Q Cuisine Restaurant
Stylish Food in the "New Neighborhood"
By Stella Fong
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Daniel Roberts QCuisine Chef
Billings Montana
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Michael Schaer is creating a neighborhood along Montana Avenue in Billings. The cornerstone of that community is the Q Cuisine Restaurant which offers bistro comfort food in an eclectically decorated space.
“I’m trying to make Montana Avenue like my old neighborhood in Chicago,” Schaer says. He has been responsible for much of the revitalization of this thoroughfare located in the historic downtown district.
Along with Q Cuisine, Schaer owns a breakfast, lunch and coffee house – McCormick Café; a bakery and sandwich shop – Log Cabin Bakery; and a nightclub and martini bar – Club Carlin. He leases space to an Asian restaurant, Sweet Ginger, and a Mexican eatery, Don Luis. At one point he owned the building of the avant-garde Venture Theater, but has since sold it to its original founder, Mace Archer. He also owns Rue d’Artistes which provides a venue for local artists to show and sell their wares. Above Q Cuisine and Club Carlin, Schaer has remodeled the historic Carlin Hotel with eight new extended-stay suites.
Schaer, a Chicago native, moved to Montana in the 1960s to teach in the chemical engineering department at Montana State University in Bozeman. In the late 1970s he relocated to Billings and founded Computers Unlimited, a software development company.
Schaer oversees the day-to-day operation of Computers Unlimited, but with his other businesses hires experts to do the supervising, though on any given day, it is not unusual to see him walking on Montana Avenue and stopping in his establishments. At 68, Schaer shows only slight signs of graying and no indication of slowing down. He casually tells of his accomplishments, but substantiates each with specific details of people, place and time. He looks at the present with future possibilities. His computer savvy makes him more knowledgeable of blogs, Internet forums, emails and chat rooms than most twenty year-olds. When he tells how he enjoys creating new ventures, especially matching the right people for the right projects, his eyes light with joy and slight mischief.
Schaer is creating a family dynasty. His son David works closely with him at Computers Unlimited while his daughter Suzy oversees the front end of Q Cuisine and her husband, Daniel Roberts, serves as executive chef. Cara, Schaer’s wife, can sometimes be found in the kitchen at the Log Cabin Bakery. On Saturdays in the summer, Michael cooks crepes at the seasonal farmers’ market.
“No doubt we will return when we
once again want to escape
to a faraway place.”
The vision General Manager Suzy Schaer and Executive Chef Daniel Roberts have for Q Cuisine is a “traditional American bistro, a neighborhood restaurant. We want to serve comfort food with style.”
The style in Q Cuisine transports the diner from the Magic City neighborhood to faraway places. From the real world of Montana Avenue, the restaurant’s décor blends the old and new, glamorous with rustic, and sleek along with ornate. Designers Mitch and Melanie Thompson have reinvented a space that can transport the diner to a metropolitan dining room, an ancient pavilion, or a tea party in a fairy tale.
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Edamame at QCuisine
Billings, Montana
by Stella Fong
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The 40-seat restaurant is located in the historic Carlin Hotel built in 1910. Under the original stamped tin ceilings, the space is decorated in fanciful colors and industrial materials. From floor to ceiling sapphire blue glass highlights the entire back wall of the bar, making the bottles of spirits appear like ornaments. Geometric towers of wood veneer, topped with lighted lemon-yellow panels, divide one side of the room into private dining spaces. The round booths, fronted with torchieres and upholstered with chartreuse cloth and silver blue leather, provide the perfect tête-à-tête escape. On the opposite side of the room, a banquette lines almost the entire length of the wall. Above the long seating area are arched veneer wood panels dangling chandeliers in front of metal-framed mirrors. The diner seated in the brushed steel chairs facing these looking glasses can almost believe that Alice in Wonderland could walk through.
A series of paintings, entitled “Deux couverts, s’il vous plait,” (A table for two, please) by Montana artist W.A. Guy line the upper walls. The ten renditions depict a mustached gentleman, sporting a tie and dressed in an unbuttoned dinner jacket, savoring a glass of wine with a mysterious guest. A close looks reveals that his companion is a terrier.
The “Q” in Q Cuisine is named after Suzy. Her father convinced her to return to Billings to help him start up QCuisine and to revamp the nightclub and martini bar, Club Carlin, next door. Suzy’s friends from college in Los Angeles called her “Q” and “Das Q.” When naming the restaurant, the goal was to select a name that was easy to remember. “Q” satisfied that criteria and fitted the restaurant’s playful and alluring mood.
When Suzy received a call from her father in 2000, she was working in the marketing and management department at the Sheraton Universal Hotel at the back lot of Universal Studios. Her father asked if she would come to Montana for a couple of years and use her expertise to help him establish the restaurant. Design plans were forwarded to Suzy for her review. At the time, Suzy was dating future husband Daniel. While he completed studies at California School of Culinary Arts, the Le Cordon Bleu program, Suzy returned to Montana to pursue her new endeavor.
The neon “Q” sign above the entry and the letter “Q” spotlighted on the sidewalk insure that I am at the right place. My husband, good friends and I enter through an alcove, slipping through a curtain to be greeted by an attractive blond hostess who leads us to a round booth.
Candlelight from an oil lamp illuminates a dark wood table set with modern utensils and black napkins tied into neat knots. A woven basket arrives with garlic poppy seed crackers and slices of oatmeal whole wheat bread.
The denim-covered menu is eye-catching and straight- forward. The simplicity leaves the diner unburdened with confusing descriptions. On the other hand, the bar menu takes on another personality.
“The French Kiss” is described “as invigorating as the kiss itself and is served with Stoli Razberi vodka and
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Banquette at QCuisine
Billings, Montana
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champagne, garnished with a cherry,” while the “Maui Wow-ie” is made with Malibu rum, Midori, pineapple and orange juice. I choose the “Q Apple Martini,” the restaurant’s signature drink. It arrives in a chilled martini glass with a slice of Granny Smith apple floating on top. The cocktail is refreshing with balanced pucker and sweet. My friend Marilyn orders a Carlin Cosmopolitan brimming with pink and celebration. For an instant, we pretend that we are on the set of “Sex and the City.”
We begin our meal with the Tuna Tower. The dish arrives with a molded flat round of Sushi grade ahi tuna chunks layered on top of diced avocado, and placed on a bed of thinly sliced cucumbers. Drizzles of balsamic vinegar and spicy Asian garlic sauce artfully finish the plate. Our second appetizer, “Edamame,” or steamed soybean pods dusted with salt, is served in an oval dish sitting on top of a folded rolled napkin. The “Bag O’ Calamari” should not be missed. Cornmeal-parmesan cheese encrusted calamari is served in a brown paper bag with an aioli dipping sauce.
This night’s soup special is a roasted vegetable Thai soup. Green curry provides the background flavor for the broth and melds with the grilled eggplant and pieces of broccoli, zucchini, and red pepper. My husband orders the Caesar Salad. Broken romaine lettuce leaves are tossed with a traditional dressing and served with sliced mushrooms and red onions topped with golden croutons.
For my main entrée, I choose the Orzo Primavera described as “seasonal vegetables – roasted garlic orzo pasta – tossed with an herb compound butter.” Shavings of Parmesan cheese melt into the pieces of red pepper, asparagus, and zucchini that accompany the grain-shaped pasta. Marilyn orders scampi – “sautéed garlic tiger shrimp – Italian parsley – black bean sauce.” Ample shrimp rests atop fettuccine noodles that glisten with soy and dots of Chinese salted black beans. The men order the “Veal Scaloppini” with herbed potatoes, sautéed spinach finished with a lemon caper sauce, and they eat every bite. These dishes are in keeping with Suzy and Daniel’s philosophy of stylish comfort food.
The “Dessert Bites’” complete our meal. We share a sampling of vanilla crème brulee, a profiterole filled with strawberry cream, and a mini chocolate cheesecake. In the past, I have finished with the “Q Fondue” made with semisweet chocolate, which satisfied my chocolate craving, yet eliminated guilt because of its offering of fresh fruit.
As we step back into the neighborhood, we leave stylishly comforted. No doubt we will return when we once again want to escape to a faraway place.
Q Cuisine Restaurant
Hours: 4:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Mon – Sat
2503 Montana Avenue, Billings. Tel: 406.245.2503
Web site: http://www.qcuisine.com
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