Customers at Bozeman Spirits may have thought they’d had one drink too many Tuesday morning — until they realized there really was a bear outside.
“He was smelling around for that huckleberry vodka, so I think he came to the right place,” said Tim Mastas, who works at the distillery.
Mastas said he was leaving through the back door that morning when he got an unexpected greeting.
This bear's Yelp review of downtown Bozeman is going to be interesting! 🐻⭐
“I was met by a massive black bear — cinnamon bear — about three feet from the back door. We kind of had a little standoff,” he said.
The bear wandered down the alley beside Bozeman Spirits, giving Mastas a moment to pull out his phone.
“When it was clear he wasn’t going to maul me, I thought, Alright, I’ll get a little video,” Mastas recalled.
He filmed the bear trotting across Main Street, right in front of oncoming traffic. Security footage from the distillery captured a second angle.
Living in southeast Bozeman, Mastas said, when it comes to bears?
“I see them while walking my dog in that neighborhood along the water. I’ve never seen one in an alley downtown Bozeman or crossing Main Street.”
Mastas figures the bear was sniffing through trash in preparation for hibernation. It eventually ran off through the Chalet parking lot and hasn’t been spotted since.
“Does he have a name yet?” I asked Mastas.
“Huckleberry,” he replied.
