Livingston's Fall Calendar Now Runs Through the Depot

Where do you end up on a weeknight in Livingston in October? A year ago, the Livingston Depot Center was mostly a place you went for an event and then left. This fall it has a wine bar open next to the Gourmet Cellar. The November calendar also leans hard toward the Depot end of downtown. The long-awaited restaurant in the old Sport building on Main Street was targeted for summer 2026, and we could not find any report that it has opened.

Put together, those changes shift the center of downtown's fall evenings toward Park Street and the Depot. The rest of the season, from a street party on Second Street to the tree lighting in Depot Park, fits around that.

The Depot Picked Up a Tenant That Opens on Ordinary Nights

Caviste Wine Bar opened in late August. Singer-songwriter Jeffrey Foucault's newsletter, dated August 28, 2026, said owner John Potenberg had opened it "this week." According to the Livingston Enterprise, it sits next door to the Gourmet Cellar on West Park Street, inside the Depot Center. Both shops lease space there and are not run by the center itself.

The back story helps explain how the two shops fit together. Potenberg is 30 and grew up in Livingston. He learned the wine trade working for Deb Endres, the former owner of the Gourmet Cellar, alongside his friend Calvin Fehrenkamp. Potenberg went on to manage that shop. Fehrenkamp later bought it, and the two friends expect the businesses to work together. So the Depot's retail corner now has a wine shop and a wine bar run by people who trained in the same back room.

Caviste took over a lease from another local bar. It operates under the beer-and-wine license once held by the Livingston Pizza Hut, which the Enterprise reported closed earlier in the year. The name is a French term for someone who looks after a wine cellar and gets to know customers' tastes personally. Potenberg told the paper that getting to know people's tastes is his favorite part of the job.

What to expect if you stop in:

• The list: domestic wines from California and the Pacific Northwest, plus French, Italian and German bottles. Many are affordable, and the top end reaches $500.
• Beer: a few draft lines.
• Food: snacks and small plates such as nuts, olives, cheese plates, and chips and dips. The kitchen is small, and Potenberg said business has been busy enough that he is in no hurry to expand the menu.

The Enterprise also noted a family connection that longtime readers will recognize. Potenberg is the grandson of the author and poet Jim Harrison, who was known for writing about good food and wine.

Second Street Gets the First Big Night of the Season

The street party on Saturday, October 17 comes before the Depot's busy stretch. The 2nd Street Oktoberfest runs from 4 to 7 p.m. on Second Street between Park and Lewis. Traffic will be closed from just past the alley near the Owl Lounge, through Callendar, to Lewis. Businesses along Second Street and around downtown will stay open late.

The organizers describe it as the start of the holiday shopping season at locally owned businesses, which is earlier than most of the valley starts. The Livingston Tourism Business Improvement District sponsors the event, working with the Livingston Destination Management Organization and the businesses on Second Street.

The activity list is a good mix of Livingston and Oktoberfest:

1. A stein-holding contest, or Masskrugstemmen, at the Owl
2. Calf dummy roping with Paradise Western Company in the 1st Interstate Bank parking lot
3. Halloween crafts from the Park County Early Childhood Coalition
4. A Raised by Wolves "Spooktacular" pop-up sale and a vintage movie screening at Elk River Books
5. Face painting by the Park High senior class
6. Tarot card readings

The food lineup is long. It includes Neapolitan-style pizza from Pizza Madre and smoked brisket, ribs and brats from O Bar U Barbeque. The Elks Lodge has brats and sauerkraut, Rollie's Hawai'i Kine Grindz is bringing musubis and plate lunch, and Twisted Brothers Pretzels has soft pretzels with hot cider. You'll also find Flapjack Nacho Co's mini pancakes served nacho-style and German roasted nuts from Rocky Mountain Nut Company. The Park County Drop-In Center is pouring mocktails and nonalcoholic drinks, and The Hiatt House is serving beer at a cash-only setup. Vendor spots are full, but the organizers were still asking for volunteers.

Two other October dates are worth noting. The Livingston Film Series is showing Kiss the Ground at the Shane Lalani Center for the Arts on Thursday, October 8, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., with free admission. The city's 11th annual Trunk or Treat is listed for Saturday, October 24, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Civic Center, 229 River Drive. One line on the city page still says 2025, so it's worth confirming with Parks and Recreation before you load up the car.

Main Street's Smaller Additions and the Sport Rebuild

Main Street's recent additions are mostly daytime businesses. The Livingston Enterprise reported that Lasso Up Nutrition, a tea-and-smoothie bar at 218 S. Main St., held its grand opening on Thursday, August 13. It is owned by Candice Schmidt and Hunter Blodgett. Farther north, LuLu's Montana Market announced a second location called LuLu's on Main at 129 N. Main St., the former Calamity's. A grand opening and 5:30 p.m. Chamber ribbon-cutting were scheduled for August 28. We could not find a later report confirming the shop's day-to-day status, so a quick check before you go is wise.

The big Main Street story is the old Sport building. The Livingston Enterprise reported that Chris Salacinski, a local builder and owner of C&L Builders, is leading the renovation for Russell Gordy. Gordy is a part-time Montana resident who bought The Sport building and its assets in February 2024. The space last operated in late 2023 as Elemental Kitchen.

The first plan was a barbecue restaurant by summer 2024. Then crews opened up the 1890 wood-and-brick structure and found dry rot, bad wiring and a foundation that needed shoring. "It almost needed to be condemned," Salacinski told the paper. His crew of about 10 has been building what he called a "brand new restaurant," sometimes working day and night shifts. They are keeping pieces of the original for their history, including The Sport sign. The sign has been taken down and is stored at the C&L warehouse on Second Street until it can be restored.

That article set summer 2026 as the target, and it did not name the new restaurant. We could not find a later report confirming whether it has opened, so check before you plan a night around it. The building first became a pub called The Sport in 1903.

One more project is still pending a few blocks away. In August, KBZK reported that the Hub Club Café, an espresso and grab-and-go counter inside the Park County Senior Center, was expected to open by the end of that month. The café's own page still calls it a proposed project and asks for $60,000 in startup funding.

November Comes Back to the Depot

From early November until the end of the month, the calendar keeps returning to the Depot end of downtown. Shrek the Musical is the other long-running draw, with Shane Center performances spread over four weekends.

Cold Snap and Pray for Snow make up the busiest two nights of the month. Dan Bailey's Outdoor Company says the festival started 18 years ago. It began with ski bums watching backcountry films at the Elks Lodge and asking for food bank donations at the door. Now the films screen at the Empire Twin Theatres on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. The next night, the Depot Center hosts a community dinner with live music, raffles and silent auctions for Loaves and Fishes, Livingston's soup kitchen. The 2025 event raised $42,378 for Loaves and Fishes.

Light Up Livingston closes out the month in Depot Park. It's a free community event running from 4 to 7 p.m., with the tree lighting at 5:30. Between the November 13 tasting, Pray for Snow on November 20 and the tree lighting on November 28, the Depot hosts something on three of the month's last weekends. Caviste and the Gourmet Cellar are a few steps from each one.

If you're planning dinner around the tree lighting or want help picking a bottle for Pray for Snow, Deirdre Quinn is glad to share the places she likes around the Depot this season. Let's Connect.