Welcome to Millie’s, north Idaho’s historic little watering hole.
Previously known as The Cedars, the tavern was constructed in 1943 by a Spokane businessman, Bud Thompson. Its most memorable owner-operators may have been Millie & Ward Adams, who ran the joint from 1946-1969. They operated taverns together all along Highway 2 and came north to the lake, supporting loggers and the CCC boys, and to run a floating bar in addition to purchasing The Cedars.
Millie was from Chicago originally, born in 1912. Ward was 20 years her senior, born in Italy in 1891. She frequently wore a muumuu (or dressing gown) and he almost always had on suspenders and held a cigar. There are multiple stories at the lake: maybe they met on the rails during the Depression, or maybe Millie had come west to marry a man and that hadn’t worked out, so she married Ward. Either way, they knew one another in 1930’s Seattle, married in Montana in 1939, and purchased The Cedars in 1946 from the Martins, who’d ran it for just one winter.
The Cedars was mostly a bar parlor, with the original bar top lined in silver dollars and the slogan “You’ll never run out of money at Millie’s.”
Millie and Ward built their living quarters alongside the existing building and the attached space, where the pool table currently resides, was reconstructed from rooms of the original Kaniksu Resort. The upstairs may have been an informal “knocking shop.” Millie had made a name for herself as a Madam! A sign behind the bar read “Don’t order a Manhattan, there are no cherries in the house.”
After Millie & Ward both passed away in early 1969, only a few months apart, the bar passed to Ward’s half-brother Louie, whose local nickname was “The Torch.” It wasn’t long before the bar passed into some disrepair and through several different owners. Until May 2019 when a new crew emerged to take on the legacy.
Though the Adams are no longer physically with us, Millie continues to roam freely, drinking her bourbon waters, holding court in her muumuu and welcoming all who enter.
MONDAY I 4pm - 10pm
TUESDAY I 4pm - 10pm
WEDNESDAY I 4pm - 10pm
THURSDAY I 4pm - 10pm
FRIDAY I 4pm - 12am
SATURDAY I 4pm - 12am
SUNDAY I 4pm - 10pm
Kitchen closes nightly at 9pm, pizzas until advertised closing time
28441 hwy 57 priest lake, id 83856
General Manager: Natalie benda (208) 620-8008
Band booking: gary schultze (208) 818.5878
RESTAURANT: (208) 443-0510
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