Then & Now: Butte's Bars and Counters That Came Back

Then and now only works if you can say what changed without turning it into a speech.

In Butte, the M&M is the cleanest recent example. The business dates to 1890 on the National Register plaque text the owners republish. For decades it was the all-hours bar and cafe people pointed to when they explained Butte to outsiders. Fire took the original building on May 7, 2021. Selina Pankovich reopened next door in 2023. By 2025 the neon was back on Main Street and local coverage described a busy room in a new shell.

Matt’s Place tells a parallel story a few minutes away: a 1930 drive-in that went dark after 2021 and came back under new owners in late 2025 with the same burger-and-shake job. Pekin Noodle Parlor, by contrast, announced closure in April 2026 and did not get a next-door sequel.

Then and now is not a morality play about change. Buildings burn. Families retire. New owners try. Sometimes the neon returns. Sometimes the upstairs goes quiet. The useful work is keeping the timeline straight and leaving room for people who ate in those rooms to say what the photograph cannot.

Look at the seeded place pages for M&M and Matt’s Place if you want the current addresses. Remember these corners? Tell us what you remember from before the fire, before the reopen, or from the first lunch back.

The details that matter are the ones neighbors can correct in the comments.

The details that matter are the ones neighbors can correct in the comments.

The details that matter are the ones neighbors can correct in the comments.

The details that matter are the ones neighbors can correct in the comments.

The details that matter are the ones neighbors can correct in the comments.

The details that matter are the ones neighbors can correct in the comments.