Stella Fong: Since 2019, PREROGATIvE Kitchen has given diners the prerogative to order what they wanted to eat. Their concept was much like ordering food from a food truck. The guest ordered at the counter after selecting their choices from a large blackboard offering global inspired dishes created with local ingredients to then go find a seat. So, after 5 years in business and receiving two nods from the James Beard Foundation for Best Chef: Mountain, why are Chef Chris Lockhart and Gena Burghoff selling PREROGATIvE Kitchen?
Gena Burghoff: We have an eight-year-old, and it has always been our goal to get back to England, because that’s where Chris is from, Chris Lockhart. To be there by the time Saxon’s ten. And so, it takes a lot, come to find out, to get over there.
Stella Fong: In selling the restaurant, who would be the dream buyer?
Gena Burghoff: I would love to have someone who recognizes it for the gem that it is. It is set up with a great brand, an amazing menu, so many things that someone could really utilize and take it to the next level.
Stella Fong: Over nearly a dozen years the couple has established a food legacy in Red Lodge and the nearby foodscape.
Gena Burghoff: So, we started out with our food truck, the Local Yoko, and then we were offered to manage Montana Jack’s out in Dean. And then we were like, well, let’s move on and maybe move back to a city again. And then we were offered Ox Pasture for two years, and that was an amazing experience. And then we just thought, why would we leave when we have all these people that love us and want to support us? And so that’s when we purchased the building and started PREROGATIvE.
Stella Fong: The name PREROGATIvE not only gave customers the freedom or prerogative to choose what they wanted to eat to create their own experience, but also allowed Chef Lockhart to cook up what he wanted to and Gena to decorate with creative abandon. The couple needed to assert their own signature for they took over the building that once housed the iconic City Bakery.
Gena Burghoff: Everywhere that I go I love respecting the history of somewhere. My father was huge into history and my mom into antiques. And so, to really use everything that this building came with and not just throw the baby out with the bathwater, it was such an amazing option to just utilize everything that we could.
Stella Fong: Gena used the old muffin tins and loaf pans from the bakery to line the back wall of the restaurant. The décor is filled with whimsy and playfulness with the vibe continuing into the restroom.
Gena Burghoff: Everyone in the restaurant business despises being told that they’re out of toilet paper in the middle of a rush. And so we have 30 some rolls of toilet paper on the wall. You know, little tiny tings that always frustrated me in my 30 years in the restaurant business. We nixed them and made everything work for us.
Stella Fong: In the summers, the couple caters food at Tippet Rise for visitors and performers.
Gena Burghoff: Nothing’s going to change there. You know, we’re going to be there this summer for the music season. We’re really excited about it. Next year we’ll be up there. And who knows, we might stay up there even when we are in England. Come back and continue because that’s a magical, magical place. We don’t want to lost that connection for sure.
Stella Fong: Now that Gena and Chef Chris have made plans to sell PREROGATIvE Kitchen, looking back, what are they most thankful for?
Gena Burghoff: Just gratitude for people allowing us to do something a little bit out of the box and really strive for our goals. Where when we got here and our two goals were to bring a foodie scene to Red Lodge and to get a James Beard nomination. And we, we did that and we got two. And I feel like to be able to set goals and dreams like that and achieve them is kind of, glorious in a way and we’re really proud of ourselves and we’re proud of the staff helping us and we’re just amazed by the community for supporting us and doing that as well.
Stella Fong: For the couple that seeks deliciousness, adventure and romance. What do they hope for their next chapter?
Gena Burghoff: Hopefully all of that and more. I’m going to get emotional. I cannot wait to watch our son experience everything that this world has to offer. Not just Red Lodge. Red Lodge is amazing, but we want to give him a much wider view, obviously of food and culture, but just how to operate within the world and hopefully he’ll be able to find through experience the ability to get along with everybody.
Stella Fong: The best of luck to Gena Burghoff and Chef Chris Lockhart as they close their PREROGATIvE Kitchen chapter to move across the pond. This is Stella Fong for YPradio news.
