Historic M&M Sign rises again

The M&M, as anyone from Butte will gladly tell you, is more than a bar/cafe.  So much more.  For generations, the historic "cigar store" was a place for a hot meal after a grueling shift underground.  It was a place for a game of chance.  It was a place where you could cash your check from "The Company" and for many it was a place for a Christmas Dinner, as the place didn't close and for many a miner, the M&M was the only family they had.  For decades, there wasn't even a lock on the door.  Over the years, practically everyone in town became familiar with a Ground Round Cheese D.  Or a Whatzit.  Maybe a Garbage Omelette.  If you were lucky, you would get Elsie as your server.

The M&M, like Butte herself, survived closures and new owners.  Even when the M&M was closed down in the early 2000s, along came the movie "Don't Come Knocking."  Remember that?

After the movie, the M&M reopened.  It struggled.  It briefly closed again.  It was reopened.  It would not go down, due in large part to Ray Ueland and Selena Pankovich who got the M&M back on its feet.  And then there was the fire.

It was the early morning of May 7, 2021 that the historic building was engulfed in flames and gutted.  But even that was not enough to keep the M&M down.  Selena moved her business into the space in the adjoining building.  She redecorated and turned an entirely new building, well, into the M&M.

Today, the landmark neon M&M sign, saved from the fire's destruction, finally went back up, filling a big void on the Uptown Butte landscape.

I really wasn't sure that it was ever going to happen.  I've made a few attemtps over the last few years but when Marty (Salusso) asked if there was anything else, as I had kept hitting him with other things, I thought, 'what about the sign'.  I asked him about it the next day and he just shook his head and gave me a little smile."  Salusso and brother Mark operate Centennial Concrete and though prior expertise along with help from John Weitzel and many other Southwest Montana skilled tradesmen like electrician Bill Brandon, the sign will be up an running. "Everybody was on point to get it up before St. Patrick's Day," Pankovich said.

The sign is expected to be lit up this Sunday afternoon at 4:15 during its official unveiling.