Two years ago, the nice guy installing my new kitchen cabinets mentioned that his neighbor was opening an authentic Thai-Chinese restaurant in Bozeman in the near future. I said, ‘Hold that hammering – are you sure?’ I didn’t want to be disappointed; despite being a Montana gal, I’m obsessed with Asian food, and I’ve seen many attempts at Asian restaurants and grocery stores fail in our ever-bourgeoning community. Cabinet guy assured me that it was going to happen; it was just a question of when. I hopped on the ol’ Instagram and found Shan’s page, where I eventually made a reservation for their soft-opening night.

Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the owner, Jarrett Wrisley, and have made Shan my go-to for dinner out. For a while, it was hard to get in there without a reservation (or without going the moment they opened, at 4:30 pm), as it’s a small space, and the hype was widespread. But over the past year-and-a-half, folks have made it in, and Shan recently expanded to include a second room and counter seating. Wrisley wants people to know there’s plenty of room, and this is not L’Idiot from L.A. Story – you can have the duck, and you can have a table.

Katie Thomas: How was Shan conceptualized?

Jarrett Wrisley: I arrived in Bozeman after a four-month road trip with my wife and my four-year-old son, looking for a place to live in the middle of the pandemic. We moved here right as winter started. I didn’t know a single person. I spent a lot of time thinking about my life decisions and what I was going to do next. And I started to see what was available here, as a cook. I started to work with the local proteins – beef, bison – and sort of apply what was available here and what was not, what was special to this place, my background, and my training as a chef in Asia. And as I worked my way through all this, I started to conceptualize a restaurant that focused on food from mountainous places in Asia, working with local produce that was available in Montana.


KT: What would you like people to experience when they walk through your doors?

JW: I like how this restaurant is hidden. It almost looks like an afterthought in an old building, sort of tucked away in the Cannery. But when you walk through it, it’s a warm, inviting space, which is very much by design. I’m trying to recreate that feeling one gets when they walk into an izakaya in Japan in the wintertime, and you have warm lights and wood, and the smells of food and wood smoke. That’s what I’m aiming for.

KT: What would you say makes Shan unique in the Bozeman food scene?

JW: Well, I think it’s that I’m trying to combine two very disparate places, and ideas about restauranteurship and food, into a cohesive concept. I think sometimes it works, sometimes it might not – but what I’m trying to do here is really just reconceptualize the Asian restaurant in the Mountain West. And I’m not sure how many other people have tried to do that.

KT: What menu item do regulars keep coming back for?

JW: The Lazi-Ji chicken wings, and the lamb dumplings that we run out of every day, to everyone’s dismay. I think people are appreciating the new dishes on the menu, like the cumin lamb noodles, which I think are the perfect food for a cold winter night. I’ve been working really hard to slowly introduce new dishes that I think work well with this place, and with each season.

KT: Do you personally have a favorite menu item?

JW: Hmm. Well, because I’m constantly working with the food every day, and I’m on the line every night, it’s difficult for me to have a favorite item. Sometimes, depending on the sort of night that I’ve had, I might crave a certain dish, whether it’s the chicken wings, or perhaps a sour and spicy soup that’s Thai in origin, or maybe a curry. I’m really proud of our restaurant’s green curry at the moment. We make our own curry paste here. It’s very laborious, but what results is just a much better product. We use local beef from Wickens Ranch, and what you’re getting is just a really, really delicious homestyle Thai dish, made with Montana product.


KT: What do you enjoy most about being part of the Bozeman community?

JW: Bozeman has been an incredibly warm and welcoming community for us. We’re just happy to bring the flavors that we love to this place, and we’re happy that people really appreciate it. We have a lot of really loyal customers who have become friends over the past year-and-a-half. It’ll be two years in the spring. I’m just proud to be a small part of what I think is developing into a really great food scene. I think that there are a lot of people cooking really good food in this town. And that’s something to be proud of, and to value. And I think people really do value it here, so that makes me feel good.

KT: Do you have any special events coming up?

JW: Yes, my business partner, Paolo Vitaletti is going to come to town this spring, and we’re going to flip Shan into our Roman trattoria in Bangkok. We have a very well-established restaurant in Bangkok called Appia, which serves superb classic, traditional Roman food. And we’re going to do that here, hopefully, for a week this spring. I miss cooking with Paolo very much. I’m still a partner in that restaurant, and I’m excited for him to come here and work with the beef and the lamb and the pork that we source, and to do it in the ways that his mother showed him how to do in the village that he grew up in outside of Rome.

After Paolo, I’m also going to bring in Prin Polsuk and Mint Jarukittikun from Samrub Thai in Bangkok. I think Prin is the best living Thai chef in the world; his restaurant is probably the best Thai restaurant in existence. He just got a Michelin star, he’s been on the Asian “50 Best Restaurants” list for many years, and he’s just a really important culinary figure in Thai food. And he also happens to be one of my really super-close friends. He was David Thompson’s sous chef for many years, and then he kind of took the torch and opened this really important restaurant. So, Prin’s going to come, hopefully in June, and I’m also going to be working with some U.S.-based chefs that I met at the James Beard Awards last summer. I’m going to Atlanta to cook a pop-up in a couple days, with the guys from the restaurant Talat Market, and they’re going to come cook in Bozeman in the next couple months. So, we’ve got lots of stuff coming up.

KT: What’s the best way for people to follow that?

JW: Via Instagram, and I also write a newsletter. If you’d like to be part of our newsletter, when you make a reservation, leave your email; then I can take it and fold it into the newsletter.

KT: Anything else you’d like readers to know about Shan?

JW: We have 30 seats available for walk-ins. It’s not always booked. Show up, and if there’s a wait, leave your name, have a drink in the Cannery, and we’ll make sure you get a table. You can get in here!

If you have not gotten in there yet, please do yourself the favor. Wrisley makes an effort to visit with all the tables, helping those who may be less experienced in the ways of his menu, making sure everyone is comfortable and tries something enjoyable. And even if you have been there, be like me and go back all the time – the menu changes, but the deliciousness persists.