Cowboy State Daily’s 'Drinking Wyoming' is presented by Pine Bluffs Distilling.
BILLINGS, Mont. — Paul "The Barbarian" Miller adjusted his tactical kilt and leather armor as he settled into a meal with friends at Captain Scurvy's Black Dragon Den, a new restaurant here where committed fans of Renaissance fairs and cosplay commingle fantasies from medieval times with plates of comfort food.
"I've always been kind of a fan of the more powerful characters,” said Miller, whose deployment to Afghanistan solidified his self-expression. “I'm a former Marine. So that whole warrior ethos kind of speaks to me. Seriously, going to Afghanistan. That really kind of cemented my comfort in who I am.
“So, when I got out, I got my sleeves and I'm like, ‘Hey, this is me,’” added Miller, proudly showing off the tattoos on his bare arms, the slashing, sword-like earrings, a chest medallion and wrist gauntlets.
For dressing up, Miller not only gets 10% off dishes with names like “Dragon Steak” and “Pirate’s Pig,” he also feeds into a growing local scene where a core group of people behind the Montana Renaissance Festival have come together to offer the magic of make-believe year-round.
"It really allows adults to be kids again," said Miller. "I like going out and giving people something to talk about, whether it's my life or just like, ‘Hey, there's a dude in a kilt dressed like a barbarian.”
One of the dining rooms at Captain Scurvy’s, which now occupies the space that once housed The Fieldhouse restaurant. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Captain Scurvy’s General Manager Doug McIssac, aka Giovanni. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Kate Restad slips into the character of Eleanor when waiting tables. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily) 
Some of the regulars include fantasy table game players. (David Madison, Cowboy State Daily)
Ogre Origins
Miller, who is studying aviation at Rocky Mountain College, was greeted warmly by Kenneth the Humble — aka Ken Haak — a former bodybuilder and the guy who started the Montana Renaissance Festival in 2012.
It happens in early June, and this year the festival was the largest yet, attracting more than 20,000 people to little Red Lodge, Montana, population 2,200.
Haak discovered Montana’s and Wyoming’s appetite for fantasy ran deeper than many imagined.
He started out attending Renaissance festivals in Texas, where he draped his chiseled body with rabbit skins and played the role of an ogre, handing out gummy worms to kids.
Haak’s wife is from Billings, and when they moved to the city in 2001, "There was nothing. There were no Renaissance festivals," he recalled.
"When I first got here, I just wanted one glass of mead, and I went to a local Montana liquor store, and they thought I was saying ‘meat.’ They had never heard of it,” Haak said.
Mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey and best enjoyed from a goblet.
It’s one of the oldest alcoholic beverages ever made, as it was consumed as far back as 4,000 years. Now there are a few meaderies spread across Wyoming and Montana, including Big Lost Meadery in Gillette.
‘Nerd Society Is Huge’
Despite some initial confusion and skepticism from locals, Haak persevered.
"I said, ‘Well, let's start doing Renaissance festivals. Everybody would roll their eyes and go, ‘That'll never work here. Montana will never do that,’" said Haak, who started doing events at the Yellowstone Art Museum, then at Zoo Montana and now in Red Lodge.
His dream is to build an even bigger following with Captain Scurvy’s and eventually build a permanent medieval village on land somewhere near Billings.
When asked to explain the surge in demand for kilts, tights, corsets and tunics, Haak said, "It's very much ‘Game of Thrones.’ It's very much ‘Dungeons and Dragons.’ The nerd society is huge across America. And this gives everybody that wants a chance to be somebody else for a day a place to go."
Turkey Leg’s ‘Are Essential’
To nurture a thriving modern day medieval community, you also need a good turkey leg guy, Haak said.
Giant turkey drumsticks are to Renaissance festivals what hotdogs are to baseball games — they are essential.
"And they're not cheap anymore,” said Haak, recalling how during the festival in Red Lodge last month, they served up a royal bounty of turkey legs. “I mean, wholesale they're like $12 bucks apiece. They're like 2 pounds each. And yeah, we sold three tons in two days this year. We sold out Sunday morning."
There’s a primal pleasure to devouring a turkey leg with your bare hands. It’s part of a scene and an ongoing experience that the festival and the restaurant provide as an escape from the complexities of modern life.
"Everything I read basically is fantasy,” Haak said. “I don't read anything that has to do with reality anymore because I have to live in reality every day.”
Living Stories
“Everyone has a story,” explained Doug McIssac, who first got into medieval roleplaying and sword fighting through the Society for Creative Anachronism, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to recreating the arts, skills and traditions of pre-17th century Europe.
McIssac is the restaurant’s general manager, and to those playing along with the fantasies bound up in the place, he’s known as Giovanni.
The restaurant is named after another local character, Captain Scurvy, and Giovanni’s story is tied to that of the pirate captain, or so the legend goes.
"I'm Giovanni, I'm a merchant, and it sounded like fun stuff going on in the Caribbean,” said McIssac, a Billings local.
McIssac remembered when he was growing up, there was a bar on the south side “that you had to have a felony to even go in there.”
With Captain Scurvy’s now drawing a different crowd to the south side, the real bad guys are replaced with stories about fantastical rogues, including Giovanni, who McIssac imagines as a swashbuckling thief.
“I was there. I found it was kind of fun to steal from the Spanish and sell to the others, just sort of good storylines,” he said, whimsically fantasizing about the 12th-14th century period when pirates flourished and various European powers were essentially acting as privateers against each other.
Normies And Mundanes
Having a fantasy backstory and dressing in period costume are encouraged but not required at Captain Scurvy’s Black Dragon Den.
The establishment is waiting on its beer and wine license, which will allow it to serve mead and ale. Haak and McIssac wanted to call the place a “Pub” instead of a “Den,” but Montana law lacks the imagination to allow that — only establishments with full liquor licenses can call themselves pubs.
Those dining and working at Captain Scurvy’s can call themselves whatever they want.
A former postal worker calling himself “The King’s Bard” roams from table to table singing in an Irish accent, “In the rare old times, ring a ring a rosey …”
In the back room, where mead and ale will soon flow, a group of Billings locals plays a fantasy table game similar to “Dungeons and Dragons.”
“You could lose a love in a game like this,” said Kyle Rasmussen, who works for a local RV dealer. “You may experience your own death and your own revival.
“This is several human beings collectively telling a story and experiencing something that only us will ever have access to, and we will only ever be able to experience it one time."
Those who don’t buy into this life of chainmail armor and lute music are known to those in costume as “normies” or “mundanes.”
"I've always felt different,” said server Nicole Van Nice. “I think we're so wound tightly in society today people look at us like, ‘Oh, you're weird.’ I'm like, ‘You're the weird one. We're normal.’"
When In Doubt, Joust It Out
Fellow server Kate Restad is a mother of two and an actress who works as an executive assistant for a Billings Realtor.
One recent evening, she greeted a group from Wyoming that dropped in to enjoy a meal and hang a poster announcing the “8th Annual Tournament of Knights” full-contact jousting event July 26.
It’s sponsored by Sheridan Heating & Air Conditioning and will transform the Sheridan County Fairgrounds into a medieval marketplace and host a “Queen’s Feast.”
As customers feasted around her, Restad commented on how her corset helps protect her from straining her back. Then she seamlessly slipped into her fantasy character, Eleanor, whose tragic life aboard a merchant ship forever shaped her.
“In addition to my above board life, as a wench, I am someone who, if you're looking for something, I'm likely to be able to find it for you,” explained Restad, her Irish accent and eyes projecting the backstory of her character.
In cosplay, she’s a woman making her way in a medieval world who is armed with a catch phrase: "If you're looking for something and you come to me — the odds are good, but the goods are odd."
"I truly do love waiting tables,” she said. “But I love acting, and here I get to do both."
The character work extends beyond mere performance to genuine interaction with guests, particularly children who visit the restaurant.
"I had a table with a little girl, and she pulled me over ... asked with the greatest sincerity, 'Are dragons real?'” said Restad. “And I said, 'If they're real in your heart, then they're real.'"
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
