Approximately 1,620 miles and 24 hours away from the actual city of Libby, Montana, you’ll find Libby Montana, a Mequon bar and grill fittingly named seeing as the owner’s name is Libby – and seeing as the neighborhood hub is approximately the size of Montana. 

Found at 5616 W. Donges Bay Rd., the words “bar,” “grill” and “restaurant” sell the place short. It’s more like a compound, containing a bar, a dining hall with an additional bar, a private event room, plenty of patio space and a mammoth indoor sand volleyball dome featuring multiple courts plus a bonus bar of its own. Venturing through it all, you’re convinced that the 2,775 residents of Libby, Montana could all comfortably fit inside Libby Montana, maybe even with the space for a friendly volleyball match to spare. 

“It’s a lot,” said owner Libby Wick, “but a job I had prior to this was a food and beverage manager on the production lot at Universal Studios, so I did a lot of different things there. And I’m used to it.” 

And yet, for as massive and sprawling as Libby Montana is, the bar and restaurant still manages to feel as cozy and warm as a tiny corner tap – the soul of a “Cheers”-esque neighborhood hangout with the space of a Times Square mega-bar. 

“We just love the environment,” said Beth LaFond, a regular of Libby Montana for about 20 years. “We meet friends here. It’s like our local little watering hole – but it’s huge.”

While it was always an area gathering spot, the bar wasn’t always the behemoth it is now. The space first was first built as just the small front bar area in 1911, a rooming house by the railroad tracks called Gruenwald’s Resort. Over the years, the bar would transition and evolve into Hank’s Wagon Wheel, Whiskey River Saloon and Kelly’s, growing along the way, before Wick and her now ex-husband found the place near the turn of the century.

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“Twenty-three years ago, my husband at the time, my young son and I moved back to the Midwest from L.A., and we just decided at that point that buying a restaurant would be a good idea,” Wick explained. “I’d always worked in the restaurant business – started in Milwaukee, moved out to New York, then to L.A. Not that it had been a lifelong dream or anything, but it just seemed like that would be the next step – after working in those two cities, that I wouldn’t necessarily want to come back and work for someone else again.”

Originally, their plans almost took them toward fly-fishing and opening up a restaurant in Montana – but the draw of returning home and opening an eatery with the support of friends and family was too strong for Wick. So instead of moving to Montana, they founded their own little Montana in Mequon in late 2000 – and coming up on 24 years later, it’s still thriving. 

For first-timers, it can be briefly disorienting entering Libby Montana, as entering through the main side door leads right into a fork in the road. Should you go left or right? Answer: Yes. 

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To the left is the classic bar space, a beautiful warm wood retro bar top complete with an old-school Pabst backbar and mirrors scribbled with the latest food and drink specials. The bar space is the highlight, but the rest of the comfortably unpretentious space – with wood tables scattered about plus some video bar games – is perfect for grabbing a drink and a bite while catching up with friends and watching the day’s big sporting events. 

Go to the right, and you’ll find the spacious banquet dining room, radiating up-north supper club vibes with its lofty ceiling, lumber-centric atmosphere and classic table décor. This side’s more targeted toward family dining, but there’s still a large bar top as well concocting drinks, displaying the latest specials and framed with TV screens – along with a buffalo head and a posse of Beasties overlooking it all. (Those kooky and colorful Beasties are available for sale too – perhaps perfect for those who drop in and suddenly remembered an anniversary or birthday.)

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"It has two different feels: There’s a ‘bar’ bar area and then there’s a restaurant bar area,” LaFond said. “If you’re in the mood to just go to a bar, you can do that. If you want to sit at a restaurant bar or sit at a table and eat, you can do that. It’s open to so many possibilities.”

One of those possibilities? Sand volleyball – even when the Wisconsin weather becomes far from beach-y. Walk through the dining hall to the back door and walk past the colorful outdoor patio space (home to regular live music) and you’ll find a bit of beach away from any lake or ocean: The Volley Dome. 

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Built during the former Kelly’s tenure, The Volley Dome holds three full sand volleyball courts, typically bustling with bar league players setting and spiking at one another – plus, of course, there’s also a little bonus bar off to the side for timeouts and “water” breaks. Libby Montana hosts leagues for all sorts of levels, five nights a week, from September all the way through to May, meaning it’s pretty much always summer at the Mequon saloon. (For leagues and dates, click here.) The dome’s fun, relaxing, energetic and a symbol of Libby Montana’s overall ethos: There’s something here for just about everyone.

"A lot of the people that were playing volleyball here and coming in and hanging in the bar in 2000 when we opened are now coming in with their little kids, and it’s really cool,” Wick said.  

Whether you work up a hunger from playing volleyball or playing hooky from work on a stool, Libby Montana serves up a wide menu of bar favorites, supper club-y staples and Wisconsin classics. According to several regulars, the weekly specials at the bar and grill are indeed special, most notably the Friday fish fry (lake perch and cod) and the prime rib served on Saturday nights. 

But really, what makes the spot special is the friendly atmosphere and community it gathers – whether with volleyball leagues, live outdoor music, Packer parties, family and work festivities, maker’s markets and special seasonal décor like holiday decorations come the Christmas season and a bedazzling of bras every fall. Yes, Libby Montana holds a yearly “Best Bra Contest,” where people elaborately decorate bras to hang from the restaurant’s ceiling during October. There’s a competitive aspect to the underwear art, with the best bustiers earning prizes from both judges and a people’s vote, but a caring one as well as the campaign raises donations to the fight against breast cancer. 

"People get creative with their bras, and you just see everything. I always come in to look at them. And starting in October, people who haven’t been here before will walk in and there’s just these crazy bras hanging up all over the place,” LaFond laughed. “It’s really fun.” 

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In the end, a big space can be just that: space. It’s the life and love that people bring inside that makes a place mean something – and for more than two decades, Wick and Libby Montana have filled the Mequon mega-bar with happenings, happiness and overhand volleyball serves. With more to come.

“She just gives back and does so many fun events here – and it just keeps the people coming back,” LaFond said.

“I do think about the history of the business and the buildings when I think about who will own it after I do,” Wick reflected. “There’s a lot of growth going on around here, a lot of development, and I think it would be really important to me to find someone that would be interested in continuing this. That wouldn’t come in and just say, ‘You know, we could put some townhomes in on these two pieces of property.’ That would be easy – but this is truly a unique property. 

“In November we start our 24th year, and it’s been a lot of fun. And I’m not retiring – I don’t want this to sound like that – but when you’re closing in on 25 years, you start to think about things like that. I just hope that there’s someone out there that wants to run something that’s diverse and challenging and would find the love and the fun in it also.”

For more information about Libby Montana’s menu, events, volleyball leagues and more, click here.