You looked it up. The listing said open until nine. You drove across town and the lights were off.

This happens in Missoula more than it should, and not because anyone is lying. Restaurant information online is assembled from sources that update at different speeds — and the slowest of them is often the one at the top of the search results. Here is the order we check, and why.

1. The restaurant's own Facebook or Instagram, sorted by newest

This is the single most reliable signal, because it is the one the business itself touches most often. A place that posted a special this week is open. A page whose last post is from March is a question.

What matters is the date of the most recent post, not the number of followers or the look of the page. And if the page has been taken down entirely, that is information too — though on its own it is not proof of a closure. Pages get deleted, restricted and forgotten for ordinary reasons.

2. Call. Actually call.

Thirty seconds, and it settles everything a listing cannot: whether they are open tonight, whether the kitchen closes before the bar, whether the thing you want is on the menu this week. If nobody answers during posted hours on two different days, that is worth noticing.

3. Treat the website as the least current thing about a business

A restaurant website can sit untouched for years while the business thrives, and it can also keep running for months after the doors shut. Two specific red flags are worth knowing:

• The domain redirects to a “this domain is for sale” page. That means the registration lapsed and somebody bought it — a strong signal the business stopped paying attention to it.
• The hours page has no year on it. Holiday hours from a previous December are the classic trap, and November is exactly when they bite.

4. Be careful with the social handle that looks right

Short, obvious handles get claimed by people who are not the business. An account with the restaurant’s exact name, a handful of followers and nothing posted is usually a squatted handle rather than a quiet restaurant. Cross-check it against the phone number or address on a listing you trust.

And the one that catches everybody

A room that changes hands keeps its search history. The new restaurant inherits the old one’s reviews, photographs and sometimes its hours, which is why you can arrive at a cafe expecting the menu from two owners ago. If the photos and the sign do not match, trust the sign.

None of this is paranoia about Missoula restaurants. It is a consequence of how fast the rooms are turning over right now — and the two-minute version is simply: check the last post, then call.