Chef takes over at popular downtown Billings restaurant Walkers

Know when to walk.

Bill Honaker, longtime owner of Walkers, one of downtown Billings’ most popular restaurants, has decided its time to move on to the next thing. 

And so he’s selling Walkers to Nick Steen, the restaurant’s chef and general manager, at the end of the summer. 

Chef Nick Steen talks to participants in the TBEX conference in 2019. Executive chef for Walkers, Steen is a semifinalist for “Best Chef: Mountain” in the 2020 James Beard Foundation Awards.

CASEY PAGE, Billings Gazette

“Being a chef-driven restaurant, it requires that the heart is from the kitchen but the soul is unquestionably from the staff,” he said in a statement. “Consequently, we couldn’t turn it over to anyone that hadn’t grown up in our culture.” 

Walkers, which Honaker opened 30 years ago, has been successful through dips in the economy, a transitory downtown landscape and even a pandemic — its two biggest years were the ones immediately following the COVID shutdowns. He said there’s no big secret to it. The restaurant has always had an incredible staff and loyal customers. 

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