So let’s say you just purchased a 40-year-old boutique motel in Whitefish, Montana. It came complete with a derelict indoor swimming pool that’s so run down, you keep the windows covered and the doors closed so no one can peer inside. The pool space is good for nothing, it seems, but storing junk.
What would you do with it?
Eva Volcikova turned it into Mama Ev’s, an acclaimed restaurant specializing in Neapolitan-style pizza made with local grains and clean, organic ingredients largely sourced from local farms, plus wines from small vineyards and beers from Montana brewers. Tourists love it, so do families, and regional media outlets have been quick to promote it ever since it opened in late 2024.
Volcikova hails from the Czech Republic, attended college in the U.S. and soon settled on the East Coast. But after her mother’s death about a decade ago, she realized she missed living in ski country. She packed her family up and moved west to Whitefish, where she bought the Chalet Inn and hired Chef Jose Lopez away from a New York pizzeria that had made a big impression on her years earlier.
As Volcikova related the story to Flathead Living magazine, “I said, ‘Listen, Jose. Not today, not this year, but I am opening a pizzeria in Whitefish, Montana,’ and he laughed, you know, and we exchanged numbers.”
Volcikova finally opened the doors at Mama Ev’s last December after luring Lopez—along with his pizza-making sons—to Whitefish. They’ve since formed a partnership that has earned the 55-seat pizzeria a 4.3 rating on Yelp. “I always want to recreate that feeling of, ‘It’s the best bite,’” she told Flathead Living.
As her restaurant’s name suggests, Volcikova—known to her kids’ friends as “Mama Ev”—has created a warm, nurturing space for the community. Illuminated golden stars drip from the ceiling, and large windows, facing the west and south, let in natural light for added coziness. In addition to six specialty pizzas like the Prosciutto Arugula and the Burrata, she serves up cakes based on her mother’s recipes and nonalcoholic beverages like homemade raspberry, blackberry and traditional lemonade.
Her goal is to make everyone feel welcome. “I feel like some places stare you up and down or when you have kids and [the] kids make a mess,” she noted in the Flathead Living interview. “Kids should make a mess. That’s what I want here. I want life here, not some fine dining room. I want everyone to be happy here and just get the best food and get the best drinks.”
