New coffee, bakery shop to open Monday

Jack Richmond’s butterhorn Danish are coming back to Libby.

Richmond, 79, was the owner of Richmond’s Bakery that delighted much of Libby with its breads, doughnuts and pastries in the 1980s. Back then, Richmond was located in the Tungsten Holdings building on Mineral Avenue.

On Monday, the well-traveled baker and his family will open Malissa’s Java Beans & Tasty Things at 1449 Minnesota Ave., the former Helen’s Huckleberries location.

This time, however, the business belongs to Richmond’s daughter, Malissa, and her husband, Kevin Boswell.

“Make no mistake. This is all happening because of that man right there,” Richmond said, pointing toward Kevin Boswell, an underground mining supervisor in Elko, Nev. The Boswells are the face of the business, while Malissa’s mother, Donna Richmond, who once ran insurance agencies in Arizona and Nevada, will help manage this truly family business.

For Jack Richmond, he is happiest when he’s creating pastry masterpieces.

“All those ancient baking techniques, feelings and this big smile came back when he got back in the kitchen,” Malissa said.

Make no mistake. Jack Richmond is most at home when he’s baking.

“The butterhorns,” Donna Richmond said. “He has so many requests for the butterhorns. He also makes these fruit-fried burritos and doughnuts. They are so good.”

For all his pastry delicacy creations, Richmond has more requests for what many will say is his signature creation, the butterhorn, a flakey Danish with a buttery crust and frosting accented with fresh-roasted peanuts.

“Jack’s butterhorns are just famous,” said Richmond family friend and golfing buddy Jim Mee. “He used to be a really good golfer, but he stopped for about 10 years. I’d have to say as good a golfer as he was, his butterhorns are better. I keep telling him he’s got to get that store open because people are asking me when they can get those butterhorns.”

Richmond has parlayed his butterhorns into a baking career spanning 64 years,  getting his start at the tender age of 15 working in his grandfather’s bakery in Limon, Colo. After that, he attended a two-year baker’s college, which he proudly says he finished in just 16 months. After graduation he has worked for or owned bakeries in Kansas, Colorado, Whitefish, Mont., Sacramento and Rio Dell, Calif., Omaha, Neb., Arizona and Libby.

“We used to have a map with all these pins in it that depicted the places Jack lived,” Mee said. “Although, we never visited them in Arizona.”

When he owned Richmond’s Bakery in Libby, Richmond said it was employee Laura Street who kept him on task.

““I used to tell her I had to leave for a golf game,” Richmond said. “She’d tell me: ‘No, you need to finish this up before you can go.’ Laura was pretty good about keeping me on task. She was good for business.”

Now, Street manages the bakery at Rosauers.

The labor of love that is Malissa’s Java Beans & Tasty Things will be open seven days a week, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. from September through April. Plans are to extend the evening hours to 10 p.m. from May to September.

In addition to all of Richmond’s bakery delights, Malissa’s will offer, as the name implies, various espressos in regular or decaffeinated flavors. The menu includes lattes, latte-flavored brews, cappuccino, mocha, mocha-flavored java, Montana mocha, caramel macchiato and Americano. Prices range from $1.70 for a 12-ounce cup to $2.80 for a Montana mocha. Other hot drinks include tea and creamy chocolate, chai tea, hot-spiced cider and caramel apple cider.

For those who prefer a cooler jolt of java, Malissa’s will offer a frappe, a fruit-tea blast, fruit smoothies, Italian soda and Italian cream sodas. These prices range from $2.70 for a 12-ounce Italian soda to $5.25 for a 24-ounce fruit-tea blast. Also, the soda-fountain selection beverages include Coke, Diet Coke, root beer, Dr. Pepper, Sprite and Minutemaid lemonade. Milk, chocolate milk, orange and apple juices, iced tea and bottled water also will be available.

The ambitious menu includes breakfast burritos with eggs, cheese, hash browns and sausage. The regular burrito will sell for $3 while the jumbo will cost $4.50. Also on the breakfast menu will be two-size portions of biscuits and gravy and oatmeal.

For dessert lovers, Malissa’s will offer soft-serve vanilla, chocolate or twist ice cream cones, milk shakes, malts and floats. In addition, the menu includes waffle cones and waffle bowls for the more-traditional ice cream lovers. Various flavored sundaes, ranging from pineapple to huckleberry, are on the menu. Also, there will be twister flavors, such as Butterfinger, Milky Way, Kit Kat, Oreo and Heath bar flavors. And, yes, frozen yogurt also will be on the menu.

For later-day diners there, there are a variety of sandwiches on Malissa’s-baked breads and rolls. Patrons will be able to choose meats, cheeses, vegetables, condiments and seasonings.

The menu also includes three types of salads — chef, chicken and garden — with six varieties of dressing.

Select pastries include doughnuts cinnamon rolls, muffins, jelly Danish, long johns, cookies and the fruit-fried burritos.

Everything will be available for walk-in dining or drive-through customers. Also, there are plans for a pedestrian walk-up window during summer months.

In addition to the Richmonds and Boswells, Malissa’s will employ other, bringing the number of employees to 10.

“We’ve got something for just about everyone,” Donna Richmond said.