Home on the Range
Whether you’re a local looking for lunch or libation, or a tired traveler in search of supper and a place to hang your hat, Reid and Patrick will greet you at the front door of the Arvon Block.
Text by Claire Baiz • Photography by Phil Procopio
“It wasn’t until I moved back,” Reid Ellsworth says, “that I realized what makes Great Falls feel like home…People here have the courage to tell the truth—it keeps us genuine.” Reid, whose experience is in the restaurant business, serves as operations manager for the Arvon Block; his husband Patrick Sullivan, a fourth-generation Montana hotelier, is general manager.
Patrick, who did two stints with Americorps helping homeless veterans, also worked at Big Sky, Montana. “In every way,” he says, “Great Falls is the real big sky.”
Supervising the popular Celtic Cowboy restaurant, the Dark Horse Hall & Wine Snug, and the historic Hotel Arvon is a lot of hard work, but this busy couple makes time for friends, family, their Craftsman-era home—and the newest addition to the family, their dog Madison.
The Ellsworth clan and the whole community have been warm and welcoming. Sullivan, a Butte native and avid hunter, loves it that generations of people seem to stay in—or gravitate back—to Great Falls.
“Great Falls has an energy about it,” says Patrick. “Coming here was our best decision.”
