Ingomar · Drink
Jersey Lilly
At a glance
Bar in Ingomar, Montana, established 1933. Open.
- Status
- Open
- Town
- Ingomar
- Established
- 1933
- Address
- 105 Main St., Ingomar, MT, 59039
- Last checked
Ingomar's bar and cafe, in a 1914 brick bank. A bar since 1933 and the Jersey Lilly since 1948, known for bean soup and outhouses, and open again since May 2025.
Details
- Region
- Eastern Montana
- Phone
- 406-358-2278
- Why it's still old school
- Old bank vaults, a cherry wood back bar that rode in on a Model T, bean soup from a Texas recipe, and sheepherder's hors d'oeuvres. The outhouses are labeled Heifer Pen and Bull Pen.
The Jersey Lilly is in a brick building that went up in 1914 as a bank, the first brick building in Ingomar. The bank was done by 1921. In 1933, once Prohibition was over, it reopened as the Oasis Bar, vaults and tin ceilings and all. Ingomar had waited long enough.
The cherry wood back bar came up from St. Louis by river and made the last leg to Ingomar in the back of a Model T. Bob Seward took over in 1948, and some say he won it in a poker game. He renamed it the Jersey Lilly, after Lillie Langtry’s nickname, and brought a bean soup recipe from Texas that’s still on the menu.
His son Bill came up with sheepherder’s hors d’oeuvres: a saltine, cheddar, an orange slice and raw onion. It sounds like a dare. Order it anyway. The restrooms are still outhouses, labeled Heifer Pen and Bull Pen.
The bar sat closed for a few years before Suzanne Hackett-Morgan bought it on April 30, 2025, and had the doors open by May 5. It’s a long drive to Ingomar. Bring an appetite for beans.
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