BILLINGS — The Yellowstone Air Show brought a ton of business to Billings over the weekend, but one Billings restaurant hardly had any customers because of an unexpected circumstance.
“Honestly, we were thinking it was going to be our record-breaking weekend. We even staffed for it,” said Megan Price, a server at Tippy Cow Café, on Monday.
Expectations didn’t meet reality at the restaurant at the corner of Main Street and Airport Road, despite being located in between the airport, where the air show was held, and MontanaFair at MetraPark.
“Our parking lot was completed blocked off, so we didn’t get any, not even one customer,” Price said.
Price said the restaurant didn’t get a single customer Saturday because of the police roadblock right outside their business, as police were focused on keeping traffic moving. Police had designed the roadblock to prevent traffic backups at the air show, which attracted more than 30,000 people over the weekend.
“As a business, we’re super frustrated. We wish there was more communication. Maybe we could have talked with the police officers and kind of figure out another option or helped guide traffic or whatever we could have done so we could have got that business,” said Price.
MontanaFair also expected its attendance to take a hit on opening weekend because of the air show.
“We were a little concerned just with everything going on and not having any background information on the air show and what it could do to our numbers,” said Cody Reitz, MetraPark’s marketing and sales director.
Staff at the fair were pleasantly surprised as Reitz said attendance was comparable to last year’s opening weekend.
“I think that’s because you were able to see a lot of the air show here as far as the planes flying over and I think that did add a little bit of value as far as something that we couldn’t control that added to the fair,” Reitz said.
Business was also booming at 406 Taproom at 1233 N. 27th St., which is on the road to the airport.
“It was very, very busy. It got a little overwhelming a few times, but we powered through,” said Melissa Gjerde, the general manager of the taproom.
There was a steady stream of cars headed up 27th Street, which was not blocked, all day long both Saturday and Sunday.
“It was just crazy. Grateful there wasn’t an accident, but it was just kind of cool to see how many people were so excited to go see this,” Gjerde said.
Gjerde is grateful for the economic boost the air show provided but over at the Tippy Cow Café, employees like Price hope next year will be different.
"Next year, if there’s an event like that maybe we can communicate with the officers or whoever's running the event and get it so that we can get customers as well,” said Price.
