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MONTANA HISTORY Spirit of tavern lives on Billings influence helps with Butte restaurant restoration By DAN BURKHART Of The Gazette Staff BUTTE - It was a legendary, grass-grabbing drinking fest when Evel Knievel partied at the Acoma Restaurant and Lounge after his Snake River Canyon jump in 1974. Accompanied by former Army pal and Billie Jean King tennis foe Bobby Riggs, Knievel vowed to spend a million bucks celebrating.
 Photos/AUDREY HALL Lyle Nalivka brought his dream of restoring the historic Acoma restaurant and lounge in Butte to fruition after a lot of serious remodeling work. When Nalivka first saw the building, moss was growing on the stairs. "He didn't spend a million, but he spent plenty," Jim Sheehan remembers. Sheehan was bartending when the party hit the Acoma. Before long Knievel and Riggs were bartending, too. Then folks just helped themselves. "It was the worst shift I ever worked. They'd already been to the Freeway Tavern, the Mint, and the El-Mar," he said. "By the time they got here it was drinks for everyone, but we weren't pouring them." Sheehan laughs now about the night every swallow in sight disappeared. "They'd hand the bottle, drinking spout and all over to someone. Every bottle of whisky, gin, vodka, every can of beer, every bottle of champagne, every pint, even the Vermouth, the works, gone." The night was one of the last for the historic Butte watering hole before it closed, dilapidated inside, boarded up outside. Sheehan says they billed Knievel from the inventory list, since there was no way to track the tab. "He paid it to the penny." The Billings connectionWhere Knievel's entourage whooped it up now bears little resemblance to the old Acoma, although the spirit of good times and good food has been revived.
At Hilands Golf Club, he learned what patrons expect to see on their table when they sit down to dinner. And Nalivka learned how to present a meal at the Petroleum Club. "I learned how to spin a yarn from listening to Addison Bragg talking to his cronies," he said. And he relied on Billings architect Jim Bos to learn how he could bring the Acoma back to life before a wrecking ball reduced the place to rubble. That knowledge is working for him now at his own place, a restaurant and lounge with a rich history revived by a rich restoration. Nalivka says the project cost is heading toward $1.2 million, helped with some incentives from Butte-Silver Bow County including some tax credits, "I don't think I'll see any time soon." He's not discouraged by the task of bringing the Acoma back to its glory days. The history of the place fascinates him. But it hasn't been easy. "When I looked at it first, it didn't look like there was any way to restore it," he says. "The ceiling was caved in, the roof leaked, skylights were gone. It didn't look promising." From shaft to historic buildingRenovation has been a tricky business. The Acoma sits in a narrow space, built over an historic mine shaft dating to the 1880s, when investors banked on the Smokehouse Lode.After sinking a 400-foot shaft, crosscuts and several pumping stations, investors watched the plan crumble. In the ownership changes that are a trademark of early Butte mining days, new schemes cropped up whenever a little copper vein was struck, but water flooded this mine and debt sank it. The mine shaft remained, not capped until a century after it was sunk. The Acoma was built over the site. It, too, went through several changes, including housing a shoe factory, but finally emerged as a bar and restaurant - its glory days still evident. The Acoma is where you'd expect to meet sleuth writer Dashiell Hammett, a rye tipped to his lips, a Fatima wedged between thumb and forefinger. And you might have met him here if you wandered in 70 years ago, when Hammett was a Pinkerton detective working Butte during the Red scare days of union busting and building. Now you just have to pretend he is here, seated at one of the half-moon booths, neon casting a purplish bruise across his face. It's easy to imagine since the Acoma preserves the same look Hammett enjoyed when he was popularizing the hard-bitten detective novel. It wasn't like that when Bos first saw it. "The first time I went to look, it was pretty sorry," according to Bos. It was damp and dark. The carpet squished with water when you walked on it, moss was growing on the staircases and there was an open view of the sky. "I told Lyle I'd think about it and get back to him," he says. Bos made a second trip in winter to the Acoma. "Now everything that was wet was frozen. It looked better," he laughs. Bos signed on to help with the project. The task was daunting, given the work needed and the budget limitations, but Bos was encouraged by the help available through Butte-Silver Bow's economic development program. "We got some help with money that was for demolition that they allowed us to use for reconstruction," he says. Still there were wrangles over the exterior restoration since the building is registered in the National Register of Historic Places. "They weren't too concerned with the interior, but outside they're more demanding," Bos says. By shaving off a structurally unsound quarter of the building, solidifying the rest and adding a new roof, the building soon resembled something habitable. Inside the job wasn't as bad as expected. "When we cleaned out the rubble, the bar and back bar were in pretty good shape," Nalivka said. Bos preserved the art deco look that has been the signature for the Acoma since the 1930s. The dining area took on a more high-tech look, with exposed beams and wide open views of the city lights below. "The two blend together nicely," Nalivka says. The fact that the Acoma sits on one corner of the only intersection in Butte that still had all the original buildings standing on the other three corners was another big factor in the restoration, Bos adds. Everything Nalivka has done fits the old style, from the sign outside to the lounge within. "We found an old photo of what the neon sign used to look like and had one built just like it," Nalivka says. "We modeled the lounge with the same look it had. The back bar was built in Butte, the curving bar is like what's at the Crystal in Billings." The Acoma still has a couple more stages before Nalivka can feel the structure is reclaimed. There are the second and third stories to finish, probably for commercial and office space. "But I'm happy with the way it's going," he said. "We're where we expected to be when we started." All in the familyNalivka actually started his food career 40 years ago in Havre, where his parents ran a pizza joint."That probably planted the seed for having my own place some day," he said. "All of us worked in their place." "All of us" included two brothers -Dave, now a restaurant manager in Boise, and Pete, now chef at the Acoma. Nalivka began his journey to Butte with a tour of duty in San Francisco. "I was a bartender, then wine steward and maitre d' at the Fairmont, a real high-roller place," he said. Meanwhile, as Nalivka studied under barkeeps, chefs and restaurant managers in California, the Acoma thrived. The Bartoletti family ran it as a top-notch eatery. Sheehan, who served drinks at the Knievel bash, started bartending when Louie Bartoletti owned it. "It was the best dining place in Butte. Just a great old Italian restaurant," Sheehan said. "He aged his meat, cut to order. Made his own sauce. They had accordion music and it was always packed. A real going place." But the Acoma fell on hard times, as Butte did - the lease was too tough and the trade too lean. When the Acoma closed, Nalivka was at home in Helena when his parents became ill and he took over their pizza business. "It was a little tough leaving San Francisco, but I did meet my wife Katie then, so there was a good part to it all," he said. From Helena, Katie and Lyle moved to Billings, raising two children, James and Tasha, and learning the restaurant trade at the Northern and elsewhere. Nalivka and his family moved to Butte to run the War Bonnet Inn and he fell in love with the city, especially Uptown. It wasn't long before he spotted the Acoma, the place he dreamed of owning. "It was scheduled for demolition in June 1996 when I saw it in February. We started working in May, had the demolition and restoration started in October and opened the bar in May 1997," he says. "That wasn't too bad." Acoma's aromaThe Acoma receives rave reviews from diners. They select from a menu that features lunch and dinner specials. Lamb, salmon, game hen, steak and veal dishes top the dinner menu. Nalivka's favorite is Steak Acoma; his wife's the Veal Scallopini Acoma."But we're pretty proud of the Sen Dai sauce dishes," he adds. That unique flavor comes from brother Dave's wife, a Korean native who specializes in South Korean dishes. Once a romper room for Anaconda executives, the Acoma now enjoys a mixed crowd. With Montana Power offices next door, and the Finlen Hotel undergoing its own restoration across the street, business is popping. "It's not Fisherman's Wharf by any means, so you depend on repeat customers," he said. Nalivka loves Butte, but he still holds Billings in high regard. "Those were some good times, great people, wonderful mentors," he says. "I still have some of those people come over to eat and it's always a treat. This place is in Butte, but plenty of Billings is in it."
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