I was up seeing my dealer in Bismarck recently and he suggested that we go out for lunch. He knows that I like to try new places and he suggested a place across the Missouri River in Mandan (emphasis on both the MAN and DAN when you pronounce the towns name) that was just bought by a customer of his. We took off going west out of Bismarck and ended up at the Bar M Steakhouse in Mandan.
Last summer, Dale Berger and his wife purchased Dean's Steakhouse from the previous owner. The building that houses the Bar M Steakhouse has seen a number of businesses in previous years. Before it was Dean's Steakhouse, it was called the Prime Steer. And for a number of years up to 2007, it was known as the Speedway Restaurant. I'm not certain that's a good thing for so many restaurants to be going in and out of the place in that short of a time, but my dealer felt that the new owners would make a go of the place.
We pulled into the Bar M Steakhouse on Memorial Highway in Mandan during the noon hour. (see map) I found out later on that the place was going through a soft opening so that's why it wasn't all that packed during the lunch rush.
There's a small bar area as you come in. Actually, the place sort of looks like it may have been an old dance hall at some time with the pine wood paneling and the wooden floor.
The main dining area is large and roomy with the kitchen off to the side. A stage is situated along the far wall of the room, furthering my belief that this was some sort of cowboy dance club in the past. Behind the stage is a smaller dining room with a long salad bar that is truncated in terms of offerings during lunch.
We took a table in the middle of the main dining room and our server came over to drop off a couple menus. The Bar M has their own smoker in the back so they do smoked meats such as brisket and ribs. They have a number of steak entrees on the menu, as well as a number of sandwiches and pasta dishes. They also had something on the menu called Fleischkuechle. I asked my dealer what that was and he told me that it was a type of Cornish pastry filled with ground meat and sausage and deep fried. "It's sort of the state food of North Dakota," he told me. It's something that Eastern European immigrants - primarily from Russia and German - brought with them when they settled in the Dakota Territories in the 19th century.
One thing that kind of caught my eye was the beef brisket. When I asked our server about it, she told me that they smoke the brisket out back, take a cut of the meat and then lightly grill it over charcoal in the kitchen. Both my dealer and I thought that sounded interesting and we both ordered that. Baked beans and a small cob of sweet corn came with the brisket, but we had our choice of a baked potato, fries, potato O'Brien, wild rice or steamed vegetables with the meal. We both got the wild rice.
After going through the salad bar for a small bit of fresh greens and veggie toppings before the lunch was brought out, the brisket was served to us on a large plate. The brisket had a bit of a grilled char on the outer fringes of the meat.
I don't think I'd ever had grilled brisket before, but the taste was actually very good. The brisket cut easily, like you'd expect with a good smoked brisket. I asked our server if she had any barbecue sauce and she brought out a piping hot bowl of a sort of sweet and smoky sauce. It was a good compliment to the smoked - then grilled - brisket.
The rice was fluffy and tasty, the corn was basically a throw-away for me, but the beans were actually very good. They had chunks of pork mixed in the sweet and tangy base. I usually like to doctor up most baked beans with barbecue sauce, but these didn't need it.
While the Bar M Steakhouse isn't anything fancy, I was very happy with the meal that I had. Grilled smoked brisket is something that I've never had and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the meat and the taste of the brisket. If anything, it was a little expensive for lunch ($18.95 each without drinks), but it was very good for what it was. Here's hoping that the Berger family makes a go of the Bar M Steakhouse.
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