Tortilla Tango… Tortillas in the Bitterroot?

Three years ago, if you’d have told Jonathan Whiting that he and his wife would soon own a tortilla factory in Montana, he probably would have taken your car keys and called you a cab.

Whiting and his wife Alison recently purchased Mexitana Tortillas, a Corvallis business that bakes and distributes all-natural wheat and corn tortillas.

The couple spent many years in the restaurant and bar business north of Boston in Portsmouth, N.H., but when they had their first child a couple years ago, their search for a more suitable place to raise a family brought them to Montana.

"We couldn’t seem to get ahead," Whiting recalled. "We were trying to go from being renters to homeowners, but we weren’t getting very far."

Whiting’s parents moved to Stevensville several years ago and after visiting the Bitterroot, the couple decided to pull up their New England roots and seek their fortune in Big Sky Country.

"We’d been out here and loved it, so we moved here in December 2003," he said. "We both looked for whatever jobs we could find. Alison managed Bitterroot Bistro, and I got a job as production manager here (at the Mexitana tortilla factory)."

Mexitana’s owner, Wayne Pohlman, was planning to move the business from Corvallis to Missoula, Whiting said, which would have cost him about $70,000.

"I saw potential for the business and asked Wayne if he’d consider selling it," he said. "Since buying it would save him the moving costs, he said yes almost right away."

The Whitings bought Mexitana Tortillas in December 2004, barely a month after having their second child, and kept the operation as it was when Pohlman owned it.

by ROD DANIEL-Ravalli Republic

Full Story: http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2005/05/25/bitterroot/32-business.txt