoxied and resin-sealed cherry wood. They have a bookshelf stocked with everyone’s favorite board games and another bookshelf with used books from Isle of Books on Mendenhall. The books are available to browse or purchase while you drink your brew, Suta said. 

The best part about the atmosphere at The Break Room is the walls. One side of the beer bar has wood paneling while the others display hand-painted murals completed by a Florida-based artist named Daniel Rojas.  “[Rojas] came the whole month of March and just kind of set up shop in here and did our Beer God [mural], the big moose, the bear and our hot heart. It really gives a lot of character to the space,” Suta said. 

The food and drink menu at The Break Room also supports our economy by selling locally sourced beer, food and sometimes wine. “[We] feature a lot of local beers. I try to do mostly Montana beers. Obviously, with the wines, that’s harder. But whenever possible, I like to feature the ones you don’t see all over town. There are some really good beers, but there are so many smaller, not as well-distributed ones that I try to rotate through,” Suta said. 

“We featured a little bit of Last Best Brewing. Their Fly Tying Session Pale Ale is really good. We’ve had some Bunkhouse beers that did really well. I’d love to get to even some of the older ones, like Madison River or some of the Bozeman Brewing Seasonals that we don’t see as much,” Suta said.

The food menu at The Break Room features homemade chili, hotdogs, nachos, cold dips and typical bar food. Every Sunday, they host the Jazz Trio Alex Platt and Friends to perform while the kitchen serves a special brunch menu with pancakes and breakfast pasties from Wind’s Pasties in Anaconda. 

Beyond the Sunday morning Jazz Trio, The Break Room hosts live musicians on Friday nights and local clubs like the Gallatin Valley Go Club frequent the space on Tuesday nights. The bar is also gearing up for trivia nights on Thursdays. 

After you’ve finished your food and beer, you might venture around the bar and kitchen past the mural of the Beer God. There, some old-school arcade machines allow people to reignite their childhood Pac-Man obsessions. 

The Break Room is under the same ownership as Colombo’s Pizza and Pasta. Just a few doors away from each other, they’re both located in the same building, officially known as the Westgate Village. 

The bar and restaurant connect through a back hallway, which is filled with some vintage and some modern arcade machines. The hallway leads to Colombo’s newly expanded Game Room. From there, patrons can access Colombo’s as well. The Game Room features a pool table, darts, air hockey, a couple of pinball machines and more.

The Break Room pours out pints daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and its location right on College St. makes it the perfect spot for neighbors to meet up for a beer without wrestling for parking spots downtown. The staff has also seen more students stopping by to chill between classes or work on their laptops. “It’s definitely an all-ages atmosphere,” Suta said. 

So, head over to The Break Room the next time you walk out of a long day of studying or when you are snowed in on this side of town. There, you can melt into one of the cushy couches, drink a beer and forget about your homework for an hour… or three.