Jennifer "Niffer" Stackpole (right), owner of The Balsamroot Catering Company and The Copper Cliff Cafe, stands next to her manager, Cara Webb, inside their food truck as they serve customers at one of their weekly outdoor appearances in Potomac.
Jennifer "Niffer" Stackpole (right), owner of The Balsamroot Catering Company and The Copper Cliff Cafe, with her manager, Cara Webb.
POTOMAC - Jennifer "Niffer" Stackpole owned her catering service The Balsamroot Catering Company for around a decade before she opened her new food truck the Copper Cliff Cafe last summer. She loves sharing her love of food with her customers and welcoming the community to her outdoor venue in Potomac Thursdays and Saturdays and serving patrons at the Seeley Lake Market on Sundays.
Stackpole said she grew up around cooking quite a bit as her grandmother was a "great cook" and her mother was a French classic cook.
"I grew up around rich sauces, great meats and appetizers and I've just always loved it," she said. "And I love feeding people. It's my favorite thing to do. ... To feed people feeds me."
She moved to Montana when she was a teenager in 1980 from Franconia, New Hampshire.
"I was a teenager in northern New Hampshire and bored and decided that I needed more stimulation and more fun so I jumped in my Toyota Land Cruiser and drove across the country [the] long way around and ended up in Missoula," she said.
Stackpole is a classically French trained chef. She graduated from the New England Culinary Institute in 2012 with a degree in culinary arts.
Around two years ago Stackpole bought a trailer in Missoula and gutted it. She built it from the ground up installing plumbing, electricity and five sinks so it could be used as a commissary for her catering business.
Due to COVID-19, all of her catering events were cancelled so she primarily relied on her food truck for business.
"The truck took off last summer, because people [could] feel safe," she said.
She said she is adaptable when it comes to specific diets and food allergies such as gluten free, pescetarian, vegetarian and vegan. She prides herself on creating a specified menu for her catering clients.
"I discuss the catering event with the host or hostess and we create a menu just for them," she said. "I don't do any advertising. It's all word of mouth. And so every year I get busier and busier and busier. I attribute that to my culinary skill and my ability to cook and design and create menus for people."
She also prides herself on the dependability and consistency of her dishes.
"[If] somebody comes for a burger, [then] I want that burger to taste like the burger they had last week," she said.
She describes her menu as being "very eclectic."
"I do a lot," Stackpole said. "I do Moroccan food. I do some Indian food. ... I pretty much can do whatever your palate wants."
Some of her most popular items for the cafe include her chicken sandwich, balsamroot burger and grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She said she uses non-GMO organic ingredients and she makes all of her sauces from scratch.
The only menu item that changes on a weekly basis is her blue plate special. She said she usually will have a dish concept prepared the Sunday or Monday before.
"I've got cooking magazines and cookbooks all over my house," she said. "So, I've always got my nose in a book or a magazine, getting ideas and then I'll just come up with something and make it."
Stackpole said the most challenging aspect of running her business is working with limited staff.
"It's a lot of work and right now the workforce is pretty slim pickins and it's affected me as well," she said.
Fortunately, her neighbor Cara Webb has worked as a server for many years in Missoula and currently works as the cafe's manager.
"She is fabulous," Stackpole said. "Really good [at the] front of the house. [The] best I've ever had."
Overall, her favorite part of her business is hosting an outdoor get together in Potomac on Thursday nights with her customers.
"People feel like they can come out and have a nice meal on a ridge top in Potomac," she said. "And there's always something on the menu for everybody. I'm hoping to do this for many more years."
The Copper Cliff Cafe operates from May to October. In Potomac it is open from from 5 to 8 p.m. at 1677 Copper Cliff Drive as well as 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays at the corner of Highway 200 and Potomac Road. On Sundays they are open during the Seeley Lake Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For more information about catering services contact Stackpole by emailing jmacstack@gmail.com or calling 406-546-4754.
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