Road Tips

Prairie Kitchen at 701 Eateries - Fargo, ND

Earlier this year, my company had told me that they wanted to have me cut down on some of my territories and focus more on other areas where they felt I could grow the business.  One of the territories they wanted me to give up was the Dakotas and Minnesota.  I was sort of sad that Fargo would be going away for me because I really like Fargo and I really like my main account in the city.  I knew that this would be my last trip to Fargo for the foreseeable future and I wanted to go see my account one last time and take him out to dinner.  Unfortunately, my dealer and his wife had a prior commitment the evening I was staying in town and wasn't able to go out with me.  They gave me a couple of recommendations on places to try and one of them was a new-ish place some friends of theirs owned - Prairie Kitchen - that had been getting rave reviews so far.  

Prairie Kitchen is part of what is known as 701 Eateries which consist of 3 different spaces under one roof.  Prairie Kitchen is the main restaurant occupying the main floor of the building, while Camp Lone Tree occupies the 2nd floor with a North Dakota camp-inspired restaurant with a rooftop bar area.  For private dining and for hosting small events, the Dain-Room is located on the lower level of the building.  

701 Eateries is part of the Brew Restaurants family of eateries located in northern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota.  In addition to 701 Eateries, Brew Restaurants also run Brew Ales + Eats in Perham, MN, City Brew Hall which is housed in the old City Hall of Wahpeton, ND, and Brew Bird, a funky fried chicken-centric place located in what was once a tow truck company in Fargo.  The Belquists also have a stake with some friends of theirs in Up North Pizza Pub, a hip little pizza joint in East Grand Forks, ND.   

Alex Belquist got his start in the restaurant industry at an early age.  After going to culinary school and earning his degree, Belquist and his then-girlfriend Britt Nelson opened their first establishment called the Brew Pub and Wine Bar in Perham in 2011.  Nelson, who had years of experience as a server and working behind the bar, ran the bar and managed the wine list.   Belquist was partnering with a nearby restaurant to provide food for his little place, but he really wanted to have his own kitchen at some point.   In 2012, Belquist and Nelson found a larger location on the main street of Perham and began renovations that summer.  By the spring of 2013, they moved into their new place - Brew Ales + Eats.  

Belquist's sister, Shelby Terstriep, an oncologist in Fargo, and her husband, Chad, loved to entertain and were very supportive of her brother's and now-sister-in-law's dreams to expand beyond north central Minnesota.  The city of Wahpeton, ND - located about 50 miles south of Fargo along the Red River of the North - was selling their old City Hall and it caught the attention of the Belquists and Terstrieps.  The two couples forged a partnership - Brew Restaurants - and opened City Brew Hall in the fall of 2017.  The Belquists and Terstrieps then opened Brew Bird in the fall of 2019 in the building that was the former Daran's Soul Food in Fargo.  

On a roll now with restaurant concepts, the Brew Restaurant team found a building on the north side of downtown Fargo that was originally built in 1920.  The building was originally the Acme Dairy until it closed in the 1960's.  A number of businesses occupied the building in subsequent years, the last being Rosie's Laundromat which closed about 10 years ago.  The building had been vacant until the Terstrieps, the Belquists, and friends of the Belquists - Eric and Sara Myhre - took over the property in 2019 and gave it an extensive makeover.  After delays due to the pandemic and finally getting a full staff in place, 701 Eateries opened in May of this year.  (701 is the building address for the restaurant, as well as the area code for the state of North Dakota.)  

701 Eateries is located at the corner of N. University Ave. and 7th Ave. North, caddy-corner from the Fargo Brewing Company.  (see map)  There's a parking lot behind the building and there's additional parking on 7th Ave. North and side streets east of the restaurant.  I was fortunate to be able to take the last parking space in the lot when I rolled in around 7 p.m. that evening.  

I walked into Prairie Kitchen and went to the hostess stand.  I would say the place was about 3/4's full and there were places to sit in the dining room.  She took me to a banquette seat along the wall around the corner from the hostess station.  I immediately vetoed that as I do not care for banquette seating.  I noticed that there were seats at the bar that were open and I asked if I could sit there.  The young lady said it was no problem and they set me up at the bar and left a menu for me to look over.

The dining room was vibrant with a number of people having dinner that evening.  The decor of the dining room at Prairie Kitchen is classified as modern Scandinavian.  Teak accented walls, Scandinavian-style furniture, and concrete and brick floors were the primary features of Prairie Kitchen's dining space.  I was particularly interested in what appeared to be teakwood light fixtures in the center of the room.  

And they played good music in there, too.  While I was sitting at the bar before and during dinner, I heard contemporary indie rock music from the likes of Charlie Burg, Jake Bugg, Young the Giant, and Maggie Rogers.  The overall vibe to Prairie Kitchen was very laid-back.  

There were two bartenders working in tandem that evening at Prairie Kitchen.  One of them came up to me and asked me if I would like anything to drink.  After looking through the beer list for a moment, I saw that they had Kona Big Wave Golden Ale - my go-to beer.  I signed up for one of those as I looked through the menu.  

The kitchen area is open and just to the side of the bar.  I walked past it when I came in from the parking lot in back.  They had a large iron wood fire-grill/roaster in the kitchen bordered by thick brick walls.  It was almost like they were inviting you to stop by the kitchen and look in, it was so nice. 

The menu was an interesting mix of American favorites and Scandinavian delicacies.  Prairie Kitchen featured steaks, chicken entrees, pasta dishes and a number of sandwiches including a dry-aged burger, a reuben made with pickled red cabbage and roasted garlic, and a B.L.T. made with Neuske's bacon.  But they also had items such as Swedish meatballs, Nordic salmon in a dill sauce, and a Nordic-style charcuterie board.  They even had lefse - a traditional Norwegian soft bread - on the appetizer menu.  

One of the other things they had on the menu was the "Hot Dish of the Day".  Northern Minnesota and the Dakotas are famous for their casseroles or "hot dishes" which can consist of, well, just about anything.  They're sort of the thing that people bring for family gatherings, parties, and - mostly - funerals.  A good hot dish can be a spot hitter.  

The hot dish they had on the menu that day consisted of chicken and wild rice.  But there were other things on the menu that I sort of was interested in, as well.  They had beef short ribs with mashed potatoes, braised cabbage, grilled Brussels sprouts and finished with a beef demi-glace.  Actually, the Swedish meatballs sounded pretty good, too.  I've been wanting to make my own Swedish meatballs at home and Prairie Kitchen's Swedish meatballs came with mashed potatoes in a mushroom/beef gravy.  I damned near pulled the trigger on that.  

One other thing they had on the menu that caught my eye was the chicken roulade - it was a pounded and rolled chicken breast stuffed with creamy rice.  It was served with mashed potatoes and creamy pepper gravy.  Wood-grilled glazed carrots came with the meal.  One of the bartenders talked me into that dish over the chicken and rice hot dish.  "You can get hot dishes anywhere," he said.  When I told him that I didn't live in the area, he said, "We don't have the chicken remoulade every day.  I think it's pretty good."  So, I ordered that.  

It was a hefty chicken breast filled with wild rice.  It was rolled in breading, then lightly browned in a pan before being transferred to the oven to finish it off.  It came out a golden brown on the plate and garnished with a tuft of sprouts.  I'll have to say that it was good, but it wasn't great.  The chicken was a little dried out as was the rice stuffing.  (It's my guess they left it in the oven too long.)  The creamy pepper gravy helped give it a little moisture, but I was still having to chase nearly every bite with a drink of water or beer.  I thought to myself, "I should have gotten the hot dish..."

Before I left, I went upstairs to check out Camp Lone Tree.  I found a neat little spot that was warm and cozy with subdued lighting and a very nice bar area.  But all the action in the bar that evening was outdoors.  

Just beyond the bar area was the outdoor rooftop patio.  There was a garage door that opened from the bar area to the patio that was covered with a ceiling to ground screen to keep those pesky North Dakota flies and mosquitoes out of the bar.  The patio had an all-weather floor with a number of tables and ledge-seating along the railing looking out over the edge.  A large fire pit was going in the middle - it was an absolutely gorgeous night in Fargo and the rooftop had a number of people enjoying the evening.  In the winter time, 701 Eateries will put enclosed glass igloos on the rooftop patio complete with individual heaters for each igloo.  I also understand that they'll be setting up a miniature curling rink on the roof to use in the winter.  I contemplated having a night cap on the deck, but I thought I'd had enough and needed to get back to the hotel as I was heading out in the morning.  

My experience at Prairie Kitchen at 701 Eateries was a very good one.  My chicken roulade was a bit overcooked, but I was fine with it.   I really liked the ambiance and vibe of both Prairie Kitchen and the second story bar, Camp Lone Tree.  The outdoor rooftop patio was a great place.  It didn't offer much in terms of views, but the sunset on this beautiful North Dakota fall evening was spectacular.  The owners have done a good job of embracing the past, embracing their ancestors culture and traditions, and bringing it all together in the 21st Century.  I'm really going to miss going to Fargo, and it's places like 701 Eateries that will make me miss it even more. 

Fargo Brewing Company Ale House - Fargo, ND

Driving between Minneapolis and western North Dakota earlier this summer, I stopped off in Fargo to have lunch.  I wanted to try a brew pub that wasn't too far off the interstate - Fargo Brewing Company Ale House.  I pulled off the highway and found the Fargo Brewing Company Ale House just off the S. 45th St. exit on 17th Ave. S. on the southwest side of Fargo.  (see map) 

The genesis of the Fargo Brewing Company was the mutual love of craft brews between two friends and two brothers.  Jared Hardy was a native of Fargo who had moved out to Portland, OR and immersed himself in the craft brew culture that permeated that community just after the turn of the 21st Century.  Hardy saw an opportunity in his hometown to start a craft brewery similar to the ones that he frequented in Portland.  He moved back to Fargo in 2009 and met up with an old high school classmate, Aaron Hill, to go over his plans for a local craft brewery.  

Hardy - who had been working in marketing in Portland, and Hill - who had a background in sales, soon had the selling and distribution structure worked out.  The only thing they lacked was a working knowledge of brewing good beer.  Jared Hardy was discussing this dilemma with his brother-in-law who quickly came up with a solution.  He set up a meeting between Hardy and Hill with two brothers, John and Chris Anderson.   

The Anderson brothers had grown up in the Fargo area, but had moved out to the West Coast after graduating from high school.  Chris had worked for a handful of craft breweries, while John had worked in the food and beverage industry.  The brothers, too, had a dream of going back home to start their own craft brewery.  Chris had the recipes, but they didn't know how to market their beers once they were made.  When John Anderson was talking with a high school classmate about his dilemma, his friend - who was Jared Hardy's brother-in-law - suggested that he talk with a couple of local guys who might be able to help the Anderson brothers out.  

The group quickly got together and suddenly the plan was coming together.  They brewed their first beer in a garage in Fargo, but they knew that they couldn't mass produce the beer for distribution right away as they couldn't get a loan to build a microbrewery in Fargo.  They found a craft brewery in Wisconsin who could produce quantities of their beer and the first Fargo Brewing Company beers were sold in Fargo in 2010.  Technically, they were the first craft brewery based in North Dakota even if their beers were initially brewed out of state.  

The group eventually came up with enough capital to build their own brewing facility and that opened in 2013.  It included a somewhat primitive tap room, but they wanted to have another place that would showcase their beers and serve food at the same location.   The group eventually found a space in Fargo's Prairie Stone Center shopping complex and opened the Fargo Brewing Company Ale House in early September of last year.   

It was around 1 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot in front of Fargo Brewing Company Ale House.  At first, I thought they may be closed as there was only one car in front of the place and I couldn't see any activity inside.  However, the door was open and I went inside to find a small spot with a contemporary industrial kind of motif.  There were just other people in the place when I walked in.  

I walked up to the bar and took a seat.  The bartender, a young lady by the name of Natasha, came over to greet me.  I asked if they were serving food and she was sort of taken aback and said, "Well, yeah!"  And she handed me a food menu.  The beers they had available were on a board on the wall behind the bar.  Natasha said, "We have a lunch special on our beers.  1/2 price on pints until 2 p.m."  I don't know if that's an on-going promotion, but my timing was pretty good.  I ordered up an Iron Horse American pale ale that was hoppy, yet very smooth. 

The food choices are the Fargo Brewing Company Ale House are pretty limited to a handful of sandwiches and appetizers.  They also offer cheese and charcuterie plates at the Ale House.  It's obvious from the lack of chicken wings, French fries and other fried food on the menu that they don't have a fryer in their kitchen.  Because of the limited menu, I was having a bit of a quandary as what to order.  I thought about getting the Cuban sandwich, but I knew that it wouldn't be a true Cuban sandwich like I'd had during previous trips to South Florida.  

I ended up getting the muffuletta sandwich -  the New Orleans-style sandwich with a combination of cured sopresetta, mortadella, and coppa Italian meats topped with provolone cheese and an olive spread.  It was served on a toasted baguette and came with a side of housemade seasoned potato chips.   

Quite honestly, I wasn't expecting much from the sandwich.  But I was pleasantly surprised with the overall taste and quality of the muffuletta.  The baguette bread was spongy, but crispy on the outer shell.  The Italian meats they used on the sandwich had a zippy and appealing taste on the tongue.  While it may not have been on the level of the muffuletta sandwiches I enjoyed at the Central Grocery in New Orleans a number of years ago, I thought they did a very good job with the muffuletta at the Fargo Brewing Company Ale House.  

Don't expect a broad menu of food at the Fargo Brewing Company Ale House, but they do have a number of sharable appetizers, some good sandwiches and above average beers to choose from.  It's a nice little spot and the service I had that day was fun and friendly.  And you can't beat the half-price pints during lunch.  The Fargo Brewing Company Ale House was a nice little pit stop on my way out to western North Dakota that day.  

Mezzaluna - Fargo, ND

During my trip to North Dakota this summer, I always like to go out to dinner with one of my dealers in Fargo along with his wife.  Over the 12-plus years I have been traveling to Fargo, they have turned me on to a number of very good restaurants - surprisingly good restaurants - that one wouldn't think would be in the northern plains.  They were trying to figure out where we should go for dinner that evening and I said, "One place that I've been wanting to try is Mezzaluna.  Let's go there."  They both looked at one another in astonished agreement and we walked from their house to Mezzaluna for dinner that evening.  

Eric Watson grew up in Colorado where he was an avid outdoorsman as a young boy into his teens.  Hunting small game and trout fishing turned into a passion for preparing foods out of what he hunted or caught.  He had an early understanding of how the fresh game foods be prepared.  And as the older son of a working single mother, he made many of the meals in the house

Watson's first job in the restaurant business was as a dishwasher and busboy at a restaurant in his hometown of Glenwood Springs, CO.  He took close notice of the techniques the restaurant's Swiss-born chef showed from food preparation to presentation of dishes.  

After getting out of high school, Watson went directly to culinary school.  He traveled the country as an apprentice chef, but it was during a three-year apprenticeship at the Keystone Resort in Colorado that he met his future wife, Sara, who grew up not far from Fargo. 

The two worked together for a number of years before ending up in Fargo to run the former Cafe Muse at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo before becoming managing partners of Maxwell's in West Fargo.  (Click here to the see the Road Tips entry on Maxwell's.)  However, when the Silver Moon Supper Club closed down in 2011, the Watson's saw an opportunity to take over the space for their own restaurant concept.  They sold their interest in Maxwell's and opened Mezzaluna in March of 2012 with a focus on fresh, locally-raised ingredients.

Mezzaluna has been recognized by a number of magazines and on-line publications as being not only the top restaurant in North Dakota, but one of the top restaurants in the nation.  Time Magazine recently named Mezzaluna one of the top 51 restaurants in America and the best in North Dakota.  Over the past couple of years, OpenTable named the restaurant as one of the top 100 places to eat in the country, and Mezzaluna has also been recognized as one of the top restaurants in American by MSN and The Daily Meal websites.  

It was a 10 minute walk from my dealer's home to Mezzaluna on a beautiful summer evening.  It's located on N. Roberts Street, a block west of Fargo's famous Broadway Downtown District. (see map)   The inside decor hasn't changed much from the days of the old Silver Moon Supper Club (click here if you would like to read about the drunken evening my dealer and I had there about seven years ago). They still have the high back clam shell booths that I completely detest sitting in at restaurants (it's like you're on display for the rest of the diners).  In fact, that's where they tried to seat us when we asked for a table for three.  I immediately protested and they said it may be a moment to find a place to seat us.  I didn't think it would be that long of a wait as the place was - maybe - a quarter full that evening.  

While the staff tried to figure out where to put us, we went to the bar to order some pre-dinner drinks.  It's a small area with a horseshoe-shaped bar.  There's a small lounge area up a short set of stairs at Mezzaluna, the same lounge that I've drank in a couple times previously when it was the Silver Moon.   

It didn't take long for us to get seated at a table in the dining room.  The host that evening gave us some menus to look over and we enjoyed our drinks while we thumbed through the selections that night.  We decided to start out the evening with some appetizers.  I signed up for the seared Szechuan tuna appetizer that came on a bed with crisp wonton noodles and a cabbage slaw with a side of tamari (basically a heavier Japanese version of soy sauce).  The tuna was fresh and flavorful and I was happy to share some with my guests.  

My dealer and his wife ordered up the pan-seared scallops that came on a bed of carrot puree and topped with a brown butter sauce and fingerling potato chips.  As good as the seared tuna was, I had one of the pan-seared scallops and thought it was even better.  So much so, we had another order brought to our table for us to share.  

Everything on Mezzaluna's menu that evening sounded tempting to me.  From the beef tenderloin filet, to the prosciutto-wrapped pork tenderloin, to the pan-roasted chicken breast in a lemon caper sauce there was just so much to choose from.  I was still in a deep quandary as to what to get when our server came around to take our main entree order.

My dealer went with the rack of lamb.  It featured lamb chops on a bed of saffron risotto and served with a garlic confit.  The chops were big, meaty and cooked to a medium-rare.  

Lamb, to me, is hit or miss, but the lamb my dealer was served was lean, juicy and tender.  He said the lamb chops were "outstanding".  It was one of the items that I was heavily eyeing on the menu before I made my final choice.

My dealer's wife got another thing that I was looking at hard - the crab-stuffed walleye.  It was served on a bed of creamy brown wild rice, then topped with leeks and a citrus vinaigrette.  She thought it was just fabulous.  I was getting sort of envious of what my guests had gotten the way they were raving about the taste.  

I ended up going with the bacon-wrapped bison meatloaf.  It was served on a bed of parmesan mashed potatoes and topped with a smoked corn salsa.  And it, too, was very, very good.  The meatloaf wasn't dried out, the bacon wrapping gave it a wonderful flavor, and the roasted corn salsa and parmesan mashed potatoes were all a perfect complement.  I shouldn't have been jealous of what my guests got because I was more than happy with the bison meatloaf.  

Mezzaluna has been on my restaurant radar for a couple three years, and now that I've actually had the chance to try the place I have nothing but high praise for the place.  Our food was very good to excellent, the service was prompt, efficient and professional, and the atmosphere was chic and elegant, but it wasn't pretentious in the least.  I've eaten in some very fine restaurants in Fargo over the years, but it would be very hard to top the meal I had at Mezzaluna.

Spitfire Bar & Grill - West Fargo, ND

I was driving between western North Dakota and the Twin Cities last fall and decided to stop at Fargo to get some lunch.  I was sort of hungry for barbecue, so I did a search of barbecue places in the area and one place - Spitfire Bar & Grill - caught my eye.  I set my GPS to the address for Spitfire Bar & Grill and headed there for lunch.

Like many places, Spitfire came to be because the owners got their start on the barbecue competition trail.  Tim and Mary Olson were chiropractors in Fargo, but they loved barbecue ever since Tim sampled some of the best smoked meats he'd had while he was living in Oklahoma and Texas before settling back in his home state of North Dakota.  Knowing that he couldn't get Texas-style barbecue in Fargo, he ended up having his own smoker shipped up from Texas and placed in his backyard.  Soon, he was feeding friends and neighbors who raved about his barbecuing prowess. 

In April of 2007, an Uno Pizzeria & Grill location closed in West Fargo.  The Olson's along with managing partner Gordy Ferkul then turned it into a barbecue place.  They procured a Southern Pride SPK-500 industrial smoker and installed it in the kitchen area.  Spitfire Bar & Grill opened with a soft opening in the summer of 2007 to help get the kinks worked out before they had their grand opening in the fall of 2007.  

About the same time they opened Spitfire Bar & Grill, the Olson's came across a television program one evening that showed the highly competitive barbecue circuit in parts of the United States.  The barbecue bug had hit him hard and he was determined to get into competitions around the Upper Midwest.  Nearly from the start, the Olson's "Team Spitfire" began to win the competitions they entered.  More wins meant bigger and better equipment and they got their big competitive smoker trailer in 2011.  

The Olson's continue to run the competition circuit around the U.S. and have participated numerous times in two of the biggest barbecue competitions - the Jack Daniels World Barbecue Championship in Lynchburg, TN; and the American Royal Barbecue Championship in Kansas City.  Team Spitfire garnered a sixth place overall finish at the Jack Daniels WBC in 2009 and his ribs earned a third-place finish in that category the same year.  

Spitfire is technically in West Fargo along 13th Ave. E.  (see map)  It was around 1 p.m. when I pulled into the parking lot and went inside.  The main dining area had a cozy contemporary look and feel to the place.  The focal point of the dining area was the large wood burning cooker for Spitfire's wood-fired steaks, seafood, and spit-roasted chicken.  Many of the trophies the Spitfire barbecue team has won in competitions were on display in the dining room.

I ended up taking a seat at the bar.  The bar area was spacious and bright with a number of flat-panel televisions hanging on the wall.  My bartender server that day was Ambar, a pleasant blonde-haired lady who dropped off a menu for me to look through.  I saw that they had my favorite beer - Kona Big Wave Golden Ale - on tap and I ordered one of those.  I like places that have Big Wave on tap.  

As I alluded to earlier, there's more than just barbecue on the menu at Spitfire.  In addition to wood-fired steaks, seafood and chicken, they also feature flat bread pizzas, pasta dishes, sandwiches and wraps, wood-fired burgers, soups and salads.  But I was there for the barbecue that day and I wanted to sample a little bit of everything.  The only problem is that they didn't have a sampler platter at Spitfire.  They only seemed to have sandwiches with pulled pork or brisket.  And the only rib combo they had on the menu came with either steak and ribs or chicken and ribs.  

I finally found a beef brisket platter they had on the menu and I ended up ordering that.  The only problem is that it was expensive - $19.95 for the platter with two sides.  I figured there must be a lot of beef that came on the plate.  

There really wasn't.  Oh, it was probably a little over a half pound of brisket on the plate, but I still didn't think it was that good of a value.  For my sides, I got a bowl of the Spitfire baked beans and some fries.  

The brisket was tender, but it was dry.  It almost tasted like cafeteria-style roast beef.  I didn't get much of a smoky flavor to the beef.  It was somewhat disappointing.  

To add to the disappointment of the brisket, they gave me a small 2 ounce container of barbecue sauce.  It was a vinegar-based sauce that was just all right in my book.  And because the beef was so dry, I had to use a lot of the sauce to help get the beef down.  I needed a couple of the containers to help out the beef, but I quit once I ran out of the first container of sauce.  And they didn't have any sauce in bottles.  Being a sauce guy, I like to try different types of sauce on my barbecue.  The brisket needed all the help it could get.   

The fries were also sort of "meh!", but the baked beans saved this meal from being a complete dud.  The beans were great - thick and meaty with chunks of pork with nearly every bite.  Even the sauce they used in the beans was very good.  The beans were - unfortunately - the only saving grace for what was otherwise a forgettable meal.  

I don't know if Spitfire is known as much for their brisket as they are for their ribs, but I was disappointed in the brisket I had on my visit.  The baked beans were the highlight of what was otherwise a bland-tasting meal.  While the service as attentive and prompt, I thought the barbecued brisket was underwhelming.  Spitfire wins local awards for the best barbecue in Fargo and has won a number of regional barbecue competitions, but the barbecue I had was not what I would call award winning. 

Luna - Fargo, ND

I was in Fargo early last fall on my annual trip across North Dakota to see my dealers up there.  One of my dealers in Fargo always has a great place in mind where to go out for dinner and one place was a small restaurant that was transformed from a coffee house into an upscale restaurant  in 2014 and was owned by some people that he knew.  We ended up at Luna for dinner that evening.  

As I said, Luna started out as a small coffee shop in a strip mall along S. University Dr. in Fargo.  (see map)  It was next door to Bernie's Wine and Liquors, a popular spot in Fargo for wine connoisseurs and was run by Bernie Ness, Jr. and his children, including Nikki Ness Burglund.  In addition to running the wine shop at Bernie's, Nikki Burglund also wrote food reviews for a small regional paper.  She bought the small coffee house that had been around for over 20 years in February of 2014 with the idea of transforming it into a unique restaurant that still brewed gourmet coffees in the morning, but would also offer a wide variety of cheese that could be paired with the wines sold next door.  But she also wanted an upscale restaurant with an ever-changing menu that featured fresh and locally-raised food.   

Nikki Burglund initially partnered with Peter Kelly, a local Fargo man I've met on a couple of occasions and the former co-owner of the popular Green Market Kitchen that featured farm-to-fork fresh foods that unfortunately closed in March of 2013.  Kelly helped Burglund with the Luna concept and eventually became the first cheese monger at the restaurant/cheese shop/coffee bar. 

But Burglund's coup was getting James Beard Award-nominated chef Ryan Nitschke to join her at Luna.  Nitschke was the long time chef at the Hotel Donaldson in downtown Fargo and won numerous local and regional awards including two AAA Four Diamond awards for his work in the HoDo kitchen.  A Fargo native, Nitschke went through the culinary program at Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Moorhead, then worked as a chef for corporate restaurants around the Fargo area, eventually hooking on with the Hotel Donaldson before leaving in 2013.  

The first thing you see when you walk into Luna is the large refrigerated case loaded with different types of artisan cheese.  While Peter Kelly is no longer associated with Luna, they still feature a number of cheese from local and Upper Midwest dairies.  

The coffee/alcohol bar is prominent in the larger of the two dining areas.  They have a nice wine list and their selection of craft beers was also impressive.  For coffee, Luna sources their organic beans from Peace Coffee and Up Coffee Roasters in the Twin Cities.  Luna also offers a wide variety of loose leaf teas they get from TeaSource also in the Twin Cities.

We sat in the dining room with bar area that evening.  Our server for our visit - Anna - came over to drop off menus and to take our drink order.  I got an Oskar Blues IPA to start out with, but I switched to a Decero Malbec wine when I got my main entree. 

The dining room was well-lit and I thought it was a little sparse on the atmosphere.  Other than the oil paintings done by local artists on the wall, the dining room seemed a little drab.  The tables and chairs were sturdy, but "plain-Jane" in their appearance.  Still, it was comfortable enough to enjoy the evening.

I also liked the sense of humor shown at Luna.  I got up to use the restroom and on the door of one of the restrooms was the sign shown above right.  I got a chuckle when I saw the sign, something I'd never encountered before.  

The first thing we had to do is get an appetizer plate.  They had three choices - a meat plate, a pickle plate and a cheese plate.  While I wish they would have been able to combine all three, we decided to go with the cheese plate that evening.  They had a camembert cheese from a dairy out of Mankato that evening along with an espresso smoked cheese that were both delicious.  Olives came with the cheese plate along with some outrageously tasty smoked almonds.  Out of everything on the plate, I think I liked the smoked almonds the best and I don't really care for the taste of almonds.  

After the cheese plate, I ordered up a bowl of Luna's lobster bisque.  It was a puree of lobster, crab and shrimp in a light cream sauce.  I thought I tasted a hint of squash in the bisque, but Anna told me afterward that it didn't have any squash in it.  It was very enjoyable.  

But the star of the start of the meal were the delicious chive and cheddar cheese popovers they make at Luna.  They were crispy on the outside with an airy center core.  The pronounced flavors of the cheddar cheese and the chives baked into the popovers was a great taste combination.

Anna brought three to the table and my dealer was gracious enough to let me have two.  "I get them all the time," he said as he waved the second one toward me.  "They're delicious!"  I couldn't have agreed more.  

Luna serves dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday thru Saturday and the menu will sometimes change daily depending upon what they have fresh that evening.  For dinner that evening, they had entrees that included a buttermilk-fried Amish chicken served with a sweet and sour lemon sauce; baked walleye with a potato puree; braised beef lasagna; and a cavatelli pasta dish with lobster mushrooms in a spicy tomato sauce.  

My dealer went with the duck breast that Luna procures from Wild Acres Farms, a purveyor of farm-raised chicken, turkey, duck and pheasant located in Pequot Lakes in north central Minnesota.  The duck breast was sliced and served with a beet and crème fraîche, paired with sumac herbs, wild rice and a lavender honey.  He thought the duck was just outstanding.  

For some reason, I was thinking about getting the spicy cabbage and potato beef pasty - a true Upper Midwest meal if there ever was such a thing.  But I ended up getting the smoked New York strip steak that came with chanterelle mushrooms and a burrata cheese topped with squash blossoms.  They source their beef at Luna from the Prairie Rose organic farm located in north central North Dakota.  The beef was lean, juicy and very flavorful.  It easily cut with a knife and it had wonderful texture to the beef.  This was an outstanding dinner. 

My dealer's wife joined us late as she had a prior commitment and she had the apple and gruyere cheese crisp dessert as we sat and caught up on life.  When Anna asked me if I wanted any dessert, I told her that all I wanted was more of the smoked almonds.  She said, "I don't know if we have any more.  He doesn't make them every day and when he does he doesn't make a lot."  However, she later came out with a small bowl filled with smoked almonds.  "I'll have to charge you for them," she warned.  I think that they charged me $5 bucks for the bowl, but if she would have said they were $20 bucks, I would have thought about it for a moment and still taken them.  They were that good.  

Fargo continues to amaze me with the number of good restaurants in the city and Luna was absolutely no exception.  While the atmosphere didn't quite meet up with the level of the food that was served, it was still a fine meal.  The service we had with Anna was professional, friendly and competent.  Everything we had for food that night was thoroughly enjoyable.  I wanted to make it back to Luna the next morning for some espresso, but I didn't have the time.  But there will be another trip to Fargo later this year and I'll be sure to stop back in at that time.    

Wurst Bier Hall - Fargo, ND

On a trip up to North Dakota late last year, I had gone out for a sample of beers at the Drekker Brewing Company in Fargo with one of my dealers.  (Click here to see the entry on the Drekker Brewing Company.)  While we were having beers at Drekker, he asked me if I liked German food.  I said that I was always up for good German food as it seemed to be getting tougher and tougher to find good German restaurants in the Midwest.  He said, "Good, because we're going to a place just down the street for dinner."  After his wife showed up and we finished our beers, we took a short walk down the street to the Wurst Bier Hall. 

Brothers Bert and Klaus Meyers - along with Bert's wife, Lisa - have been in the restaurant business around Fargo for a number of years.  Bert and Lisa owned a popular place - Bertrosa's - for 13 years before selling it in 2012.  And Bert and Klaus also are partners in Dempsey's Public House, a popular Irish bar in downtown Fargo.  In 2013, Bert, Lisa and Klaus came up with a concept for the Wurst Bier Hall modeled after the beer halls with communal seating and good food and good beer.  The trio opened Wurst Bier Hall in January of 2014. 

Wurst Bier Hall is located in the same building that houses Drekker Brewing Co. - the Cityscapes Plaza building that features retail shops and restaurants on the ground floor with apartments on the upper four floors.  The Wurst Bier Hall is located in the NE corner of the building on 1st Ave. N in downtown Fargo.  (see map)  Thursday's always seem to be a lively night in Fargo, as it seems to be with many college towns throughout the Midwest.  And the crowd at Wurst Bier Hall was definitely into it that evening. 

The bar area features a long bar with Edison lamps suspended above.  They feature over 30 beers on tap, many of them from microbreweries in North Dakota and Minnesota.  Wurst Bier Hall also has nearly 20 beers, ciders, and non-alcoholic beverages in cans and bottles. 

On the walls around the bar and dining areas were flat screen monitors displaying a revolving list of available beers at that particular moment at Wurst Bier Hall.  It was a nice high-tech way of being able to show what beers they had to offer.

They had Trivia Night going on and a number of people were deeply involved with that.  This is the small dining area to the right as you come into the and most of the patrons seated in there were gazing intently at the flat screens on the room when the questions would come up. 

My dealer and his wife saw some friends seated toward the end of a large communal table in the dining area near the bar.  One of their friends I had met a couple times before on trips to Fargo.  (I was starting to feel like I was an honorary citizen of Fargo.)  We sat with them at the table and I sort of felt sorry for our server, Natasha, who, no doubt, had trouble figuring out who was with who up and down the long communal table.  I enjoyed the Drekker Broken Rudder Irish red ale that I just had a couple doors down from the Wurst Bier Hall earlier in the evening and I ordered one of those to start out. 

The menu at the Wurst Bier Hall isn't all that extensive, but it's very interesting.  Among the appetizers featured on the menu were the Bavarian pretzels, loaded fries, sweet potato fries, and a bacon flight consisting of a combination of Guinness-glazed bacon, brown sugar-glazed bacon, a black pepper bacon, and smoked bacon.  We ended up getting a couple of the appetizers - the Wurst poutine consisting of fries topped with deep-fried mozzarella cheese curds and brown gravy; and the pierogis stuffed with chopped potatoes and onions and topped with a spicy curry butter sauce and cilantro with a side of sour cream.  The poutine fries were very good, but the pierogis were fabulous.  The sauce was slightly spicy (to my palate), and it was a great hearty start to the meal. 

Wurst Bier Hall features a number of wursts and sausages on the menu, as well.  They have three different categories - the Classics, such as Polish sausage, bratwurst, mettwurst and German sausage; the Gourmet, which consists of a smoked jalapeno cheddar sausage, a blue cheese sausage and a chicken apple sausage; and the Exotics, which feature fresh sausage links made from wild boar, pheasant, and elk.  All of the sausages from the Exotic list can be made Vietnamese "banh mi" style topped with Sriracha mayo, pickled carrot and daikon radish, cucumber, cilantro sprigs, fresh sliced jalapenos and a soy sauce drizzle. 

My dealer and I both got the jager schnitzel with spaetzle and red cabbage on the side.  It was a 6 ounce pork loin that we both got breaded and fried.  (Chargrilled was available, as well).  It was topped with thick mushroom gravy and came with red cabbage.  We had our choice of fries, sweet potato fries or spaetzle for a side and I had the spaetzle topped with the mushroom gravy.

The jager schnitzel was slightly tough and a bit overcooked.  But the wonderful mushroom gravy helped with the overall taste of the deep fried pork.  The spaetzel was wonderful - once again the gravy helped out tremendously - as was the red cabbage.  It wasn't the best German food that I've had, but it was good enough. 

My dealer had ordered the spaetzle mac and cheese for his side as an upcharge.  It was basically the same spaetzle with macaroni noodles and a blended cheese sauce.  His wife loves the spaetzle mac & cheese and she was stealing bites from his plate as she was still working on the appetizers that we had on the table. 

On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best, I'd give the beer selection at Wurst Bier Hall a 4.5, but give the food a 3.5.  The jager schnitzel was a little tough and overcooked, but the mushroom gravy helped the taste.  The eclectic beer selection was top notch and it was tough to beat the interesting appetizers they had on the menu.  Natasha did a great job of taking care of us, staying on top of empty beer glasses and being able to figure out the mayhem of different tickets at the long table she was in charge of.  I had a great time at the Wurst Bier Hall and look forward to a revisit on future trips to Fargo.  (Photo courtesy Brandon Ashmore of Repor Photography.)

HoDo Lounge (Hotel Donaldson) - Fargo, ND

I had to go up to North Dakota for a couple days late last year and decided to fly in.  After landing in Fargo and grabbing a rental car, I met up with one of my dealers at his store and we decided to go out to grab a bite for lunch.  He asked me if I had any idea where I wanted to go and I told him that I've wanted to go to the Hotel Donaldson in downtown Fargo for some time and have lunch in the HoDo Lounge.  He said, "Hey, that's fine with me.  Anytime we can go there for a meal, I'm happy!"  

I've been traveling to Fargo for over 10 years now.  It remains one of my favorite places to visit.  My dealer in Fargo has shown me that the Fargo/Moorhead area has some interesting and somewhat eclectic places to eat.  On my first trip to the area, my then-new dealer and I had dinner at a small place caddy-cornered from the Hotel Donaldson, a European-style boutique hotel in downtown Fargo.  After dinner, we went across the street to have a couple drinks in the lounge at the Hotel Donaldson.  It was that evening when I first learned the backstory of the "HoDo" (the local's pet name for the hotel) and the resurgence of downtown Fargo. 

Doug Burgum grew up on a farm outside of Arthur, ND, about 25 miles from Fargo. He was a graduate of North Dakota State University and later got his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.  After getting his Masters degree, he moved to Chicago to work for a large global business consulting firm.  However, he had the entrepreneurial spirit in his bones and he ended up moving back to Fargo in 1983 to start up a business software company.  Literally mortgaging the Burgum family farm to start his company, he founded Great Plains Software to address the accounting needs of small businesses.  Great Plains grew to be a large company that eventually provided all types of business software solutions to small to medium-sized businesses around the world.  Burgum took Great Plains Software public in 1997.

Pictured right - Doug Burgum.  Photo courtesy Fargo Forum. 

Microsoft felt they were well behind the curve when it came to business software and the decided the best way to jump into that line of software was to buy an existing company.  Great Plains Software had a stellar reputation within the small business world for their business friendly programs, and in 2001 Microsoft bought Great Plains for $1.1 billion dollars.  Yes, that's "billion" with a "b".  Burgum stayed on with Microsoft as an Executive Vice-President of Business Applications.   The Microsoft campus in Fargo is the largest Microsoft facility outside of the state of Washington. 

At the turn of the 20th century, Fargo established a Renaissance Zone to revitalize the downtown area.  Doug Burgum and his wife, Karen Stoker Burgum, decided that they wanted to put an emphasis on reestablishing Fargo's downtown to the vibrant community it was when they visited the downtown area as children. Doug Burgum established a foundation called the Kilbourne Group that was formed to help revitalize parts of downtown Fargo developing mixed-use properties.

The first thing that the Kilbourne Group did was to buy what was the abandoned Northern School Supply building in downtown Fargo.  Burgum's foundation bought the building in August of 2000 and donated it to North Dakota State University and pledged $1.5 million in renovations to the building.  Today, the former school supply building is called Renaissance Hall and houses NDSU's art and architecture schools along with offices in the 52,000 square foot building. 

Around the time her husband was selling Great Plains Software to Microsoft, Karen Stoker Burgum ended up buying the Hotel Donaldson, a run-down hotel in a building that was originally built in 1894, and had been a workingman's hotel since 1915.  When hotels near the Interstate began to pop up in the 1970's and 80's, much of the hotel's clientele dropped off.  It became more of an apartment building with a handful of rooms still available for nightly or weekly stays.

Karen Stoker Burgum put over $7 million dollars into the renovation of the place.  She turned the hotel into a European-style boutique hotel with 17 rooms.  She also established two eateries - the HoDo Restaurant and the HoDo Lounge.   Suddenly, downtown Fargo began to have a vision and path for taking old buildings, renovating them into housing, restaurants, retail and office spaces, much of it done by the Kilbourne Group.  

Pictured left - Karen Stoker.  Photo courtesy Fargo Forum. 

Karen Stoker and Doug Burgum divorced a number of years ago.  She continued to run the HoDo, while Doug Burgum remained an executive at Microsoft until he left the company in 2007 to focus on the Kilbourne Group and the continued revitalization of downtown Fargo.  In January of this year, Doug Burgum announced his intention to run for the Governor's office in North Dakota as a Republican.  (Update - Burgum was elected to the Governor's office with 77 percent of the total vote.)

Each room at the Hotel Donaldson features artwork from Upper Midwest-area artists.  Works from artists such as  Marley Kaul, Susan Morrissey, Gretchen Bederman and Jon Offutt are featured in individual rooms.    Paintings from two of Stoker and Burgum's three sons hang in one of the rooms, as well.  (Pictured below right.)  I've looked into staying at the HoDo on a couple of of occasions, but their nightly room prices skew a little higher than I'm willing to pay for a room in Fargo, ND.  Plus, I wouldn't get my Hilton Honors points.    

The HoDo Restaurant is the main restaurant in the hotel.  It features locally grown food when available and is the only AAA Four Diamond restaurant in the state of North Dakota.  But the restaurant isn't open for lunch, so that's why we went to the lounge.  We had a little trouble finding a parking spot near the hotel - located at 1st Ave. N. and Broadway (see map) - because of the number of people around the downtown area.  I asked my dealer what was going on with so many people downtown on a weekday, he said, "It's like this all the time, man.  It's just crazy down here." 

I was able to take a look inside the HoDo restaurant after we walked into the main entrance to the hotel.  The space had a somewhat contemporary and funky look to the place, and was filled with some interesting artwork. 

We were seated at a table in the lounge (above right) and given menus to look over.  Our server for the day - Jarad - came over to greet us and see if we wanted anything to drink.  I ordered an IPA from the Junkyard Brewery over in Moorhead, while my dealer got an Igor's Horn black IPA from the Drekker Brewery in downtown Fargo.  (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the Drekker Brewery.) 

It's a decidedly eclectic, but not a broad menu at the HoDo Lounge.  Each day co-chefs Ryan Nitschke and Nick Weinhandl create a new lavosh - a leavened bread with toppings that is a North Dakota favorite.  The lavosh that day was a bacon, broccoli, and chopped tomatoes with cheddar cheese.  Shareable plates also included bison sirloin bacon fries, fried pickled green tomatoes, a duck confit taquitos - small tacos topped with a tomatillo and lime-habanero salsa.   

I started out with a cup of Knoephla (NIP-fla) soup - also a traditional staple of North Dakota dining.  It's a sort of potato dumpling soup that features a rich cream sauce and chunks of chicken.   Knoephla soup has been a favorite of generations of Upper Midwest residents whose ancestors from what is now Eastern Europe  settled in the region starting back in the 1800's.  This Knoephla was rich and hearty.  It was a pretty cold day outside and it was a nice start to lunch. 

I didn't really want to have an entree for lunch - they had a grilled bison hanger steak, a Norwegian salmon dish, and something called General's Chicken that was the chef's take on the Chinese/Hunan favorite General Tso's Chicken with crispy fried chicken, fried rice and a sweet and sour sauce.  I ended up getting the Grass-Fed Beef burger topped with Swiss cheese, fried prosciutto, a fried egg and fresh greens, served on a lightly grilled artisan bun with a miso butter spread.  The burger came with organic potato fries. 

The burger was thick and meaty with a thick piece of Swiss cheese covering the top and sides of the burger.  The fried egg is usually served over-easy, but I asked for mine to be over-hard because I didn't want to get too messy with the yoke.  The burger was good, very good, to be exact.  It was cooked to a perfect medium with a bit of pink in the middle.  The Swiss cheese was flavorful and added a great taste to the burger.  The bun was a little big for the burger, but it didn't overpower the overall taste of the burger. 

And I have to say the fries were also very good.  I would like to think they cooked them in duck fat because they had a distinctive taste, but I'm sure they just used a good oil in the cooking process.  I didn't eat many of the fries because the burger was filling enough.

My dealer went with the fish and chips - a mixture of deep fried walleye filets and prawns served with red kuri winter squash and deep fried green beans, along with the same organic potato fries that I got.  At first, he was a little confused because it didn't really look like it was fish and chips to him.  But when he finally realized what was what on his plate, he was fine with it.  It was served with a tartar sauce and a spicy Mexican-style crema sauce.   My dealer liked what he had.  The walleye filets looked meaty and the prawns were pretty good sized.  It was a lot of food for lunch. 

The food at the HoDo Lounge is definitely upscale for a lunch spot.  With the lunch, a couple beers each and a tip, the bill came to about $80 bucks.  Ouch!  That's a pretty stiff bill.  But I wanted to give it a try and while I was happy with the burger and my dealer was happy with his fish entree, I thought it was a little steep in price.  Still, there's not a lot of restaurants - or hotels - like what you find at the Hotel Donaldson.  I think the next visit to the HoDo Lounge will just be for drinks again.

Drekker Brewing Company - Fargo, ND

I was up in North Dakota a lot later  than I wanted to be toward the end of 2015.  I was in Fargo and invited my dealer to go out for something to eat.  He said, "I'm taking you to a place that has some great beer before we go get some food."  We pulled up in front of the Drekker Brewing Company along 1st Ave. N. in downtown Fargo.  (see map)

The impetus for Drekker Brewing Company began many years ago when four friends - Mark Bjornstad, Jesse Feigum, Darin Montplasir and Mason Montplasir - started to brew beer together in the Fargo area.  Like most home brewers, they all had a passion for good beer with dynamic flavors.  They decided to start their own brewery complete with a tap room.  

They found a space in downtown Fargo that is part of the Cityscapes Plaza project of retail and residential property along 1st Ave. N.  The group then contacted the Bennett Forgeworks from Colorado that specializes in build-outs of microbreweries.  By June of 2014 they had their fermentation and conditioning tanks from the Portland Kettle Works in Portland, OR in place.  The Drekker Brewing Co. opened in October of 2014.

The group named their brewery the Drekker Brewing Co.  The word is a combination of three different Old Norwegian terms - drakkar is a feared Viking ship with a dragon head on the bow (hence, the Viking in the logo), drykkr is a draught drink, and drekka is simply "to drink".  

Pictured right - Darin Montplasir, Mason Montplasir, Mark Bjornstad and Jesse Feigum.

The partners soon discovered that one of the problems with running a brewery with a tap room in Fargo is that a city ordinance prohibited them from serving beer after 10 p.m.  With a vibrant downtown entertainment district, when they would yell, "Last call!" at 9:30 p.m. they'd get stares of disbelief from a usually full crowd on the weekend.  Mark Bjornstad was instrumental in getting the ordinance changed to allow brewpubs to stay open until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights in Fargo.  (They still stay open until just 10 p.m. the other nights.)  

And one of the reasons why my dealer wanted to take me to Drekker Brewing Company was that he was the one who put in the audio/video system in the place.  He told me, "They're good guys and they make some pretty damned good beer."  The space in which Drekker is located has a decidedly contemporary industrial look to it.  The minimal decorations in the place gave it sort of a hard feel, but not something that was overly unpleasant.  

The fermentation and conditioning tanks were out in the open back behind the bar area.  The brewery had that faint brewery smell to the place, but it wasn't overpowering like I've found at other similar microbreweries. The one thing about the Drekker Brewing Co. - it was very clean and polished in there.  They were in the midst of a brewery tour when we were there.  

My dealer went up to the bar and ordered a couple of sampler flights for us.  The beer menu was on the wall behind the bar area.  I didn't know what he ordered unit the waitress brought the two flights to the table.

They were served in 8 ounce glasses and came in wooden holders.  The first flight consisted of the Techno Viking Berliner Weisse - a wheat beer; the Ryessistance Rye Saison - a farmhouse ale; the Glacier Leavins NoDak Pale Ale; and the "Oh My Gourd, Becky" Pumpkin ale.  I'm not big on wheat beers, nor farmhouse ale's, but I willingly took the pale ale and the pumpkin ale to try.  The pale ale had a nice hoppy taste with a nice finish on the tongue.  It wasn't forward in taste, nor did it lack body.  It had a great fresh taste.

While I love the taste of pumpkin pie and pumpkin bars, I'm not usually big on pumpkin beers - a lot of them have a bitter flavor that gives the beer sort of a flat taste.  But not so with the pumpkin beer at Drekker Brewing Co.  It had a nice nutmeg after taste and was very pleasing.  This was one of the better pumpkin beers that I've had.

The second flight consisted of the Broken Rudder Irish Red Ale; the Roastmaster Series Broken Rudder Red with 20 Below Coffee - they take the Broken Rudder red ale and mix it with coffee from the 20 Below Coffee company located just around the corner from Drekker Brewing; the Pillager Porter; and the Azacca Attacka American Pale Ale.  I chose the American Pale Ale - not as hoppy as the NoDak pale ale, but with a very good taste and a fresh finish - and the Broken Rudder Red Irish Red Ale.  The Irish Red had a nice body with a nice copper color.  I found the Red Irish Ale to be refreshing and flavorful.  

My dealer was raving about the Irish Red Ale/20 Below Coffee beer.  He allowed me to take a drink of it and I have to say that it floored me in the quality of the taste.  I've had coffee beers in the past, but they're usually thick and muddy.  This was actually lighter with a deep brown color to the beer.  The coffee smell of the beer was very forward and the taste was more coffee than beer.  The two tastes went together very well.  

As we were finishing up, my dealer's wife came in to join us before we went for dinner.  I mentioned that I was sort of upset that they didn't serve food at the Drekker Brewing Co. - I wasn't certain that I wanted to go elsewhere to get away from the beer.  She mentioned that we could bring food in from other nearby establishments, but they had a place in mind they wanted to take me.  (Look for an upcoming entry on where we ate that evening.)

My dealer was certainly spot on about the quality of the beers at Drekker Brewing Co.  The five beers that I tasted were all very good.  It's good to find places like Drekker where a group of guys with a similar passion for good beer have developed a winning business formula.  Fargo continues to surprise me with some of the eclectic eating and drinking establishments I've visited and Drekker Brewing Co. is certainly no exception.  

Sickies Garage - Fargo, ND

On a recent trip up to North Dakota, I had to drive between the Twin Cities and Bismarck in a day and I decided to stop in Fargo to get something to eat for lunch.  Just off I-29 at the 13th Ave. S. exit is a place that I'd read about and wanted to give it a try - Sickies Garage.  (see map)  

Sickies Garage - whose name is sort of a take off on the Dickies clothing line (there are Sickies Garage shirts made by Dickies available for sale) - is under the ownership umbrella of Starmark Hospitality based in Fargo. In addition to Sickies Garage, Starmark also oversees other restaurants such as Sweeto Burrito with locations in 7 states, King Leo's Burgers in Fargo, and Easyriders Saloon in Sturgis, SD.  

Starmark also ran Hooters restaurants in Fargo and Bismarck since the early 90's.  In 2008, Hooters moved to a former Ponderosa Steakhouse on Fiechtner Drive in Fargo. When the franchise agreement ended in 2014, Hooters wanted Starmark to re-up their agreement for another 20 years.  Starmark's two owners - Kerry Fernholz and Scott Upton - decided they didn't want to commit to that long of a lease and they let the Fargo Hooters close.  

In the meantime, Sickies Garage opened in June of 2010 in an old Bottle Barn Liquors location not far from their present building.  Its 50's garage-theme with a long list of burgers and beers on their menu was an instant hit in Fargo.  It was apparent that they needed to expand and Starmark closed the Fargo Hooters they moved Sickies Garage to the building and gave the building its distinctive garage decor.  (Starmark also closed the Bismarck Hooters and opened a Sickies Garage in the same building earlier this year.)   

I pulled into Sickies Garage around 1:30 on a warm afternoon.   I was greeted by a young lady, Teresa, who told me that I could sit anywhere.  I pulled up to a table near the bar that had 50 beer taps lined up along the back side.  She asked me what I'd like to drink and I asked what they had for beers.  She looked at my table and said, "Oh!  You don't have a beer list."  She found one on another table and I looked through it quick and found a Boulder Cold Hop.  I ordered a tall one of those.  Even though it was listed under pale ales, the Cold Hop is more of a British-style ale.   (The beer list changes on a regular basis at Sickies Garage.) 

The decor of Sickies is car-centric with a number of NASCAR flags and memorabilia in the place.  There's also a number of flat screen televisions throughout the dining/bar area at Sickies so if there's a sporting event on TV, they probably have it on.  Sickies also hosts bike nights and vintage car nights on a regular basis in the summer months.  

The menu at Sickies Garage also touts 50 different burgers in addition to a large number of appetizers such as fried pickles, quesadillas, jalapeño poppers and chicken wings that offer over a dozen different type of sauces to go along with them.   They also have a number of sandwiches including a reuben, turkey and Swiss, pulled pork and a meatloaf sandwich.  

Some of the burgers were pretty interesting.  They included a burger with glazed donut instead of a bun, a Cuban burger topped with mayo, mustard, smoked ham, pickles and Swiss cheese, a burger topped with chili, cheese and fries, and the "Twin Cam" burger that features a burger topped with bacon and sandwiched between two Texas toast-sized grilled cheese sandwiches.  Their signature burger is the Sickies burger (pictured right) that features a burger topped with a fried egg, bacon, onion rings, pulled pork with barbecue sauce, American cheese and finished with some Frank's Hot Sauce.  It recently won the "Best Burger in Fargo" contest for 2015.  Sickies also has a food challenge burger - the Victory Lap Challenge - that features two patty melts and a grilled cheese sandwich in the middle.  Then they fill everything up with pulled pork, fried eggs, boneless chicken wings, fried jalapeños, fried pickles, barbecue sauce and hot sauce, then serve it with a pound of fries.  In total, that's over five pounds of food.  I don't like to glorify food challenges, but that is a ridiculous amount of food.  

I ordered up the mushroom and Swiss burger and asked Teresa if they could put some of their pepper bacon on top of the burger.  She said it was no problem.  I got a choice of a number of sides - fries, onion rings, baked beans and potato salad were among the choices.  But I ended up getting the unofficial state food of Minnesota - even though I was just across the Red River of the North in North Dakota - tater tots.

Keeping the industrial theme to the restaurant, the burger and tater tots were served on a metal baking tray.  I went to put condiments on the burger and I was surprised to find that there were - maybe - six slices of mushroom on the burger and the Swiss cheese was nearly non-existent.  I kind of looked at it for a moment in disbelief.  They did have a couple slices of thick cut pepper bacon on top of the burger patty, so that part worked out.  

From the first bite, I knew there was something wrong.  First of all, the bun tasted like it was past the expiration date.  It was dry and and hard on top.  It was not very good.  I ended up tearing the bun away from the burger a couple of times before I ended up just taking the top bun off and eating it with a knife and fork.  The burger patty, itself, was pretty good - a nice juiciness to the patty.  The pepper bacon had a delightful spicy taste that helped the overall taste of the burger patty.  But the lack of Swiss cheese and mushrooms were a detriment, and the bad bun was just a major disappointment.  The saving grace - the tater tots with some hot sauce dribbled onto each one was a nice plus.  But this was far from a good burger.

The Swiss and mushroom burger I had at Sickies Garage (topped with the pepper bacon) was a major disappointment.  The bun was dried out, they skimped tremendously on the cheese and mushrooms and this caused the overall taste of the burger to suffer.  Without the bun, the burger patty was good and juicy.  But overall, it was not a good burger.   I will say that Teresa's service was efficient and friendly.  And the decor and ambience of Sickies was interesting, at best.  While I really wanted to like this place, I don't know if I'll give them another chance at some point.  This visit was really disappointing.  

Rustica - Moorhead, MN

On my annual trip to Fargo to see my dealer at Arctic Audio, I called him earlier in the day and asked him if he had a restaurant picked out for us to go to that evening.  He said that he had booked a reservation at a new place over in Moorhead by the name of Rustica.  When I asked him what kind of food they served, he replied, "Well, it ain't vegetarian..."  That sounded good to me.  

Actually, Rustica is in the same space that used to house John Alexander's, a nice little restaurant that I'd been to before.  (Click here to see the entry on John Alexander's.)  The owners moved to downtown Fargo after closing the doors to the Moorhead location in April of this year.

Eric and Sara Watson, who own the highly acclaimed Mezzaluna in downtown Fargo as well as Mosaic Catering, ended up taking over the full space at the corner of Main and 4th St. S. just across the Red River of the North from Fargo.  (see map)  Rustica takes up the first floor of a historic building known as the Kassenborg Block which was built in the late 19th century.  Over the years, the building has been the site of offices, apartments and what my dealer told me "a kick ass rock and roll bar" a few years ago.  

The Watsons moved into Rustica this summer and opened the restaurant part of the place in the old John Alexander's in August.  When I was there, they were heavily renovating the space next door that they were going to turn into the Rustica Tavern.  (I believe the tavern portion of Rustica was scheduled to open sometime earlier this month.)  

My dealer and his wife made reservations for us for 7:30 p.m.  My dealer and I went ahead while his wife finished up some things at home.  We were greeted by the manager on duty, Mason, upon entering the restaurant.  There's a small bar area near the host stand beside the kitchen.  I was told that the Watsons didn't have to do much to do to the space after they took it over from the John Alexander's people.  

We were seated along the brick wall on the east side of the restaurant.  Mason dropped off some menus for us and shortly thereafter our server for the evening, Travis, came over to greet us.  Travis seemed a little nervous waiting on us.  We were guessing he was a newby when it came to being a waiter.

After my dealer's wife joined us, they were pointing out a number of people that they knew in the restaurant that evening.  The president of a local bank that my dealer had installed a sound system for was having dinner with the president of North Dakota State University.  Another lady who he did a big system for - including a pair of the Focal Utopia loudspeakers - was having dinner with her brother and some other friends.  And at the table next to us was Peter Kelly, one of the partners at the former Green Market Kitchen in Fargo (click here to read the review on Green Market Kitchen).  Peter was dining with a young man who was identified by my dealer's wife as a local chef at a prestigious restaurant.  It turned out that Peter and this chef were embarking on a new restaurant venture and hoped to be up and running soon.  (We may have to try that place on my next visit if it's open.)  So in the short time it has been open, Rustica seemed to draw a well-heeled crowd.  

The menu at Rustica consists of a number of locally sourced food items.  This somewhat eclectic menu features beef, chicken, pork and lamb dishes, along with three pasta dishes with pappardelle pasta and your choice of smoked salmon, chorizo or chile-braised beef.  It is truly more of a rustic menu than what you may find in an urban restaurant.

There are also a number of starter appetizers on the menu.  The have an antipasto plate that sounded good, as well as the chile-braised beef tacos with tomato relish, roasted garlic and a creme friache - basically a rich sour creme.  But what we ended up getting was the crispy pork belly with an avocado/basil salsa with a sun-dried tomato pesto.  It was absolutely fabulous.  The pork belly was tender and flavorful, and the avocado/basil salsa with the sun-dried tomato pesto was a perfect compliment to the overall taste of the pork.  

A number of the entrees sounded pretty darned interesting to me.  The pan-roasted beef tenderloin medallions came with caramelized cipollini onions, a wild mushroom and bacon barley, and sweet tomatoes.  The Salisbury steak was topped with a fried egg,  broiled portobello mushrooms and sherry wine-caramelized onions with parmesan cheese mashed potatoes on the side.  The chianti-braised beef tenderloin tips also came with the parmesan mashed potatoes and roasted sweet bell peppers.  It all sounded so good.  

Mason came over to ask us if we had any questions about the menu and I told him that I was sort of up in the air on a couple things - the peppercorn broiled walleye with garlic shrimp entree or the bone-in pork chop.  He said, "Oooo...  Tough choices, but I think I'd go with the pork chop."  

When Travis came back that's exactly what I ordered.  The pork chop was thick and juicy and it was topped with fresh sage and prosciutto.  A grilled vegetable medley came on the side.  Mason didn't steer me wrong.  It was just fabulous.  

When I mentioned that I was interested in the peppercorn broiled walleye with the garlic shrimp, my dealer said, "Yeah, that's what I'm gonna get."  When I go out to eat dinner with my dealer and his wife, we're always sharing bites off of each other's plates so I knew I'd get to try some of the walleye.  And it was fabulous.  It came with a smoked tomato sauce that wasn't overpowering.  The fish was fresh and absolutely wonderful in taste.

My dealer's wife got the bacon-wrapped lamb medallions with a garlic and olive oil glaze.  I usually find lamb in the U.S. to be fatty, but she said it was very lean.  She cut one in half to give to me and I have to say that it was, indeed, very lean and very good.  

I forgot to mention that I had ordered up a bottle of the 2004 Ontañon Reserva Rioja, a nice Spanish wine that was light and not as forward as a cabernet.  It was so good that we ended up getting second bottle as we were finishing up our meals.  My pork chop was so big and so good - and considering the extra bites of other food I tried - that I was getting full.  But my dealer's wife insisted on trying one of the desserts.  We let her order and she got the flourless chocolate cake with macerated (marinated) fresh fruit berries.  I did try a couple of the blueberries and raspberries that came with the cake, but I didn't have any of the cake.  She said it was "simply delicious".

Our first experience at Rustica was a very favorable one.  The food was interesting and very good.  Even though Travis showed some inexperience and stumbled over himself a couple times, his service was fine.  And Mason continually checked with us to see how things were going.  It was a great evening of catching up on business and personal things with my dealer and his wife.  We were very happy with our experience at Rustica.

Maxwells - West Fargo, ND

The Fargo area continues to impress me with the number of very good to excellent fine dining restaurants.  During my annual trip to Fargo a few weeks ago, my dealer, Rod from Arctic Audio, and his wife, Ellen, suggested we try a place that has been open for about five years in West Fargo - Maxwells.  I'm always up for trying new places on the road, so it was off to Maxwells we went.

Mike Marcil is a Fargo native who was working for Internet companies in the Bay Area before getting into real estate development.  Along with some investors in California, The Marcil Group developed over 40 commercial properties on the West coast and across North Dakota.  One of the commercial properties that he purchased was a small bistro, wine bar and gourmet market called Littlefield's Bistro in West Fargo.  Marcil transformed the place into W.F. Maxwells.  (I'm guessing the "W.F." stood for West Fargo.)  Eventually, the name was shortened to just Maxwells.

Marcil brought in the husband and wife team of Eric and Sara Watson to be the executive chefs/managing partners for Maxwell's.  Both had extensive culinary experience working at some of the finer resorts in Colorado before moving to Fargo.  In 2012, the Watson's seized upon an opportunity to run their own restaurant in Fargo.  They sold their interest in Maxwell's and soon opened Mezzaluna in the space that housed the former Silver Moon restaurant in downtown Fargo.  

Today, the Executive Chef at Maxwells is Mike Wald.  As a teenager, Wald's infatuation with fine dining began when he worked in a small Italian restaurant in Bismarck by the name of The Walrus Co.  Wald eventually went to Bismarck State College to study restaurant and hotel management.  He interned at a fine dining restaurant in Bismarck - The Bistro - before becoming the saucier at the restaurant, but learned a number of various recipes using locally grown and sourced foods.  

Pictured right - Mike Wald 

Wald moved on to Fargo to study tourism and business management at North Dakota State.  He became the Executive Chef at Littlefield's Bistro in 2003 and stayed on when Marcil purchased the restaurant in April of 2008.  Wald's dedication to using locally sourced foods is the signature for Maxwells success.  

Rod and I drove over to Maxwells located in a strip mall on the west side of 9th St. E. in West Fargo. (see map)  Maxwells sits in a corner of the strip mall just south of the corner of 9th St. E. and 13th Ave. E.  Ellen was waiting for us and we were shown to our table by managing partner Ramon Sosa.  Menus, including a wine list, were already sitting on the table.  Our server that even, a young lady with the interesting name of Chanda, came over to ask Rod and I if we'd like to join Ellen in a pre-meal drink.  I asked for a beer and Rod got a mixed drink.   

Because of the availability of locally sourced food, the menu at Maxwells changes from time to time, depending upon the seasons.  Most evenings you'll find beef entrees, as well as lamb chops, pork entrees, and seafood.  Rod and Ellen were veterans of Maxwells and Ellen was raving about the appetizers including the bacon-wrapped scallops topped with lobster chunks.  

When Chanda came back from the bar with our drinks, we decided to order up a couple appetizers.  Of course, we had to have the bacon-wrapped scallops and I looked over the seared ahi tuna and ordered that.  

The bacon-wrapped scallops (below left) were everything Ellen said they would be.  Bacon-wrapped anything is a winner, in my book, but these were excellent.  They had small chunks of lobster on top along with fresh rosemary and drizzled in a pepper cream sauce.  Rod let Ellen and me have two of the scallops - what a guy!

 
The ahi tuna appetizer (above right) was served with wasabi, soy sauce and ginger.  But on their own they were fresh tasting and very good.  There was sort of a pepper/sesame seed crust to the ahi tuna strips.  The appetizers were an amazing start to the meal.

Chanda came back after we finished off the appetizers and wanted to know if we were ready to order our main course.  Rod asked her what the housemade soup was that evening and she told him it was a chicken, wild rice and cranberry soup (it sounded so Christmas-y!), and a pork/corn chowder soup.  Both sounded very interesting.  

Ellen ordered first and she got the Copper River salmon that came with purple Brazilian potatoes and asparagus.  She also ordered the mixed green salad with blue cheese for starters.  Rod ordered next and he got the lamb chops.  And he ordered the pork/corn chowder soup for his starter.  

I was having trouble between the lobster spinach fettuccine and the spicy glazed pork chops.  I finally decided upon the pork chops.  I also ordered the parmesan Caesar salad - I think that's what it was called.  Chanda explained that it was their version of a Caesar salad.  

For wine, I found that they had a good price on a bottle of the 2008 Jordan cabernet.  Chanda said, "You know, we had some of the 2002 Jordan cabs at a special price."  That immediately piqued my interest.  She asked if I wanted to find out if they still had them and at what price.  A few moments later, she came back and said, "I'm sorry, we're sold out.  I knew we had some last week, but we sold out of the last bottle over the weekend."  No matter, we took the 2008 Jordan cab instead.     

Chanda brought our salads and soups out to us.  When she sat Rod's soup down, she said, "Oh, darn it.  I brought you the wrong soup.  You ordered the pork/corn chowder soup, right?  I got the cranberry/wild rice and chicken soup instead (below left).  Oh, well.  I'll leave this here for you to try and get another soup for you on the house."

 
She brought out the pork/corn chowder soup (above right) and a couple extra spoons for Ellen and I to sample the one that Rod didn't want.  He said to Chanda, "Hey, don't worry.  I'll probably eat both."  I did sample the pork/corn chowder soup and it was very good with smoky pork chunks and sweet corn in a buttery creamy broth.  Rod said the cranberries helped zip up the taste of the chicken and wild rice soup which is a staple of Minnesota and North Dakota diets.  

Ellen's salad was combination of mixed greens topped with a blue cheese dressing and slices of strawberries in the corners.  It was a nice presentation.   

 
My salad was pretty interesting.  They took parmesan cheese and melted it into a thin layer.  They then forged the still warm parmesan cheese into a bowl and placed the greens, sliced tomatoes and more shredded fresh parmesan cheese on top.  Ellen said, "Oooh, that's good.  The bowl is edible and it's the best part of the salad."  My salad, on it's own, was very good.  But pulling off pieces of the hardened parmesan was a great complementary taste to the salad.  Ellen couldn't help herself in reaching over and cracking off pieces of the parmesan cheese bowl.  I was happy to share.   

Our meals came out and, once again, the presentation was very nice.  My pork chops sat on a batch of sweet potato wedges and had a sweet and spicy glaze ladled over the top of the entree.  The pork was tender and flavorful, even if it was a bit overcooked to my liking.  I didn't think the glaze was either too sweet or too spicy - both taste sensations seemed to cancel each other out.  Still, it was a very fine dish.   

 
Ellen's salmon was lightly grilled and served on a bed of sliced blue potatoes and asparagus.  Two different types of sauces - one was, I believe, a homemade mustard sauce - were drizzled on the plate to dip the salmon into.  The salmon was firm and flaky, not overcooked at all.  Ellen declared it to be delicious.

I'm not big on lamb chops, but I have to say that Rod's chops looked delectable.  They were cooked to a medium rare and stood in a tee-pee-type fashion over mixed vegetables.  The same sauces that were on Ellen's plate were on Rod's plate.  Rod thought the lamb chops were outstanding.  Looking back, I wish I would have tried them other than the pork chops - which were still very good.

After dinner, Rod fielded a call from a client of his and invited him over to Maxwells to join us for an after dinner drink.  After settling up with Chanda for dinner, we retired to the bar area at Maxwells and met up with Rod's client, Hari.  Hari was very interested in the new Focal Scala Utopia Be V2 speakers that we had recently released.  Rod wanted me to talk to Hari about the speakers and the quality workmanship that goes into them.  Over a couple three Scotches in the bar, I was able to do just that.  Hari was a very nice man and we had a great time with multiple nightcaps.  

Ellen had long left Maxwells and Rod and Hari wanted me to head to another watering hole with them, but I begged off.  I had a long trip out to Western North Dakota the next day and it was getting close to 11 p.m. by the time we finished up.  But the overall experience I had at Maxwells was exquisite.  Once again, I was surprised by another restaurant in the Fargo/Moorhead area that featured fine dining in a great setting.  The food was very good, the service we had from Chanda was excellent and it was a relaxing meal.  And having a few drinks after the meal was fun, as well.  I love going to Fargo and as long as Rod and Ellen turn me on to more restaurants like Maxwells, I can't wait to get back up there. 

Rick's Bar - Fargo

On my trip to Fargo earlier this summer, I stopped in to the Fargo (Happy Harry's) Rib Festival.  (Click here to see my entry on the Fargo Rib Fest.)  Since the lines were so long, there was no way that I was going to be able to get any barbecue.  As I was leaving the festival, I called up my dealer, Rod, at Arctic Audio to give the city of Fargo my compliments on what I thought was an impressive rib festival.  

He asked, "So, you didn't get anything to eat out there?"  After I told him that I hadn't, he said, "Well, if you have the time, come on over to the shop.  There's a great bar with good lunch specials just down the street from me.  I think you'd like the place."  As I drove over to his place on Main Ave., I passed the place he was talking about - Rick's Bar.  Picking him up at the shop, we headed back down the street to Rick's. (see map)

The "Rick" behind Rick's Bar is North Dakota native Rick Carik.  Carik got a degree in business administration from the University of North Dakota in the early 70's, then went on to study hotel and restaurant management from the University of Minnesota - Crookston. Rick Carik ended up working for the Radisson hotel chain based out of the Twin Cities before getting into banking, then back into hotel management.  Carik eventually got into owning his own bars and a small chain of liquor stores.  In addition to Rick's Bar, Carik is the owner of Speck's Bar, and Woody's Bar and Grill in Fargo.  He also owns Crown Liquor and Royal Liquor locations around Fargo.

It was just before 1 p.m. when we pulled into the Rick's Bar parking lot.  As we pulled in, Rod exclaimed, "Great!  Oh man!  They have chicken fried steak today!"  A cryptic message on the marquee along Main Ave. - "Ctry Fry Stk Din" - told him so.  Rod said, "Oh, boy.  I hope they haven't run out.  Sometimes they run out of their lunch specials.  They only make so many of them."  Rick's Bar runs a changing series of daily lunch specials each week day.

Coming into Rick's, there was a brightly lit area with pool tables and dart boards.  Toward the back of Rick's Bar is an off-sale liquor store.  I believe there were also some gambling machines in Rick's, but I wasn't sure about that.   

 
There's a dining area that also doubles as a room where live music is played.  (Rick's Bar charges no cover for live music.)  It had sort of an old-style saloon feeling to it.  I mean, it would be classified as a dive bar by many, but it was clean and comfortable.  I felt at home - it was my type of place.

We took a seat at the bar and Rod introduced me to the bartender Mike, who happened to be Rick Carik's son.  Rod asked him if they still had the chicken fried steak special.  "No," Mike replied.  "We ran out about 20 minutes ago."  Rod's anguished cries told me that the chicken fried steak must be pretty damn good.  Mike told us that when they start serving around 11 a.m. that's when a lot of workers come in for lunch.  "And they're usually hungry."  

 
From there, it was a quick look at the menu board over the kitchen window.  The flat grill was prominent in the window and it looked well used.  It was the kind of flat grill that probably had enough seasoning on it to make a good burger.   It was typical bar food.  Other than the daily specials they had burgers, fried or grilled chicken sandwiches, and a series of appetizers.  

Rod was going to get the Rick's Special - for $6.75 you get a cheeseburger, fries and a choice of a domestic bottle of beer, a short draft or a bottle of pop.  I thought that sounded good for me, too.  I asked Mike if they had Grain Belt.  He said, "We have the Premium on tap."  I told him that I'd take one of those.  He came back and said, "For a buck more you can get a tall draft."  For a buck more, it was a no-brainer for me.

Rod, who had ordered an iced tea, said, "You know, Mike, on second thought, I'll take a tall Grain Belt, too."  Grain Belt Premium and burgers in Fargo, ND.  I was in my element.   

Because the lunch rush had settled down, it wasn't long before one of the other ladies serving that day brought out our burgers to us.  They were served in a basket with copious amounts of French fries and wrapped in wax paper.  The burger was pretty basic - the thin patty told me that I could have probably gotten a double cheeseburger and held the fries.  I knew I wasn't going to make much of a dent into the pile of fries sitting in front of me.  

The taste of the cheeseburger at Rick's Bar was, well, it was fine.  It wasn't the most exquisite burger I've had, nor was it bad at all.  It was a nice, good tasting flat grilled burger.  I liked it much more than the burger I had gotten over at the Hi-Ho South a couple days before.  (Click here to see my entry on Hi-Ho South.)  While the burger at Rick's Bar was good, it was still not a stellar burger. 

Rod said, "Yeah, the burger is good, but the chicken fried steak would have been so much better.  Too bad they ran out.  You would have liked it."  Rod knows his food and I'm sure that he was probably spot on about the chicken fried steak at Rick's Bar. 

Rick's Bar is nothing fancy.  But it isn't a trashy bar, either.  At least not during the day.  Rick Carik is a motorcycle enthusiast and they can get a number of bikers in the place.  Rod told me that the place just to the east is much more of a biker bar and that Rick's gets some spillover to their place from time to time.  Rick's also doesn't take credit cards - I paid cash for our lunch because everyone else was, too.  And I didn't see any credit card signs around the place.  

I like going to Fargo and I've experience great places of fine dining and now I'm exploring the dive bar element of the area.  Rick's Bar would be the kind of place that I'd hang out for lunch and a few beers. 

Fargo (Happy Harry's) Rib Fest - Fargo, ND

The annual River Roots Live music and rib festival is coming up next Friday and Saturday at LeClaire Park in Davenport.  I've worked as the stage manager/announcer for bands at the rib fest every year with the exception of its first year in 1998.  And when River Roots Live began eight years ago, I've worked every event with the exception of the second year.  When the two combined six years ago, it was marriage of two popular and successful summertime events in the Quad Cities.  And this year - with The Wallflowers and Shooter Jennings headlining the event (with a special appearance by The BoDeans) - promises to be another great festival.

With that said, I was interested to hear that the Fargo Rib Fest - also known as Happy Harry's Rib Fest (named after chief sponsor Happy Harry's Bottle Shops with two locations in Fargo and one in Grand Forks) - would be going on when I was up in Fargo earlier this summer.  After driving from western North Dakota thru Fargo on my way to Minneapolis, I decided to stop back in Fargo to check out their rib fest.  

The first Fargo Rib Fest was held in 1996, two years before the first rib festival was held in Davenport.  Just like the one in Davenport, it features a number of national and regional traveling rib vendors and live music that includes slowly dying rock bands, and up and coming country acts.  Whereas River Roots Live is probably a music festival first and a rib festival second, it fully appears that the emphasis is on the food at Fargo and the music is a nighttime afterthought.  We start the music at 5 p.m. on Friday evening and at noon at Saturday.  In Fargo, they have an opening act and then the headliner comes on sometime after 9 p.m.  This year's headliners including Sugar Ray, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Blue Oyster Cult (a band that has played at River Roots Live in the past) and some country band that I wasn't familiar with, Gloriana.  But, then again, I don't keep up with country music all that much.   

The rib festival in Fargo is four days - Wednesday thru Saturday - compared to only two days for the River Roots Live rib fest in Davenport.  (Back when the Davenport Rib Fest was a stand-alone event, we did four days on a couple of occasions, but it was mainly three days.)  Happy Harry's has been the title sponsor in Fargo for three years now.  But the Fargo Rib Fest has over 20 national, regional and local sponsors for the event including big names like Miller Lite, Ford, and Bud Light.  As my Fargo audio dealer told me when he was describing the rib festival to me, "The community really gets behind the rib fest up here."   

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. the Fargo Rib Fest waives their admission fee (I believe it's normally 5 bucks to get in) and they work with the rib vendors to provide lunch time specials.  I pulled into Fargo just after noon and made my way up toward the Fargodome where the event is held in the northeast side parking lot of the enclosed stadium.  (see map)  When I pulled onto University Dr. N. from 19th Ave. N., I encountered a minor traffic jam of dozens of cars trying to get into the parking lot.  Now, when we do lunch on the Friday of River Roots Live, we get a pretty good crowd of downtown workers.  But with the expansive parking lots on the east and south sides of the Fargodome, they get HUGE crowds for lunch.  (My dealer told me later on, that on the day I attended the rib fest it was the first nice day they'd had in the Fargo area in weeks.  "People here have cabin fever," he explained.  "They've just been waiting for a nice day to come and it's obvious they came out in droves.")  

After parking the car toward the south side of the Fargodome, I made my way onto the grounds of the rib fest. Given the amount of cars in the lot, I knew that the lines would be long.  But I didn't anticipate them being THIS long!  There were seven rib vendors there including perennial Davenport rib fest vendor Desperado's BBQ, and a couple other rib vendors who have participated in the Davenport fest in the past - Aussom Aussie and Rasta Joe's BBQ.  I had hoped to look for Donna Rice, the owner of Desperado's (her husband, Lee, died of complications of a stroke last year), but they were so busy that I wasn't going to interrupt their lunch time rush.  

Fully knowing that I wasn't going to be able to get any ribs for lunch (they did have other non-rib vendors on the grounds), I sauntered over to the Summit Brewery tent that was manned - well, that's not the right term because it was being run by members of the Minnesota State University-Moorhead women's basketball team.  I saw that they had a Summit Summer Ale on tap and I ordered up a 16-ounce glass for $6.00 bucks (ouch!).  After grabbing my beer, I took off for a look around the grounds to see what they did differently from our festival in Davenport.   

As I said, the rib vendors all had long lines of people waiting to get ribs and two free sides as part of the lunch special that goes on during the week at the rib fest.  After getting my beer, I just happened upon a young guy who had just picked up a some ribs at Just North of Memphis, a rib vendor from north central Minnesota.  I asked him how long he waited to get ribs and he said, "About 30 minutes.  That's not as bad as last year.  I waited over 45 minutes in line to get ribs one day last year."  I began to wonder if there's any good rib joints in the Fargo-Moorhead area given the throng of people lined up in front of all seven vendors.  

 
The stage was somewhat similar to what we do for River Roots Live.  Our is a combination of the ornate Le Claire Park bandshell (which is only used as a backdrop) and a constructed covered stage.  Interestingly, they have rib vendors close to the stage area, something that could cause some pretty bad congestion for those trying to get barbecue when a band it playing and there's a load of people in front of the stage.  We keep the rib vendors back toward the east side of LeClaire Park, well away from the people near the stage area for River Roots Live. 

It was also interesting to see how and where people were eating their food.  The rib festival in Fargo used a number of large wooden cable spools as table tops interspersed around the parking lot at the Fargodome.  I thought, "Geez, what a great idea!"  However, procuring the large wooden spools and getting them to the event would be two separate issues.  There's also a handful of metal picnic tables scattered throughout the grounds of the rib festival.  And people were even sitting on some of the small metal bleachers toward the back of the stage area to try and eat their lunch.  

 
And like we have at River Roots Live, there's an dining tent.  Only the one they use in Fargo is about three times the size we use and they really do "sardine" the people in there.  The one thing I noticed is that they use heavy duty metal folding chairs in Fargo compared to the flimsy plastic seat and back folding chairs we have in Davenport.  They aren't too stable, especially when you're sitting on grass instead of asphalt.  

For the families, there were a number of areas for the kids.  Ford Motor Company had a traveling exhibit that showed new cars and offered interactive video games for kids.  There was a huge bounce area for kids as well as a small stage for family-centric entertainment.  Having that large of a parking lot allowed a lot of spreading out of the festival as a whole.  

 
Even though I couldn't get any barbecue - no, wait - I didn't want to WAIT to get any barbecue at the Fargo/Happy Harry's Rib Fest, I still came away impressed with the whole operation.  I guess-timated there were easily over 3,000 people who were either eating, waiting in line, or still coming in when I left just before 1 p.m.  I can easily see why people in Fargo get behind the rib festival.  I learned some things that I took back to Davenport with me to try and make our event even better in the years to come.  

Hi-Ho South - Fargo, ND

A shout-out today to Jeni who writes the fun mirror blog sites "Like A Fish Out of Fargo" and "An Herbalist Eats".  Jeni is a Twin Cities girl who moved to Fargo a couple years ago with her husband.  In addition to being a culinary student, Jeni shares a wanderlust with her husband of traveling around parts of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota looking for interesting places to eat.  (Update - her husband has recently been transferred to Mason City, IA for his job.  She'll be closer to family in the Twin Cities, but she'll miss Fargo, I'm sure.)  Earlier this year, she visited a place that I've had on my "restaurants to visit" list for quite sometime - the Hi-Ho South in Fargo.  Food Network Magazine named the burger at Hi-Ho South as North Dakota's "must have" burger.  (Click here for an interactive map of all 50 states and their "must-have" burgers.)  On a recent trip to the Fargo area, I took the time to stop in to the Hi-Ho South location for a burger.

The original Hi-Ho dates back to before World War II over in Dilworth, MN, which is a small town that butts up next to Moorhead, MN, just across the Red River of the North from Fargo.  In 1947, the Cariveau family bought the Hi-Ho and then nearly 50 years later they opened the Hi-Ho South in Fargo.  (Owner Rick Cariveau and his wife, Kathy, also own the Mills Lounge in Dilworth.)  The burgers at both Hi-Ho locations are made from fresh ground beef - top grade beef, as Rick Cariveau says - from a secret local source and is never frozen.

Actually, the double cheeseburger was the one that was named as North Dakota's "must-have" burger, but I determined I was only going to get a single burger when I made my way over to the Hi-Ho South located in a strip mall on S. 25th St. just north of 32nd Ave. S. in Fargo.  (see map)  It was before the lunch rush when I made it into the Hi-Ho South and found a small table in the corner with a bench seat up against the wall.

The decor of the Hi-Ho South is decidedly drab and basic.  Interestingly, pictures of burgers - and not much else - adorn the walls of the place.  The tables and chairs are the sturdy industrial-style that you see in many restaurants.  A couple televisions were turned on to CNN and ESPN.  Still, it was far from dirty or grungy.

Menus were on the table and I took a look through one when a pleasant young girl came over to greet me.  I saw that they had a mushroom Swiss cheese burger on the menu and I immediately ordered that.  For a drink, I thought, "What the hell?" and got a tall beer.  She asked if I wanted any fries or onion rings, and I declined.  

More people began to filter in while I waited for my burger to get to me.  I noticed a couple guys in the kitchen area working quickly to make burgers.  A few people were coming in to pick up "to-go" orders that they had called in previously.  Hi-Ho South certainly appeared to be a popular and hoppin' place to eat.  

One of the guys cooking the burgers brought my burger out to me.  It was pretty basic looking with a bun crown sitting on top of the burger patty which, in turn, was sitting on a bed of raw onion rings.  Dill pickles came on the side of the small paper plate.  Ketchup and mustard were provided on the table.  Just like the decor at Hi-Ho South, the burger was nothing fancy.

 
Taking the bun off the top showed a lightly toasted bun with copious amounts of canned mushrooms on top of the Swiss cheese-topped burger patty.  For being a "must-have" burger, it was pretty basic in terms of vision.  

The first bite of the burger was sort of a mystery to me.  Hi-Ho South proudly states that they don't season their beef.  And it was about as neutral of a taste that one can have with a burger.  Most flat-grilled burgers pick up a seasoned taste from the grill - especially one that has probably been cooking thousands of burgers since 1996.  But the beef was bland, so bland that about the only thing that I could taste were the raw onions.  

And if the owner of the Hi-Ho places didn't claim that he uses top-grade beef from a secret local source, I would have bet the family farm that the burger patty was previously frozen and bought from a food purveyor.  The hard edge of the burger patty told me that it couldn't be a hand-pattied burger.  There had to be some machine that they use to measure out and form the ground beef patty.  

The whole time I was eating my burger, I was thinking to myself, "This is Food Network's best burger in North Dakota?  It's about as lifeless of a burger that you can have!"  It wasn't overcooked and there was some juiciness to the meat.  But it was a drab taste experience.  I will have to say that even with mushrooms and Swiss cheese, the burger I had at the Hi-Ho South was about as neutral in taste of any burger I can remember ever having.   

(Jeni at "Fish Out of Fargo"/"An Herbalist Eats" sort of agreed with me with the burger she had at Hi-Ho South.  Click here to see her review.) 

I've learned in my travels that some establishments that I don't favor are very popular with the locals, mainly because they're used to the taste of the food.  Quad City-style pizza is one food that I still can't understand the buzz by people who grew up there.  I'll have to say that the Hi-Ho South is probably another place that you have to grow to like.  I certainly couldn't see - or taste - what the excitement was all about.  I know there has to be better burgers SOMEWHERE in North Dakota.  And while I only get up there only a couple times a year, it looks like I'm going to have to search for 'em.

Sarello's - Moorhead, MN

The long trip I took after the CEDIA Expo in Indianapolis with Jean-Philippe from Focal Loudspeakers found ourselves ending up in Fargo, ND to see our dealer, Arctic Audio.  The owner, Rod, is a long time and very supportive dealer for the line and we thought it would be fun to take he and his wife, Ellen, out for dinner.  Now, the Fargo/Moorhead area has some pretty interesting places to eat (click here to see a list of area restaurants I've eaten at in the Fargo area.), so it's always a treat to find a new place each time I come to visit.  One place that Ellen suggested we go eat was just across the Red River of the North in Moorhead - Sarello's.  For nice restaurants in the Fargo area, they've never steered me wrong.  

Sarello's is owned and run by Tony Nasello and his wife, Sarah.  (The name "Sarello's" is the combination of Sarah's first name and the Nasello surname.)  Tony was a native of Toronto, ON and the son of Sicilian immigrants. He got his degree in Hospitality Management and Culinary Arts and began to work for corporations such as Disney World and Hilton.  He got a job working on a luxury cruise liner for the Holland America company.  It was there in the early 1990's that he met Fargo native Sarah Anstett.  The two sailed around the world working together on multiple cruises before getting married and deciding to settle down in Sarah's hometown.  

(Pictured at right, Tony Nasello - picture courtesy Virtual Tourist.com)

The two had dreamed of opening their own restaurant similar to the type of food and service they provided on the large luxury cruise ships on which they worked.  They found a location just behind the Moorhead Center Mall in a building that used to be a little coffee shop and opened their doors in December of 2000.  The couple expanded their business in 2003 to include a lounge and wine bar.  

Tony refers to himself as "The Lost Italian" and the Nasello's hosted a local radio program for four years that talked about Sicilian and Northern Italian cuisine.  Nasello is the head chef at Sarello's and he's helped by station chef's Ben Walker and Chris Marteny.  

After a meeting at Rod's store, he, J.P. and I drove across the border to Moorhead.  Rod had me take a left on 4th St., then a right into and through a parking ramp, across Center Mall drive and a left into a strip mall behind the mall (see map).  Had he not been with me, I surely would have been lost.  Ellen was waiting there in the lounge for us and we were seated immediately in the dining room.  

The dining room has a number of brightly colored paintings on the wall, each highlighted by direct orb lighting.  Recessed can lighting in the middle of the dining room cast a relaxing hue on the tables down below.  Each of us were given menus and even though Rod had brought a bottle of wine, I took a look through the wine list because it was evident right off the bat that we would be making short work of the wine he brought.  

Sarello's had a special that evening - a halibut filet, grilled and topped with a medley of vegetables and finished with a light cream sauce.  Mashed potatoes also came on the side.  That sounded good, but Ellen began to tell me about the lobster ravioli - homemade ravioli stuffed with Fontana, parmesan and ricotta cheeses, tossed with lobster meat and scallions in a lobster cream sauce.  She didn't have to convince me that the lobster ravioli was probably the best thing on the menu.  

They also had a classic beef tenderloin filet mignon on the menu, as well as a pork rib-eye chop.  They also had a parmesan and pepper walleye entree, as well as a seared Mediterranean salmon with a roasted red pepper and artichoke sauce, and their signature sea bass dinner that was cooked with a citrus white butter sauce.  But Ellen had me sold on the lobster ravioli.  She and I both ordered that, while J.P. took the halibut special and Rod got the parmesan and pepper walleye.  

We each had ordered appetizers - I ordered a cup of the wild mushroom soup (below left).  The soup had a light cream/butter taste to the broth with bits of pureed mushrooms throughout.  It was actually pretty damn good.  J.P. ordered the red curry scallops, only the waiter came back and said that they were out of scallops and could substitute shrimp instead.  He took that instead.  I would have been able to show you the shrimp a spicy red cream curry sauce with sliced carrots, mushrooms and snap peas, but the picture I took didn't turn out.  He said his was also very good.  

Rod had an order of the Sicilian Arencini balls (above right) - deep fried balls of risotto, ground beef, peas and parmesan cheese, with a red pepper and artichoke puree, caramelized onions on top of the Arencini balls and finished with a couple small pools of saffron, lemon and garlic aioli.  

Ellen got one of the salad specials that evening - the beet carpaccio salad that featured thinly sliced sweet red beets topped with sliced avocados, chopped walnuts, fresh greens, crumbled blue cheese, and then finished with a red wine and honey gorgonzola vinaigrette.  She said it tasted as wonderful as it looked.  

As I suspected, we made quick work of the bottle of wine that Rod brought along, so I took a look at the wine list again and found a nice bottle of the Ramey 2008 Cabernet.  Even though we were all having seafood for dinner, we all agreed that we needed to stay with the red wine.  

Our meals came out not long afterward and we were ready to eat.  J.P.'s halibut (below left) was a lightly grilled filet sitting in a pool of a light cream sauce and topped with a myriad of cooked veggies.  A tower of mashed potatoes sat next to the fish and veggies.

Rod's walleye was encrusted in a mixture of parmesan cheese, Japanese panko bread crumbs and black pepper and pan-fried. It was topped with a lemon garlic aioli sauce.  I'm not big on breaded fish, but this looked pretty good.  Rod confirmed that it was "excellent". 

But Ellen and I thought we got the best deal of the evening - the lobster ravioli was just a slice of heaven.  There were about eight large pillows of homemade ravioli stuffed with cheese laying in a shallow bowl and topped with chunks of lobster meat, scallions and fresh parsley.  The cream sauce was light and delectable.  It was a wonderful and scrumptious meal.  

J.P. ate a good portion of his halibut, but left a lot of the veggies.  I asked him if his meal was all right and he said, "Oh, yes.  It's wonderful.  I'm just still full from the lunch we had in Chicago (we'd flown in that afternoon) and the shrimp were so filling.  I'm trying to concentrate on finishing the fish."  

Tony Nasello came out to greet us and ask how our dinners were.  I couldn't lie - the lobster ravioli was outstanding.  Everything about Sarello's was outstanding, from the service, to the food, to the wine selection, even the atmosphere in the restaurant.  Rod and Ellen did it again, they turned me on to another great restaurant in the Fargo area.  

We didn't finish up until after 10:30 and we felt pretty bad for the people in the place since they closed at 9:00 p.m. (Sarello's closes at 10:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and is closed Sunday and Monday.)  We apologized to the waiter for keeping him so late and he said, "Aw, it was fun.  I don't mind when I'm dealing with fun people."  He got a nice tip and I offered to buy him a drink after we paid.  He heartily accepted.  

Sarello's was a very pleasant surprise and it's another restaurant in the Fargo area that is just outstanding. It's sort of tough to find, but the end result is worth it.  I'm still amazed at how many good to great restaurants there are around Fargo.  It's no wonder I really enjoy going to Fargo. 

Seriously...  

(Update - I found out from my dealer and his wife that the Nasello's felt the restaurant was taking too much time away from raising their family and they have closed Sarello's.  Tony Nasello still has his radio show and they also continue to do catering work.  Sad - this was a great place to eat.)

Three Lyons Pub - West Fargo, ND

I did a less than favorable review for the burgers at JL Beers in Fargo last year (see that entry here) and I heard from a couple people who suggested that I try a place called Three Lyons Pub, an English Pub on the West side of Fargo.  (Actually, I don't know where Fargo ends and West Fargo begins.)  I had been out in Western North Dakota for a couple days and took a direct hit to my windshield from a rock that was kicked up by a truck in front of me.  A major crack developed in my windshield, so I made an appointment at a Safelite Glass location in Fargo to get it repaired.  I had some time to kill before I could get my car in and since it wasn't far away from Safelite Glass, I decided to go to Three Lyons to get a burger for lunch.

Three Lyons Pub is located in a strip mall on the south side of 13th Ave. E. in West Fargo (see map).  The owner, Blair Thoreson, opened the doors of the place in 2005.  Thoreson wears many hats - not only is he the owner of the Three Lyons Pub, he is also a medical program writer for Microsoft in Fargo (the largest Microsoft campus outside of the Seattle area is located in Fargo), and he has also served the Fargo area as a North Dakota state representative since 1998. Because he is so busy with other endeavors, Kent Larsen runs the day-to-day operation for Three Lyons Pub.  He's helped out by Michael Anderson who runs the kitchen, and Liz Swanson and Ryan Ellingson who co-manage the bar area.  

Blair Thoreson - pictured right  

I was a little apprehensive when I saw the exterior of Three Lyons Pub.  As my old neighbor, George, used to say about some Irish pubs, "They put up a couple Irish flags in a strip mall building and call it an Irish Pub."  I was afraid that Three Lyons may fall under that description, only as an English Pub in this case.  But I was pleasantly surprised when I entered to find a spacious dining area with high wooden tables with sturdy metal high back chairs, a long wooden bar to the left and a homey, pub style decor down to the pictures of Winston Churchill on the walls.  Ornate antique style lamps hung from the ceiling over the bar area. The back wall was made of brick and featured three flat screen televisions.  In fact, there were flat screen televisions located throughout the place.  

 

I had my pick of seats in the place as it was after the lunch rush, so I just decided to sit up at the bar.  One of the young ladies working the bar came over with a food menu and asked if I wanted anything to drink.  Since really all I had left that particular day was to get my windshield fixed, I ordered a pint of Smithwick's, one of nearly 20 beers Three Lyons has on tap.  Their beer menu is extensive with a number of domestic, import, craft brews, and cider beers available.  I've never been a big fan of the cider style beers, but they had six different ones to choose from at Three Lyons.  

Although I was told to try the burger at Three Lyons, they had a very interesting menu that included a dozen appetizers, three soups - including a corned beef and cabbage soup that sounded interesting to me, salads, sandwiches and a bevy of main entrees called "Her Majesty's Finest" which included Wellington Sliders - three small beef Wellington pastry puffs served with garlic mashed potatoes and Guinness beer gravy; Pasties - two puff pastry shells filled with ground beef with rutabagas and onions; Bangers and Mash - two pork sausages served with the Guinness gravy and garlic mashed potatoes; and a Shepherd's Pie - ground beef, carrots, onions and celery topped with garlic mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese.  The beef Wellington pastry puffs sounded very interesting to me.  

They also had a hot beef or hot turkey sandwich that was paired with garlic mashed potatoes and topped off with the Guinness gravy.  That actually sounded good to me - after a week of travel and eating all different types of food, some comfort food would have been welcome at that point.  They also had a London Broil sandwich featuring thin slices of steak on a French bread bun with your choice of two toppings that included sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions and peppers, horseradish sauce, and jalapenos.  One other interesting sandwich was the Messy Jessy - pulled pieces of turkey topped with a homemade barbecue sauce, cheddar cheese and your choice of either pickles or jalapenos.  But, nope, I was there for a burger.

And their burger menu was rather interesting, as well.  You can get a regular hamburger or a turkey burger and build your own by adding cheese, veggies, bacon, etc.  But they also had a number of "signature" burgers including the "Klaus" - a burger with sauteed onions, jalapenos, bacon and cheddar cheese (jalapenos were very prevalent on many items on Three Lyons menu); the "Helle" - topped with, once again, jalapenos, bacon, pepperjack cheese and then sprinkled with the hot Chinese Sriracha sauce; the "Reu-burger" which wasn't a burger at all, but featured grilled corned beef and sauerkraut with Swiss cheese and 1000 Island dressing.  They had a blue cheese/bacon burger, a burger with American cheese and barbecue sauce, and a patty melt burger.

But the burger that caught my eye was the Mushroom Swiss cheese burger.  When the bartender asked me what I wanted to order, that's what I told her I wanted.  Except I also asked if I could get some bacon on the burger, as well.  For a dollar upcharge, she said it would be no problem.  Kettle potato chips come with the sandwich, but she told me for a small upcharge I could get a side of fries with a side of the Guinness gravy.  I quickly signed up for that.

It wasn't that long of a wait for the burger and fries to come out.  The burger patty was covered with Swiss cheese and an ample amount of mushrooms - canned, not fresh - and sat on the bacon.  The bun was big and fluffy, but it was a little dry and didn't really add much to the overall taste of the burger.  While the burger was good, I couldn't call it outstanding.  The bacon, cheese and mushrooms helped zip up the taste of the beef which was average, at best.  

The fries were also average, but the Guinness gravy was worth the price of admission.  Thick, savory and flavorful, it was better than dipping the fries in ketchup.  I even dipped the burger in the gravy for a couple bites.  The Guinness gravy was outstanding.  

While the burger at Three Lyons was all right, I don't know if it was better than the one I had last year just down the street at JL Beers.  It seemed to be a bit more flavorful, but still not one that I'd deem as excellent.  But for pub fare, the burger was fine.  As was the service from my bartender.  Three Lyons Pub is a nice little place with a pretty good - but not outstanding - burger.  If I were to make it back at some point, I'd want to try some of their more traditional English fare.   

Rhombus Guys Pizza - Fargo, ND

A couple years ago when I was up in Grand Forks, ND for a meeting with a prospective dealer, I was looking for a place to eat one evening.  I found a place called Rhombus Guys Pizza that looked interesting, but it was also packed full of people.  I ended up eating at the Toasted Frog that evening (see my entry here) and had a pretty good meal.  But I always had Rhombus Guys Pizza in the back of my mind.  When I was up in Fargo earlier this summer, I was talking with my dealer about food options for the evening.  He was telling me, "Oh, man!  We've had about seven really good pizza places open up in the past few months."  He named a couple of them and then he said, "Rhombus Guys is a good pizza."  

I said, "Wait! There's a Rhombus Guys in Fargo?"  

He said, "Sure!"  I immediately said I want to go get one of their pizzas.  He said, "That's good!  It's walking distance from my store!"  He wasn't kidding.  We went down an alley, walked up 7th St. to Main Ave. and walked down the block to Rhombus Guys (see map).  Even though it was close to 9 p.m., the place was packed.  That's usually a good sign. 

Once again, the back story to how Rhombus Guys got started is pretty interesting.

Back in the spring of 2000, two friends from the Thief River Falls area of Northwest Minnesota - Arron Hendricks and Matt Winjum (pictured at right - Hendricks in the red shirt and Winjum in the blue.  Photo courtesy WDAY.com) - decided to make some money on their own before they went off to college.  Winjum had a job working for the parks and recreation department in his hometown, but wanted to be his own boss.  Along with Hendricks, their idea was to build a smoothie cart and take it around to some events and gatherings around the lake vacation areas of Northwest Minnesota.  They had an old snowmobile trailer as a base and began to build the shell for the smoothie cart.  Finding out that their carpentry skills weren't quite up to snuff, when they finally finished what they thought would be a 8 foot cube box, young Arron Hendricks exclaimed, "This thing isn't a square at all.  It's more like a rhombus!"  The name stuck and they painted the structure in a myriad of colors and called it "The Mystery Rhombus Machine".  Their business - Smoothie Rhombus - was born.  

The first summer of business, they traveled to fairs, luncheons, lake beaches - wherever a crowd gathered in Northwestern Minnesota or Northeastern North Dakota, they were there.  The first year was a learning experience for both boys, they made a little money, and they knew they had something good going and wanted to do it again the next year.  

After a year of college (Arron at University of Minnesota, Matt at Arizona State), they reunited and brought in a partner, Levi Kraft, to help out with the smoothie stand.  That particular summer, they tripled their sales and gained a lot of knowledge and confidence in running a business.  

Matt's family had a cabin on Maple Lake outside of Mentor, MN and that's where the three lived during that summer.  Lamenting that no place in the area would deliver pizza, the three came up with an idea to open a pizza place in Mentor that would deliver to a surrounding area full of lake and vacation homes in Northwest Minnesota.  They found an old building in Mentor and even though financing was a problem, they ended up buying it on contract from the owner.  They then bought all the pizza equipment from a Godfather's Pizza restaurant that had gone out of business down in Moorhead, MN, just across the Red River of the North from Fargo.  Then they learned how to make pizza.

Actually, Hendricks was the only one who had no experience in making pizza prior to the trio purchasing the pizza equipment - Kraft and Winjum had worked for Domino's Pizza in the past - but he jumped in learning how to make different pizzas with unique toppings.  One of the first pizzas they came up with was a pepperoni, green pepper, onion and bacon called the Levitricks, a combination of Levi Kraft's first name and Arron Hendricks' last name.  Not long after that, Rhombus House of Pizza opened their doors in late May of 2002.

The three continued to sell their smoothies, not only in their mobile "Rhombus" cart, but in their pizza place.  They all worked long hours (each took one day off a week) and employed girlfriends and family to help in the restaurant to help keep costs down.  While business at the restaurant was a little lean at first, they quickly built up a local following with their unique pizzas and their high visibility at local events.  The first summer of business was a success.  But school called again and the three shut the doors of the seasonal pizza place and put the smoothie cart back in the garage for the winter.    

After graduating from college (Winjum with a degree in economics and marketing, Kraft in political science and economics from North Dakota State, and Hendricks with a degree in philosophy with a minor in economics) the three went full time into the pizza business in Mentor.  They found a small space in a strip mall in their hometown of Thief River Falls and opened Cafe Rhombus in the fall of 2004.  In addition to their pizza and smoothies, Cafe Rhombus also served entrees, burgers and sandwiches.  

In the spring of 2005, Levi Kraft announced that he was leaving the business to start a family with his wife - previously his high school sweetheart.  Hendricks and Winjum carried on running both the House of Rhombus pizza business in Mentor and the Rhombus Cafe in Thief River Falls.  The two alternated between the two restaurants working two weeks at a time at each place before trading off.  

After a couple of years of tinkering with the Rhombus Cafe model, the two decided to make the next step and looked for a year-round Rhombus Pizza location in the college town of Grand Forks.  They found a great little building in downtown Grand Forks and did the build-out and renovations on their own.  In 2006, Rhombus Guys Pizza opened for business. 

Running three restaurants proved to be too much for the duo and they ended up closing Cafe Rhombus in 2008 to focus their efforts on their growing full-time pizza place in Grand Forks.  The two continued to run the House of Rhombus in Mentor as a seasonal business.  But they weren't finished expanding - they opened their second Rhombus Guys Pizza in Fargo just before Labor Day in 2011.       

The Fargo location is in a long, narrow building that was built back in the early 20th century.  There's a big bar on the left side of the building with a row of booths opposite.  There are a number of tables up front and in back.  Also in back is a game room area, as well as a place to put live music.  Artwork from a local Grand Forks artist and beer signs adorn the walls.

We waited at the hostess stand for a couple minutes before a young lady came up to greet us.  They were extremely busy in Rhombus Guys that evening and there was only a small two-seater table up toward the front or seating at the bar.  We opted for the small table.  She dropped off a couple menus and we waited for someone to come over to take our beer order.  

The menu at Rhombus Guys is definitely eclectic.  In addition to their artisan pizzas, they offer a number of interesting appetizers, fresh salads, sandwiches and wraps.  They also have a number of local and regional microbrews to choose from - about two dozen on tap and another three dozen or so available in bottles.  We were thirsty.  We were hungry.  No one was waiting on us.  

It was finally after about five minutes when a young waiter - Adam - who was cleaning off a nearby booth looked over and saw us sitting there.  He came over and said, "Has anyone waited on you guys yet?"  We said no.  He said, "Ah, OK.  Miscommunication, I guess.  I told someone else that you guys were sitting there and they must have misunderstood."  Or forgot about us, more likely, as it was very busy in there.  Anyway, we ordered up some beers - I got the Alaskan Amber they had on tap.  

Rhombus Guys Pizza has nearly 3 dozen different types of pizza on their menu.  Of those pizzas, about 8 of them are of a vegetarian variety.  The original Levitricks pizza from their Mentor location is now called "Aaron's Little Miracle" on the menu in Fargo.  Their "Pacific Northwest" pizza has smoked salmon, feta cheese, black and green olives, chopped tomatoes and garlic infused olive oil.  The "Louisiana Saturday Night" has Cajun-spiced marinara sauce, shrimp, andouille sausage, red peppers, pepperocini and caramelized onions.  "Jonny Wasabi" featured chicken, teriyaki sauce, onion, green and red peppers, pepperocini, peanuts, and a wasabi drizzle over the top.  The "Americana" was basically a bacon cheeseburger pizza with beef, bacon, cheddar cheese, marinara, mozzarella and - of all things - pickles.  I got a nice laugh out of some of the pizzas. 

My dealer was telling me that he'd always wanted to try the Rockefeller - roasted garlic-infused white cream sauce, shrimp, spinach, onion, cream cheese, tomato and mozzarella, but he said he can't when he and his wife show up with their little boys.  He said, "They have to have the basic pizza when we come here.  They like the T-Rex."  The T-Rex is Rhombus Guys signature pizza - pepperoni, sausage, bacon, Canadian bacon and beef with marinara and mozzarella.  The T-Rex has won the "Best Pizza in Grand Forks" for five years running.  His wife couldn't dine with us that night and he wanted to get a large to be able to take some extra home with him.  I told him that I no problem with that.

When it came time to order, I decided upon the Big Dogz pizza - sausage, pepperoni, black olives and jalapenos with mozzarella and marinara sauce.  I got a small one (12") and I got it with the thin crust option.  (Gluten free crust is also available.)  My dealer did order a Rockefeller with the regular crust.  And he said, "We have to get this one appetizer."  He ordered the mushroom buttons - bacon/cheese stuffed mushroom caps that are then baked to what the menu described as "ooooey gooooey perfection".  Those had caught my eye earlier and I thought the pizza would be enough for me. But I welcomed the fact that we were getting those, as well.   

The stuffed mushrooms came to our table about 10 minutes after we ordered them.  And they were as good as advertised.  The cheese/bacon filling was caramelized on the top and were oozing over the sides of the caps.  The cheese ran out of the cap when I cut into one.  My dealer showed me the proper way to eat them. "Just put the whole thing in your mouth."  Yeah, and hope that the cheese has cooled enough so that the roof of your mouth doesn't receive 2nd degree burns.  They were absolutely wonderful. 

We still had some mushroom to finish when the first pizza - the Rockefeller - made it to the table.  It was huge and the server who brought it out to us had to use a pizza holder to give us room on the table.  The outer crust was misshapen and bubbly, the hallmark of a good hand-tossed pizza.  The toppings were plentiful and swimming in the white sauce on the pizza.  The shredded mozzarella was caramelized on top of the pizza.  My dealer said, "Oh, boy!  I've been wanting to try this for a long time!"

Adam then brought out the Big Dogz pizza and we did our best in trying to find a place for it on the table.  Smaller and with a noticeably lack of thickness around the edges, it too had plentiful toppings, not an over-abundance of black olives or jalapenos - which was fine with me.  

I pulled the first piece away from my pizza and took a bite.  The crust was thin, not crisp, but not moist or droopy.  The overall temperature of the pizza was, well, sort of cold.  At least colder than what I would expect a pizza to be when it's brought to the table.  I don't know if they let it sit in back for awhile before they brought it out.  The cheese was sort of rubbery, sort of like they kept it under a heat lamp too long.  I would have expected it to be like this if the pizza where delivered, but not served at a restaurant.  It was edible and the toppings were good, but I can't say that I was very impressed with my first Rhombus Guys pizza.  Frankly, I've had slices of pizza from a Casey's General Store that were better than the pizza I had at Rhombus Guys.  

Nonetheless, I made a significant dent in my pizza.  But it was disappointing to me as I'd heard so many good things about Rhombus Guys.  I don't know if it was an off night or if the pizza suffered because they were so busy so late in the evening.  I finished what I could and let my dealer take home the remaining three pieces with the rest of his Rockefeller pizza which he declared as "Good!"  

Given the popularity of Rhombus Guys Pizza, I'm hoping that I was there on an off-night.  My pizza was disappointing, but the bacon-cheese stuffed mushrooms were to die for.  Service was a little shaky at the start, but it picked up considerably as the night went on.  And the place was pretty expensive - our bill for two pizzas, an appetizer and a handful of beers was just under $87 bucks.  For that kind of money I would have hoped the pizza would have knocked my socks off.  I'm sorry, but it sure didn't.

JL Beers - Fargo

After our dinner at Green Market Kitchen when I was in Fargo earlier this past fall, my dealer, Rod, suggested that we go to a place down the street from the restaurant - JL Beers - to get a couple nightcap beers.  As we were walking there, Rod's wife, Ellen, said that JL Beers has pretty good burgers.  "They have this machine that cooks them on both sides and they come out to you pretty fast," Ellen said.  "And they have the most amazing homemade potato chips!"  We had a few beers that night, but before leaving Fargo the next day to head west, I stopped in at the West Fargo location of JL Beers to see what the deal was.

The JL Beers in downtown Fargo was the original of what is now four locations of the beer bar/burger joint.  In addition to the one in downtown Fargo and the one I visited in West Fargo, there's a JL Beers that opened up in 2011 up the road in Grand Forks.  They were also scheduled to open a JL Beers across the Red River from Fargo in Moorhead, MN sometime before the end of the year.  Each location features at least 32 beers on tap and another 25 to 30 beers available in bottles.  The food menu at JL Beers is pretty basic - they feature nine burgers and you can add on toppings such as cheese, onions (raw or fried), an egg, bacon, lettuce, tomato, or grilled peppers for an upcharge.  In addition to the great homemade chips Ellen was raving about, they also have fries and something called "Buffalo Blu" chips.  The fries and the homemade chips are available seasoned in either sea salt, barbecue spices or Cajun spices.  

Warren Ackley and Randy Thorson (pictured right - photo courtesy of the Fargo-Moorhead Forum) are the two owners behind JL Beers.  Thorson's and Ackley's company - Global Investments - is the owner of the Old Broadway, a downtown saloon/eatery that I've eaten at a couple times in the distant past, as well as Borrowed Bucks Roadhouse (also with locations in Sioux Falls, SD, Grand Forks, ND and Bismarck, ND) and the WOW 94.7 Radio Bar, billed as the world's first radio station that also serves beer.  

The name JL Beers pays homage to an old friend of theirs - Jim Lauerman - who owned Jim Lauerman's Chili, Sandwiches and Beer, a popular hangout for the locals.  After Jim's death, Ackley and Thorson bought the building that housed Lauerman's chili joint hoping to put a restaurant in it.  However, they didn't do anything with that building and ended up selling it.  Instead, they bought the building on 1st Ave. North in downtown Fargo that also housed a sandwich shop called 1st and Deli.  They opened the first JL Beers in November of 2009.  

The concept was pretty basic - burgers and beers.  And because of the small, narrow size of the space for JL Beers, they initially had seating at the bar - 24 seats.  In fact, their motto was "Seating for 1000 - 24 at a time."  The did put in three high top tables that seated four each at the downtown Fargo location.  The West Fargo location is a little bigger - their motto is "Seating for 25,000 - 49 at a time."  

While the JL Beers in downtown Fargo is located within a building, the other JL Beers locations are free standing buildings that are constructed to look like it's an old building in which the buildings on each side were torn down.  It's a pretty clever design and a pretty neat concept.  When restaurants are looking to expand and have seating for up to 100 or more people, JL Beers wants to keep it simple.  

I got into the JL Beers in West Fargo (see map) around 11:30 a.m. and there was already a good sized crowd in the house.  I took a seat at the bar and took a look at the menu.  As I said, JL Beers only features nine different burgers, but with the add-ons you can literally call your own shot as to what you want on your burger.  

The burgers are cooked on a flat grill with a heated press that comes down and smashes the burgers, cooking them in less than five minutes and giving them sort of a crusty edge.  I'd never seen a flat grill with a heated press like this before.  Once again, another unique concept to the place.  

The burgers they have on the menu range from the Original Burger with just pickles and a special sauce on a single patty, to the Buffalo Ranch burger that has Buffalo wing sauce, ranch dressing, tomato, lettuce and a seasoning on the burger.  Three burgers that caught my eye were the Humpty-Dumpty that featured a burger with cheese and a fried egg on top, the BLT Blu with bacon, lettuce, tomato and bleu cheese on top, and the Rajun' Cajun with pepperjack cheese, JL Beers homemade chili lime sauce and grilled onions.  

And, of course, they have beer at JL Beers.  The West Fargo location has 40 beers on tap as well as a number of imported and domestic beers in bottles.  JL Beers also slums with the best of them by offering over a dozen domestic beers in cans from the likes of Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Grain Belt Premium.  The previous night, I was introduced to a beer from a new local brewery called Fargo Brewing.  They have a Wood Chipper India pale ale (the wood chipper is a nod to the somewhat gory scene in the movie "Fargo") that was pretty darn good.  For now, the beer is brewed in Wisconsin, but the group that owns Fargo Brewing hope to have a local brewery up and running sometime within the next year or so.  I had a Wood Chipper IPA brought to me while I looked through the menu.

One thing I thought to be somewhat odd at JL Beers was the fact that you couldn't get mushrooms or jalapenos on a burger.  I was hoping to do a bacon, mushroom, Swiss cheese burger, but I couldn't do that.  I ended up going with the Great American cheeseburger topped with ketchup, mustard and pickles and a slice of American cheese.  For extra measure, I got some bacon on top.  I also ordered some of the homemade chips with the sea salt seasoning and I got a side of their chili lime sauce.  

It certainly didn't take more than three or four minutes before my meal showed up in front of me.  There was a pile of homemade chips surrounding the burger with a toasted homemade bun.  The chips were warm and very tasty.  And the chili lime sauce had a little zip to the taste and went along great with the chips.  But there were so many of the chips and a healthy side of the sauce that I knew I wouldn't be able to eat all of them.  Two people could easily share the order of chips at JL Beers. 

The burger, itself, was, well, just OK.   The bun tasted good - nice and fluffy, but not chewy.  The burger wasn't all that large to begin with and had sort of a crunchiness to the outside of it.  But it wasn't all that flavorful.  It seriously tasted like a fast food burger.  As I said, it was OK, but it wasn't spectacular at all.

It was a pretty expensive lunch, too.  With a beer the bill came to $14 bucks before the tip.  You get dinged pretty good for the burger, then when you add on the chips and the chili lime sauce, it adds up pretty quickly.  Actually, the highlight of the meal was the chips.  Well, and the beer.  The Wood Chipper IPA is a very good beer.  

My impression of JL Beers is that you go there for the beer and if you're hungry you can get an average burger.  Or get the chips if you're looking for something salty in taste to go along with the beers.  While I do like the concept of JL Beers, I'm not overly impressed with the burgers.  Go for the beer, but there's better burgers elsewhere in Fargo, I'm sure.    

Green Market Kitchen - Fargo, ND

Fargo remains one of my all-time places to travel to for my work. I have a good dealer there - Arctic Audio - and I wish I could get up there more often. But since it's 600 miles from my home in the Quad Cities to Fargo, it's not easy to get up there all that much. I could fly up, but Rod, the owner for Arctic Audio, is pretty easy going and he's not too needy. He's just thrilled that I make it up to see him just once a year. On this particular visit this past fall, I took Rod and his wife, Ellen, out to dinner at a place that she highly recommended - Green Market Kitchen in downtown Fargo.

Green Market Kitchen is a restaurant that features house made foods featuring locally grown and organic items. The chef, Andrea Baumgardner, believes in using quality ingredients with a flair for creativity and serving it to those with a passion good food. The menu features a number of house made breads and soups, local or Midwest area cheeses, meats, and produce. Green Market Kitchen also does catering for small parties and events.

Andrea Baumgardner is a native of Fargo who went away to learn how to be a chef. She returned in 2002 to become the chef at the Hotel Donaldson, a European-style boutique hotel in downtown Fargo. Wanting to return to her roots, so to speak, she was looking to do something more with organic foods. Peter Kelly was a childhood friend of Andrea's who had moved back to Fargo from New York City to care for his ailing mother. Together, the pair opened up the first Green Market Kitchen on NP Ave. (short for Northern Pacific, but all the Fargo locals just refer to it as NP Ave.) in 2006 and sold locally grown produce and meats. Still trying to find their way with their fledgling business, Andrea and Peter closed the doors of the NP Ave. business and looked for a new location.

The second incarnation of Green Market Kitchen was a deli at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo. Open six days a week from 11 a.m to 2 p.m., they quickly garnered a reputation for good tasting organic and locally grown foods. Andrea was also doing some catering at this point and more and more people began to clamor for the two to open a full service restaurant.

In 2010, along with partner Steve Heiland, the group opened the present day location on 4th Street North in downtown Fargo just a couple blocks from the Minnesota border (see map). It's not very large - it only seats around 40 people - and while Baumgardner does her magic in the kitchen, Kelly and Heiland are busy waiting on tables, cleaning up dirty dishes and making sure everything is OK in the dining room.

We came in and spied an empty four seater table in the middle of the dining room. We were getting ready to pull up a chair and Ellen looked down and saw that there was a "reserved" sign on the table. She said, "Oh! This is reserved!"

Peter Kelly (who is a neighbor and a good friend of Rod and Ellen's) came over and said, "Yeah, let me put you guys somewhere else." He scanned the room and all the larger tables were taken and the four-seaters that were empty weren't cleaned off yet. He said, "Yeah, go ahead and sit here. I'll put the reserved table at one of the others after I clean and set it up."

Rod and Ellen introduced me to Peter and he said, "Oh, wonderful! I hope you enjoy our food." He was immediately likable.

Ellen raved about the food at Green Market as we were perusing the menu. She said, "They have the most outrageous bread here. They have these flax seed crackers that are just to die for." She suggested we get a cheese tray to get as an appetizer.

I looked through the very small wine list and saw that they had a bottle of Jordan Cabernet for $65 bucks. Wow! $65 bucks? There are restaurants who have that same bottle for $120 to $130 bucks. I immediately signed up for a bottle of that for the table.

Peter brought out the cheese tray and it featured four different types of house made breads - including the flax seed crackers that Ellen raved about - and four different Midwestern cheeses. There were various fruits on the plate, as well. It was a nice opener to what promised to be a great meal.

Looking through the menu that evening - which changes almost daily depending upon availability - I noticed a number of interesting items including 28 day dry-aged/grass-fed North Dakota ribeye steaks, walleye cakes with a remoulade sauce, 1/4 roasted free range chicken, vegetarian lasagna and a lamb/turkey burger. There were a number of vegetarian and gluten-free offerings on the menu. Usually, I find the food at a place like Green Market Kitchen to be bland, but Ellen and Rod assured me that this was not the case with Andrea's cooking.

Peter came around and announced that the ribeye was sold out for the evening. It was only 7:30, but they had a big rush on it earlier. Well, that pretty much put a kibosh on what I was going to have, so I had to go to Plan B. He was telling me about the stromboli - a homemade Italian sandwich that featured Genoa salami, capacolla and prosciutto baked inside the bread with cheese. Along with the heirloom tomatoes, chard and thinly sliced parmesan cheese salad, I got that.

Rod opted for the lamb/turkey burger and got a bowl of the homemade lentil soup. Ellen got the walleye cakes with the remoulade sauce. She also ordered up a bowl of their homemade heirloom tomato soup. And for good measure she also ordered some of the homemade spaetzle and, on urging from Rod, she also ordered the duck fat potatoes. Oh, yeah - duck fat fried potatoes. She said, "The portions aren't that big, but big enough that we can all do some sharing. Sort of like tapas."

We blew through the bottle of Jordan while we were having our cheese plate and I ordered another one from Peter. He came back and said, "Ah, we are out of the Jordan. You took the last bottle." Somewhat crestfallen, I took a look at the small wine list and tried to decide what to get. Peter suggested a zinfandel from out in California somewhere. I'm not all that familiar with zin's, but we did get a bottle of that (appreciably cheaper than the Jordan) and it was good.

As Peter was opening the bottle of the zinfandel wine, he remarked, "Honestly, we've had that bottle of Jordan for six months. I'd marked it down to get it out of here." I appreciated the good deal on a great wine.

The salad was very good (below left). I guess I didn't know heirloom tomatoes could be small like cherry tomatoes, but I wasn't complaining. The greens were fresh and the thinly sliced parmesan was a delicious touch. So far, so good on the meal.

Rod said that he didn't care for his lentil soup, so he and Ellen traded. He liked the tomato soup better and they ended up just sharing back and forth. That was kind of the signature of the dinner.

Peter brought out the main entrees and I really didn't know what to expect from my stromboli. But the sandwich was cut into long slices with the ingredients embedded inside. An olive/caper/anchovy tapanade and a whipped tomato puree sauce was served with the stromboli. The tapanade was a wonderful topping with the moist and overly flavorful bread. I had more than enough to share with Rod and Ellen.

Ellen's walleye cakes were also very tasty. They were small, so a couple bites could finish them off rather easily. The remoulade sauce was homemade and some of the best I'd ever had. It was tangy, but didn't overpower the overall taste of the walleye cakes.

Rod's turkey/lamb burger was laid inside a focaccia bun that had been sliced as a pocket. He'd offered me a bite of it, but I declined. I'm not big on lamb and I don't care for turkey burgers. Besides, between the main entrees we had, it was more than enough.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the sides! How could I forget about them because they were probably the highlight of the meal. The duck fat fries aren't pictured here because we literally inhaled them after Peter brought them to the table. They were cut into small wedges and had that great duck fat taste to the outer shell with a great potato consistency inside. The spaetzle, also, was outstanding. It had chunks of fried potatoes (probably also cooked in duck fat) and fresh parsley throughout. It got to a point that we all were just using the spaetzle bowl as one large community offering.

Before we left, Andrea Baumgardner came out of the kitchen to talk with Rod and Ellen. She's strikingly tall and thin with close cropped red hair. We all liked our meals very much and she was overly happy.

Organic and/or locally grown restaurants are now the rage across the country. While I've eaten at a handful of "farm to fork" restaurants over the past year or so, I'd put Green Market Kitchen up against those I've tried in much larger metropolitan areas. That's one of the great things about Fargo - they have some interesting restaurants up there. It continually surprises me with how cosmopolitan the area can be and how good some of the restaurants are. I may have to start going up to Fargo two times a year. But never in the winter...

(Update - Sadly, I've been informed that Green Market Kitchen closed their doors at the end of March 2013.  It's my understanding that Andrea and Peter were burned out from the success of their restaurant that they needed to take a step back.  I hear a number of people in the Fargo area are bummed with Green Market Kitchen closing and I can fully understand.) 

Silver Moon Supper Club - Fargo

A couple years ago, I took my dealer in Fargo out to dinner at Rescan, a wonderful Italian restaurant in the hip downtown area.  Before we went out to dinner, we met his wife for drinks at a place called the Silver Moon Supper Club - an upscale supper club that had opened just a couple weeks before.  I told him that at some point I wanted to take him out for dinner at the Silver Moon.  On my annual trip to Fargo this past summer, I did just that.

Monte Jones was a North Dakota farm boy who was obviously out of place in the upper plains.  After graduating from high school, he took off for New York City and became a dancer and choreographer.  After living in New York City for nearly 30 years, Monte moved back to Fargo, sensing a change in the attitudes of the city.  With Fargo being a small, yet somewhat cosmopolitan city in the middle of nowhere, Jones opened up a fine dining establishment called Monte's Downtown.  It was a big hit with the well-to-do locals and the people who came into town to do business. 

Let's go back to the 1940's.  That's when a supper club by the name of the Silver Moon opened in Moorhead, MN, just across the Red River of the North from Fargo.  From the early 40's until 1969, the Silver Moon was a grand old-style supper club - the kind of place where people would go for special dinners.  Monte Jones' mother used to work in the Silver Moon when he was growing up.  Jones and his partner, Jerry Erbstoesser, decided to open an extravagant supper club in downtown Fargo based in part on the old Silver Moon in Moorhead. 

The building that houses the Silver Moon was originally built in 1917 for a company that used the four floors and the basement as a warehouse for dry goods including clothing, linens, sheets, blankets and bedspreads.  The building was a warehouse for nearly 70 years before the space was no longer useful.  The building languished for about 20 years used for various things before a group of investors bought the space in 2007 turning the upper floors into loft residencies and allowing Jones and Erbstoesser to put the Silver Moon Supper Club on the main floor.

Jones and Erbstoesser envisioned a retro-styled restaurant, full of art deco and art moderne touches including clam shell booths, a water wall and a private eating area called Salon Privé.  They enlisted the help of Chef Josh Smith to come up with an interesting and varied menu - one that changes seasonally based upon locally grown foods found in the area.  Because of that concept, the Silver Moon's menu changes constantly and there's always bound to be something different to eat each time you go to the place.

It was late in the afternoon when I arrived into Fargo.  My dealer and his people were out working on a job site and were running late.  I ended up at a place for a couple three beers before he joined me after getting cleaned up.  We sat and talked business for a little while before we decided to head over to the Silver Moon on Roberts Street (see map).  My dealer's wife had been planning on joining us for dinner as were his two workers, but none of them were there when we showed up at 8 p.m.  

My dealer and I had a drink at the bar - a nice little modern style U-shaped bar with the bartender in a vest and black tie.  The owner, Monte Jones, whom I'd met on my previous visit to the place, came over to greet my dealer, whose wife and he are regular visitors to both the Silver Moon and to Monte's.  My dealer reintroduced me to Monte and I told him that I was looking forward to dinner that evening.  

One of my dealer's workers showed up about 8:30 and his wife finally showed about 10 minutes later.  The third worker had called and begged off saying that he was too tired to come out to dinner.  I told my dealer, "Man, you must have worked him pretty hard!"

My dealer said, "Oh, we were running wire in attic and crawl spaces today.  It was brutally hot in some of those spaces."  

The four of us sat at one of the Silver Moon's signature clam shell booths.  Personally, I don't care for booths like that - it's like you're on display for the rest of the restaurant, watching you eat and carry on in conversation.  But it was late in the evening and only a handful of people were in the restaurant.  

The Silver Moon also usually has someone in playing the baby grand piano that's up on a little riser in the main dining area.  But that night it sat silent.  When my dealer's wife inquired about that with Monte, he said that during the summer months he's been only having someone come in during the weekends.  "When the schools get back in session this fall (North Dakota State University and Minnesota State - Moorhead), we'll get our regular group of players to come back in." 

Our waitress came out and gave us menus.  I also ordered up a bottle of wine - and I have to admit that things get very fuzzy from here on out.  I'd had a few beers before we showed up to the restaurant, then a couple more while we were waiting.  I usually go back to the room and make notes of what we had to eat or drink at the restaurant, but I didn't get back to my hotel until 11:30 p.m. and I had a 5 a.m. wake-up call for a 7 a.m. flight out of Fargo that morning.  I immediately went to bed. 

So, I can't remember what kind of wine we got, but I do know it was red.  But I was the only one going to have beef that night - everyone else went with a seafood entree.  The night before in Dickinson, I broke up my two night streak of having steaks, going with some chicken dish at an Applebee's when I took my dealer and his crew out for dinner.  (My Dickinson dealer closes his doors at 9 p.m. and anything close to a fine dining restaurant in Dickinson closes at 9 p.m. - that's why we ate at Applebee's.) 

Three courses came with the dinner - salad, main entree and a dessert.  I ended up getting the Silver Moon's New York strip - rare - with a side of garlic mashed potatoes.  As I said, my guests all got seafood.  I do remember that my dealer got the shrimp and risotto entree, but I can't for the life remember what the other two got.  

The presentation at the Silver Moon is very good.  My steak was resting on a bed of asparagus spears with a small grilled onion slice on top.  From what I remember about the meal, it was very good.  Our waitress was also very good, she had a great sense of humor and took care of us very well.

After dinner, our waitress came around and showed us the dessert menu.  Something caught my eye on the dessert menu - the after dinner drinks.  And for $15 bucks they had a three-Scotch flight of drinks - the Macallan 12 year; the Macallan 15 year aged in fine oak barrels; and the 18 year Highland Park.  Now, I really have to tell you that at that point in the evening - close to 11 p.m. - I certainly didn't need that.  But for $15 bucks to have all three fine Scotch whiskeys I really couldn't pass it up.  I ended up passing on getting dessert and got the Scotch instead.  Let me tell you, I was feeling no pain at that point, but lingered a little longer in the shower the next morning after my 5 a.m. wake up call at the hotel.

So, from what I remember about the Silver Moon Supper Club - my steak was very good, the service was wonderful, whatever wine we had was very good, Monte Jones was a great host and the Scotch at the end of the night - which I didn't need, but had anyway - was a nice closer to the evening.  I wish I could get up to Fargo more often, but being that it's a nine hour drive - minimum - and a 3.5 hour plane trip (with a stop at Minneapolis-St. Paul to change planes), I just can't get up there as much.  But the way the economy in North Dakota is going, there's business to be had and I may be getting up there more often than once a year.  That way I can go back to places like The Silver Moon Supper Club and hopefully remember more about my meal.  

 

(Update - It wasn't long after my entry about the Silver Moon that Monte Jones shut the place down.  I know a lot of people were unhappy about his decision.  It was actually a cool place and one that would have worked well in a much larger metro area, but maybe not so much in Fargo.)

John Alexander's - Moorhead, MN

 

On my annual trip to Fargo this year, I had time for lunch with my dealer in the area, Arctic Audio.  The owner, Rod, and his assistant, Cassie, suggested we take a short drive across the Red River of the North and go into downtown Moorhead to a newer place - John Alexander's (see map).  We hopped in Rod's van and got there in less than three minutes.

John Alexander's is a contemporary American restaurant that features light lunch meals and a night time menu that features some interesting entrees.  The restaurant is owned by Juan Mondragon and his wife, Annele.  Mondragon is a native of Mexico and came to the states nearly 30 years ago on a tennis scholarship to a school in California.  The Mondragon's ended up in Fargo and he opened his first restaurant, Juano's - a popular Mexican restaurant in downtown Fargo - in 1996.  They named John Alexander's after their son.

The restaurant is situated in a beautifully restored building in downtown Moorhead.  The building, itself, was built in the late 1880's and was bought by the city of Moorhead about five years ago to encourage development.  Previously, an old bar had been in the location.  Rod told me that it was somewhat weird to eat in John Alexander's when for years he used to drink in what was then a very dive bar in Moorhead.

The lunch menu featured a number of sandwiches, salads and light entrees.  I thought about getting a salad for lunch, until I saw one of the salads they have at John Alexander's brought out to a table next to ours.  It was huge.  I decided to look hard at the sandwiches.  The French Dip caught my eye, but then I saw the Pastrami on pumpernickel.  It was topped with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut.  Cassie said, "Oh, that's my favorite."  She and I both ordered that.  You got your choice of a side and she took John Alexander's beer battered fries while I got a side salad with their homemade white wine vinaigrette dressing.

Rod ordered the fish and chips - a beer battered piece of white fish with a helping of their house fries.  About half way through the ordering process, he stopped for a moment and got to looking at the menu again.  He said to the waitress, "Naw, I was thinking of getting something else, but I'll do the fish and chips."

He said, "There's just too much to choose from on this menu.  It's all good."

And it was good.  My pastrami sandwich was piled high with very tender beef.  The cheese and sauerkraut didn't overpower the taste of the meat.  The salad for my side was OK - it featured a variety of greens and the white wine vinaigrette was interesting.

Rod's beer battered white fish was plentiful.  He said, "This batter is so rich, I usually can't eat the whole thing."  But he managed to do so at this meal.

Cassie asked me, "Did I steer you wrong on the pastrami?"

I said, "Not at all.  This is a very good sandwich."  And it was.  I was very satisfied with my lunch at John Alexander's.

There are actually a number of good places to eat in the Fargo-Moorhead area.  John Alexander's is another one that I've been turned on to.  Rod said the next time I come back up to Fargo - more than likely sometime after March next year - we needed to try John Alexander's dinner menu.   I was impressed with the lunch menu, so I'm sure I'll be pleased with what they have to offer for dinner.

(Update - John Alexander's closed in early 2014 and the space now houses a new restaurant by the name of Rustica.  Look for an entry on Rustica in the coming days.)

Toscana - Fargo, ND

Each time I go to Fargo - yes, Fargo - I get more pleasantly surprised as to how much of a "big city" this town of about 100,000 people really is.  First of all, it's the biggest town for hundreds of miles around.  Secondly, there's a lot of money in the community.  And third, they aren't shy to spend it.  I visited my dealer in Fargo before the snow fell last year and we went out to dinner at a great little place downtown by the name of Toscana (see map).

Chef Mirco Morganti grew up in Lucca, Italy and spent five years in cooking school in Europe.  Chef Mirco's work took him all through Europe, then to the U.K. before ending up in the U.S. a few years ago.  When he was working in Sioux Falls at a restaurant there, he met Fargo native Char Nelson.  They soon married and Char convinced her husband to come back with her to Fargo to open a restaurant.  Toscana opened in the late part of 2006 and many of Chef Mirco's recipes are a reflection of his Italian heritage. 

Before we went to Toscana, my dealer and his wife took me for drinks to a new supper club that friends of theirs had recently opened, the Silver Moon (see map).  Owned by Monte Jones and Jerry Erbstoesser, the Silver Moon was a very ornate 30's-style supper club in the heart of the historic district in Fargo.  The restaurant, housed in a building that is over 90 years old, is named after a former and famous local landmark - the Silver Moon - which was located just across the Red River of the North in Moorhead, MN.  I met Monte Jones and he told me they had just opened their doors to the public a couple weeks prior after hosting a number of "dry run" evenings for friends and family.  My dealer and his wife were part of a couple of those "dry run" evenings and they raved about the food and appetizers they were served. 

Actually, with Monte Jones' wonderful hospitality and the ambiance of the place, I was all set to have dinner there that evening.  However, my dealer said, "C'mon, we're going to go get dinner.  You like Italian, don't you?"

Oh, God, yes...

My dealer's wife begged off for dinner as she was hosting a small gathering at their house later in the evening, so it was just a short walk from the Silver Moon to Toscana for my dealer and I on a cool North Dakota evening.  Toscana's decor is very rustic Italian with wrought iron and spackled walls.  It was very nice and comfortable in the restaurant. 

We got the wine list and the menu from our smartly dressed waiter.  Toscana was very classy, but very laid back.  You could have easily taken the restaurant and put it in a place like St. Louis, Chicago or Minneapolis and it would have fit in very well.

After getting a very decent priced bottle of the Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, we ordered dinner.  My dealer ordered the veal picatta which came with a small Italian salad.  I was torn between the Steak au Poivre - a New York strip topped with a green peppercorn sauce; or the meat filled tortellini in a vodka cream sauce.  The waiter had a great suggestion.  He said, "Get the Steak au Poivre and I can get you a side of the tortellini."  He just earned a nice jump in his tip.  

We talked business over salads and wine.  He announced that he was opening a new showroom in Fargo and was planning on displaying a number of products that we sell.  When we finished the first bottle of Jordan just as dinner was being served, I promptly ordered another.  We were celebrating.     

My Steak au Poivre was just wonderful.  It was cooked a perfect medium rare and the creamy green peppercorn sauce added to the wonderful flavor of the meat.  And the tortellini in the vodka cream sauce was just out of this world.  Along with a great glass of Jordan Cabernet, it certainly didn't suck to be me that evening.

I took my dealer home and he invited me in to join the gathering of his wife's friends who were watching "Project Runway."  I was like, "What?" 

But he said, "It will be a hoot.  Besides, I know they're having wine."  

Once inside, my dealer's wife asked, "So, how was Toscana?"

Well, I have to say it was one of the best Italian meals I've ever had.  The service was great and we had a great time.  Like I say, it seems like Fargo surprises me each time I visit the city.  I was certainly surprised and blown away by the food at Toscana.  It was absolutely wonderful.

Playmakers - Fargo, ND

Named one of the 25 Best Sports Bars by Sports Illustrated magazine, Playmakers in Fargo, ND is one of the best sports bars/entertainment complexes I've ever been in. 

Situated on the west side of Fargo (see map), Playmakers is a sports bar, casino, night club, and show venue all rolled into one.  It is truly amazing and is something to see.

Playmakers is owned by Lee Swanson, Jr., a Fargo area man who has built his fortune with Swanson Health Products, a large vitamin mail-order company founded by his father in the 60's.  Swanson also owns a number of gentleman's clubs around the Fargo area, as well.

My dealer in Fargo installed a whole house audio/video system into Lee Swanson, Jr's luxury loft apartment in downtown Fargo, so he has inside privilege to getting behind the scenes at Playmakers.  After he took me on a tour of Lee's loft, he took me over to Playmakers.   

Swanson opened Playmakers in the 80's, primarily as a sports bar.  In 1991, Swanson opened "The Pavilion", which was nothing more than a large pole barn attached to Playmakers primarily used for live musical acts and boxing events.  A couple years ago, Swanson sunk millions of dollars into The Pavilion to update it.  And how.  The Pavilion gave way to "The Venue" 

The Venue is pretty nifty - it's a large area that will seat 500 people, or accommodate up to 2000 people for standing room only for small concerts.  It has it's own permanent stage with high tech lighting and a state-of-the-art P.A. system.  It has a main bar area in the back side of the main floor, and a more formal bar area upstairs in the balcony area.

The Venue has a number of private "sky-boxes" in the balcony that are either owned or can be rented out for events and concerts.  There's a mezzanine of tables and chairs on the front side of the balcony that are terraced for optimum viewing. (My dealer said he saw a recent Bruce Hornsby show from those seats.)

There's also a nice little lounge area in the back part of the balcony, called "The Sky Box Lounge" that includes a pool table and comfortable seating, along with large screen televisions.  For Fargo, it's pretty classy.  Actually, if it were in Chicago, it would still be pretty classy.   

There are two 16 foot projection screens on either side of the stage, along with a number of plasma screens along the wall to allow people to see the performance.  My dealer said that he bid on the plasmas, but the bid went to the people who put in the P.A. system.  He said, "Lee told me that he just felt it would be more prudent to keep the number of sub-contractors to a minimum.  To be quite honest with you, I'm glad I didn't get the job."

The main sports bar/casino at Playmakers is one of the nicest I've ever been in.  With 4 large screens, a number of plasma panels and individual 13" LCD monitors in each booth, there's no way a person could miss any of the action on TV.  The casual, yet classy atmosphere of the sports bar area makes Playmakers one of the most unique sports bars I've ever seen.

Off to the other side of the sports bar area, there's "The House of Rock", an upscale nightclub/dance club area.  The club features diverse music selections - everything from rock to country to hip-hop to 50's and 60's.  The decor is funky and art-decoish, and it looked like it would be a fun place.

We were there in the middle part of the morning before the bar/restaurant opened up, but I checked out the menu and it looked like it was a little more than just your standard sports bar food.  My dealer said, "Oh, yeah.  They have steaks and seafood here.  The food is wonderful.  My wife and I come here quite a bit to eat."

Fargo is one of those cities that is surprisingly nice.  In my visits to the area, I've gone away with a more positive image of the town each time I've left.  And Playmakers is one of those places that helps make Fargo truly surprising.  It may be the nicest sports bar complex I've ever been in.