A new chocolate, coffee and sandwich shop has opened on Front Street in downtown Missoula. Ducrey Chocolate Maker opened earlier this summer at 311 E. Front St. on the street level of the ROAM Student Housing building.

Claudia Ducrey Giordano and her partner make “bean to bar” chocolate and are also serving organic nitro coffee along with French-style baguette sandwiches and croissants.

Ducrey Giordano said she sources her pasture-raised meat from Double K Ranch in Darby and her bread comes from Morning Birds Bakery in Missoula.

She’s concentrated on being as environmentally focused as possible, from straws made from avocados to using the Swiss water method for decaf to ensure no chemicals are used.

The shop has outdoor and indoor seating, and Ducrey said they’re currently working on the first batch of chocolate from beans they sourced in Peru. Eventually, they’ll have homemade hot chocolate and maybe even a special item made from huckleberries.

The University of Montana’s Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana (FMRWM) just received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.

According to a press release, UM’s program is now one of 20 throughout the country to receive an award for residency training in primary care.

The University said the grant will “enhance training for resident physicians in rural or underserved areas, while encouraging graduates to pursue careers in rural and underserved primary care after completion of training.”

“This funding will allow us to build on our already robust rural medical education and create new rural training opportunities,” said Dr. Darin Bell, FMRWM assistant director of rural education and the principle investigator on the grant. “With it we will have the resources to develop a number of new programs that have been in various stages of planning for several years.”

The five-year award for FMRWM’s Enhanced Rural Access and Training program will facilitate increased learning opportunities in rural and underserved areas through training in addiction medicine, telehealth and interprofessional education, according to the press release.

It also will allow” FMRWM to develop an intensive training track that enables residents to complete much of their training and work as primary care doctors in rural areas. Additionally, the grant funds will allow FMRWM to expand its network of rural partner communities and institutions and provide professional development and education for these partners.”

“We basically put everything on our rural wish list for the next five years into the grant,” said Dr. Rob Stenger, FMRWM program director. “All activities will be focused on enhancing our current rural training opportunities or building new ones for our residents.”

“There is an amazingly large following in Missoula in respect to the crepes we used to make as Liquid Planet, so we are bringing crepes back,” said co-owner Scott Billadeau.

“Inexpensive office space is in demand, especially downtown, and we saw this as kind of a creative solution to that.”

Quite a few establishments in Missoula County were able to take advantage of the quiet period to get some work done.

Before the pandemic hit Montana, Missoula recorded a high level of construction activity in the first quarter of 2020.

“There’s 2,000 businesses along the Brooks Street Corridor that employ 17,000 people,” said board member Ruth Reineking. “Those are a lot of people that could utilize that (15-minute) bus system if it’s running.”

The new El Caz Taqueria will be in the old Viva Mexico restaurant building, which is undergoing a full remodel right now.

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