Missoula Spot Named Best Hole in the Wall in Montana

Sometimes, a national food site publishes a list that has Montanans scratching their heads a little. This time it was Chowhound declaring the best hole-in-the-wall pizza place in all 50 states. And for Montana, they chose Biga Pizza in Missoula. I laughed at first. Not as if Biga doesn't deserve the title. It absolutely does. But calling Biga a "hole in the wall" is like calling a Ferrari a used ranch truck. It just does not fit.

What Makes Biga Special

If you’re from Missoula, you know Biga is not your creepy little corner dive pizza shack with wobbly chairs and a dry-erase board menu. There’s a sense of class to Biga, without appearing to try too hard. You step inside, and it smells like actual ingredients as opposed to that sad cardboard smell you get at the big chains. Their brick oven says it all. And it’s packed immediately, because everybody knows the pizza just tastes better.

The Flathead Cherry Situation

All right: here’s that pie everyone’s always going on about. The Flathead Cherry pizza. Only in Montana can you toss cherries from Flathead Lake on top of a pizza and not look like an out-of-town weirdo. It seems crazy, until you take a bite. Sweet, smoky, salty, slightly fancy. Nothing at all to suggest a hole in the wall. It’s the kind of pizza you eat when you’re pretending to be a grown-up up and you have your life together.

The Real Reason They Won

If I had to speculate as to why Biga won the title, it’s that they still seem like locals. They are tucked into downtown. They are not flashy. They don’t act like a big deal, though they are. And Biga is the kind of place Missoulians take their out-of-town visitors to brag a bit.

Final Take

If this is what qualifies as a hole in the wall these days, Missoula can breathe easy. Biga Pizza continues to show that Montana can be a favorite flavor all its own. Eat your heart out NYC pizza.