After 10 years of the martini bar Doc Harper’s on North Broadway in downtown Billings, owners Bruce and Barb Harper have expanded and opened a speakeasy next door.
The Waiting Room is now open.
After all, every doctor’s office needs one. Unlike others, this waiting room takes you back in time. One only needs to give a little knock on an inconspicuous bookcase, and a doorman waiting on the other side will permit entrance to a high end, prohibition-era speakeasy.
Everything, said Barb, from the brown crushed velvet curtains to the rotating ceiling fans, is prohibition era specific. The martinis, in large part, are staying next door in Doc’s. The cocktail menu in The Waiting Room is exclusively prohibition-era inspired mixology.
For those who’d like to enjoy the ambiance without the alcohol, Barb said any one of their cocktails can be made into a mocktail.
The Harpers said Doc’s bar manager Jake Reynolds, and retired architect Kim Olson, were integral in making The Waiting Room what it is. Reynolds is the creative brain behind the cocktails.
Reynolds enjoys stepping up to a challenge, and the cocktail menu at The Waiting Room was no different.
“These are all just really old-school cocktails. I looked up a bunch of prohibitionary cocktails. They’re all good in their own way,” said Reynolds. “That’s the thing about these old school cocktails; there wasn’t a ton of ingredients back then … They’re all simple ingredients.”
Similar to his preferred cocktail; the old fashioned.
“I make it the old-fashioned way. It’s just bitters, a sugar cube, bourbon, and the orange rind,” he said. “I don’t want to hide the flavor of the spirit — I want it spirit-forward, and then a little bit of the bitters just to play with the sweetness. I don’t like to mask the flavor so much.”
Olson did extensive research on prohibition-era speakeasies to ensure the design felt historically authentic, creating a genuine 1920s ambience.
“We didn’t want to make it look anything less than a true speakeasy,” said Bruce. “We have pride. I think we’ve got something special in downtown Billings.”
The Harpers are proud to bring another “big city” experience to Billings, which is exactly what they were aiming for with the creation of Doc Harper’s, a decade ago. Their martini bar was dubbed so in honor of Bruce’s father Robert Dana “RD” Harper, who was indeed a doctor, who practiced in Sidney for 41 years. It’s his cocktail of choice — a martini straight up — that became the theme for his namesake establishment.
It’s Bruce and Barb’s granddaughter that named The Waiting Room, a play on Doc Harper’s as the doctor’s office next-door. The Harpers appreciated the word play, and the second ode to their family’s doctor.
Bruce’s favorite is a Manhattan. Barb’s is a grapefruit martini, found on the menu as Barb’s Tini.
Barb and Bruce knew they would eventually want to expand, if the chance arrived. So, when ownership of the building reached out in January to let them know the space next-door was available, the Harpers took the opportunity to continue and expand their legacy downtown.
Their old neighbor, Rebels & Razors Barber Club, is now located directly across the street, on the third floor above Montana Brewing Company.
“We love those gals, and we wish them well,” Barb said. “We love downtown; it’s like a neighborhood. And we feel the more businesses that are downtown, everybody thrives, and we want downtown to thrive — that’s our main goal.”
The Waiting Room is open Thursday through Saturday, 4 p.m. to midnight, because, as Barb says, “Nothing good happens after midnight.” But the best, historically inspired cocktails are found at The Waiting Room.
For now, there’s no password or puzzle to get into The Waiting Room, but Reynolds said that may change in the future, so keep an eye on their social media, where clues to future admittance might just show up.
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Lillian Palmer
Business and Health Reporter
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