The menu is flawed with misspellings, including “Ceaser,” “avacado,” “achovie,” and “Rueben.” We wondered if possibly this could have been done on purpose. Maybe the Casino will set up a contest to win a free meal for finding the most misspellings.
Whitey’s Offers Eclectic Menu with Art Deco Ambience
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MAY 30, 1990
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It smelled good—sort of like a burned toasted cheese sandwich—when I went into Whitey’s for lunch Friday. Constant Companion was there ahead of me and waiting in a booth. And there were a lot of people there, though it was around 1 o’clock.
I like going to Whitey’s on Friday because I enjoy the new skewer lunches. They serve an assortment of fresh fruit on a skewer along with a cheese wedge and a hard roll. I asked for the single skewer and soup combo ($2.95) because they serve their wild rice soup on Friday. And it is good. It has a nice flavor and the slivered almonds they use make it crunchy.
CC likes to go there on Friday because stewed chicken and dumplings is one of the specials. That’s a whole meal with vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy and a roll ($3.75).
Our food Friday lived up to our expectations. June Miron, an experienced waitress, served us unobtrusively and efficiently. In other words, she didn’t ask us six times if everything was all right. CC enjoyed the dumplings and commented that he really would rather have two dumplings and skip the potatoes. His green peas seemed garden fresh, and were a big improvement over the canned peas of yesteryear.
My skewer held wedges of an orange, honeydew melon, regular watermelon, cantaloupe, fresh pineapple and a big red strawberry with a little dish of 10 red seedless grapes on the side. I got two chunks of cheese and slice of salami. All of this with a sesame seed roll that was very white and very fresh.
It seems as though Whitey’s never changes. Actually, the management just makes improvements slowly so the place always seems the same. And that may be why people who have lived here always want to stop at Whitey’s when they come back. They may outgrow their college haunts and other places change hands or disappear, but Whitey’s is always there, always the same. It’s an easy-access place.
Whitey’s of 1990 is sort of a monument to Edwin “Whitey” Larson, the former owner who now lives in the Good Samaritan Nursing Center. Whitey started out with a Coney Island stand on a side street in East Grand Forks in 1925 and went on to build the present operation. He sold the business in 1973. Greg Stennes, the general manager, started working for Whitey’s as a waiter in 1968. He came back in 1971, after military service, and worked as a bartender. You can tell he loves the place. He discourages the rowdy trade, and takes pride in the menu, which he updates and reprints twice a year. Stennes is a UND graduate with a major in marketing.
Stennes calls steaks and seafood the mainstay of the business. Some things never change. Mushrooms and asparagus tips on toast has been there forever. And, Stennes says, he will always keep steamed finnan haddie on the menu because “my mother likes that.”
No One Goes Away Hungry from New Players Bar & Grill
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JUNE 20, 1990
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It’s busy, busy, busy. And the new Players Sports Grill & Bar on South Washington Street is the talk of the town. I had planned to let things shake down there for a couple more weeks before going out to describe it in Eatbeat. But in almost every place I’ve been since it opened, I have heard people talking about Players.
So, what the heck. We stopped in Thursday for lunch, and we were delighted with what we saw and what we ate. Not just pleased. I mean delighted. This is a most attractive, upbeat, light and bright place to go. It has had an extensive renovation since the days it was known as CB’s and then sat empty. The restaurant opened originally in the early 1970s as the Cape Codder. Then it became Captain’s Cove, and later, the Mainstreet.
Generally speaking, it’s lighter and brighter now. Specifically, there are more windows. Large screens showing sporting events can be seen from every seat in the grill. The decor is complete with sports pennants and tones of blue, white and green. These are the colors used in uniforms worn by the serving staff. Right now, it’s softball jerseys. Later on, the servers will wear uniforms corresponding to the sports in season.
The whole idea of the place is to have fun. But it’s the homemade pasta that is drawing the most raves. Players has a pasta-making machine, imported from Italy. Into it each day go the eggs and flour and other ingredients for homemade pasta.
I ordered Italian lasagna ($5.95). It’s served with a choice of minestrone soup or salad and soft, warm bread sticks, which are lightly flavored with garlic. The lasagna, served on a large platter, was a most generous serving. It was topped with freshly shredded parmesan cheese and surrounded by a classic red sauce, which rates an A-plus in my book. This is a light sauce with a distinctive tomato taste and seasoned with fresh herbs. I learned later that it was developed for Players by chef Kim Holmes, who operates Sanders Restaurant in downtown Grand Forks.
While I ate lasagna, Constant Companion was working his way through a Cajun chicken sandwich and a spinach salad ($5.25). He considered the sandwich very good and said, “The chicken is well cooked.” He also enjoyed the Cajun sauce, because it had personality. In other words, fire.
Most salads and sandwiches on the menu are in the $4 to $5 range. Dinners are $6 to $7, but you can go as high as $8.95 for a ribeye steak dinner.
There is one menu at Players, and all the items are served from 11 A.M. until closing time.
Patrons talk about the ample servings.
“No one leaves here hungry, and we send home a lot of doggie bags,” owner Jon Borman says. He’s been hovering around greeting people, checking the kitchen, reminding busboys to keep the clatter down and not annoy the patrons. Borman constantly studies restaurant and trade magazines and makes frequent checks of the eating scene in Minneapolis. He says the sports grill concept is hot throughout the country. “I wanted to bring it to Grand Forks,” he said.
From Pâté to Pears, Dinner at Sanders 1907 Is Unique
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OCTOBER 31, 1990
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“We don’t have anything like this in Bismarck,” said some of our guests when we had dinner at Sanders 1907. Seven of us spent a jolly evening during UND homecoming, having dinner in the little cafe on Kittson Avenue that has a built a strong reputation since it opened nine years ago.
Sanders is the sort of place you like to take out-of-town guests. It’s also a place where you feel like celebrating birthdays and anniversaries. At the same time, it’s the kind of place where you can have ethnic dinner for a moderate price of $10 on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evenings.
Our reservation was for 8:30 P.M., and our table was ready. We were seated in a green high-backed booth. Our guests admired the rosemaling painting on the booths and walls that was done by Linda Evenson when she and her husband, Bob, opened the cafe. Their stamp remains on Sanders, even though they have moved on to a resort in Minnesota. Sanders is relatively dark and bustling on a Saturday night. You can watch Kim Holmes, the owner, and his sous chef, John Gjovik, at work, framed in the copper-colored tin walls of the open kitchen. Sanders still has the high tin ceiling reminiscent of the era of the building.
The staff is well-trained. Our waiter guided us through our choices of a pâté appetizer, salads, entrees, wines and eventually dessert and coffee. First came the crusty French bread, which is made each day by Holmes and served with unsalted butter. We shared two orders of the pâté, which were presented on a plate garnished with a fat radish on greens, and paired with a hot, spicy cream cheese. With the pâté, there was an assortment of thin crackers. We tried the Caesar salad, although above-average salads are served with the entrees. Then came the main show.
Jean Peterson of Bismarck and I both had salmon, which is flown in fresh and never frozen. It was flaky and moist with a crisp edge that Holmes gets by rubbing the fish in oil, herbs and
black pepper and cooking quickly in a hot cast-iron pan. The salmon was topped with a mint pesto sauce. And it was out of this world.
Daughter Carol Hagerty, here on a quick trip from Denver, enjoyed her walleye meunière in a wine butter sauce, although it lacked the fresh quality of the salmon. Constant Companion appreciated the tenderness of his tenderloin steak in green peppercorn sauce.
Tom Golden dug into an order of barbecued short ribs in sweet-and-sour sauce, but it was more than even a growing boy of 13 could handle. So, he took a “doggie bag” home with him.
Bob Peterson of Bismarck had his mind set on the roast caraway duck, but it was not to be. The last duck was sold just before we ordered, and we found out you almost have to call up and reserve the duck ahead of time. It was no big deal, though. He switched his order to prime rib rubbed with herbs and spices, called Swiss Eiger beef on the Sanders menu.
Gail Hagerty Golden ordered crevettes niçoise, or sautéed shrimp, which disappeared quickly when it arrived.
We tried the current “hot” dessert at Sanders. It’s a pear filled with cream sauce and drizzled with chocolate fudge sauce and raspberry puree.
Our entire check came to around $185 and with a $25 tip, it was a healthy outlay. But it wasn’t outrageous at all when you consider the amount of food and the quality of it. By big city standards, it was a bargain.
Sanders isn’t perfect: Caesar salad is misspelled on the menu, and there was a long delay on one of our dinners. But Sanders is awfully good, too. Holmes makes it a point to mingle with patrons, and he combs the markets of Grand Forks to serve the best produce, herbs and fresh fish. Holmes has a flair for turning out dinners with a European flavor. It makes me hope that Sanders will be in business here a long time.
Lumpy’s Offers Yet Another Version of the Sub
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DECEMBER 5, 1990
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The music was rocky at Lumpy’s, and loud. There was that usual feeling of disorientation you get when you make your first visit to a fast food place. You have to learn the game plan.
At some submarine shops, it’s tough. It wasn’t too bad at Lumpy’s, because a young woman with an orange Lumpy’s T-shirt and a matching cap gave me a little sheet of paper listing all the ingredients in a Lumpy’s sub. “All you have to do,” she said, “is cross off what you don’t want. Then we’ll make up your sub the way you want it.”
“I like everything.” I said. “And I’m hungry.”
She said, “OK.”
So, I checked wheat bread. I checked small for a $2.39 size sandwich. I could have had a medium for $3.59 a large for $4.79 or a giant for $9.99. But that feeds six people. Then, there’s a 3-foot sandwich for $19.99 and a 6-footer for $39.99.
When CC arrived, he ordered the same thing as I had. It’s easier that way. We sat down and looked over the place while we waited for our submarine sandwiches. We remembered when the building opened as an Auto Dine in 1966. After that, we remembered it was a Pizza Patrol. It also has been an ice-cream shop. And now we have Lumpy’s.
Our sandwiches were ready in a short time. Then we started chewing in earnest. There were thin slices of the meats—pastrami, roast beef, corned beef, turkey, salami, ham and bologna. There was American, Swiss and provolone cheese. Also lettuce, pickles, tomato, onion, mayonnaise, alfalfa sprouts, black olives and Lumpy’s special dressing. This is my kind of food.
CC said, “Half of this would have been enough for me.”
“Not for me,” I said, although I must admit I was almost on full when I finished.
I noticed signs around the place about macaroni and potato salad, taco salad supreme, side salads and chili. A sign said you can buy a Lumpy’s T-shirt for $12. Another said you can get a soup and sandwich special every day for $3.50.
Todd Philbrick was cleaning tables and checking supplies. He’s the owner of the Lumpy’s franchise. Lumpy’s is a rather new regional operation, with headquarters in Watertown, S.D. The originator is Jerry Laqua, who started out selling ham sandwiches in his Teen Center. One thing led to another, and soon he was making submarine sandwiches. So now, Lumpy’s is stretching out. There are two in Brookings, S.D., one in Fargo and one in St. Cloud.
Philbrick learned about Lumpy’s while working as a route man for Frito-Lay out of Grand Forks. Before that, he had put in six years on a Coca-Cola route here. So, he knows the eating places. He thinks submarines, with their low fat content, are the food of the 90s, and he’s proud of the bread, which is baked from the Lumpy’s recipe.
He likes the Lumpy’s concept of offering everything that goes on a sub instead of offering the basics and charging extra for ingredients.
“Well,” I asked, “what do people most usually mark off that they don’t want?”
“Provolone cheese,” he said. “I don’t think they know how good it is. And sprouts. Some people just don’t want sprouts.”
Marilyn reports that Lumpy’s Subs is “long gone from the downtown scene.”
Ronald McDonald Is Now at Home in East Grand Forks
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JANUARY 9, 1991
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John O’Keefe opened Grand Forks’ first McDonald’s Restaurant on South Washington Street in 1969. O’Keefe’s youngest son, Michael, and his wife, Cindy, own the new McDonald’s, which opened in December in East Grand Forks. We had been hearing about this new light, bright McDonald’s. So, I suggested to Constant Companion we ought to go over there for a bite to eat.
He was agreeable. We put on our woolies, revved up the car and headed across the Red River.
We parked and approached the counter in our usual state of confusion. We looked carefully over the choices in four categories: breakfast items, sandwiches, salads and fries, and beverages and desserts. Feeling rather self-righteous, I ordered a chunky chicken salad for $2.69 and asked for the house dressing. That always seems easier to me than making a decision. This brought me a packet of McDonald’s Own Red French reduced calorie dressing.
CC wasn’t very adventurous. He asked for a quarter pounder for $1.79. Period. No soft drink. No fries. We sat at one of the tables and looked out through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. If you’re in a good mood, you would feel like you are sitting in a winter wonderland. If you’re tired and grouchy and cold, you might feel like you are in Siberia.
I got off to a fast start on my salad because I was hungry. I thought the chicken, mostly on top, was quite tasty. Beneath it, there was a little more chicken and lettuce with bits of red cabbage and green pepper and two nice tomato wedges. CC wondered if his burger was the new low-fat kind. Then he muttered something about liking the fat kind better.
After I finished my salad, I went back for a frozen yogurt cone in a chocolate-vanilla swirl for 59 cents. It tasted more like soft-serve. I bought CC a hot apple pie for 69 cents. He nibbled on it and agreed it had an apple-y flavor, and that it was crunchy.
Servers in the new McDonald’s wear maroon and gray striped shirts, and maroon visors. They seem well-trained. Inside the front entryway, there’s a big shiny model of Ronald McDonald to greet customers. He’s sitting on a recyclable plastic bench.
Michael O’Keefe says the 49-cent and 59-cent hamburgers have been bestsellers in East Grand Forks. They’re small hamburgers, calculated at 10 to a pound of ground beef.
Since the first McDonald’s opened here 21 years ago, the O’Keefe family has expanded its operation to include three restaurants in Grand Forks, and others in Bemidji, Thief River Falls and Devils Lake.
This franchise continues to operate in East Grand Forks.
Royal Fork in Columbia Mall Has Mammoth Array of Food
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MARCH 13, 1991
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Canned green beans taste good to me. I’ve always liked them, so I piled a big helping on my plate, along with some spaghetti. I took a fillet of white fish along with the beans and spaghetti, which was interesting because of the big chunks of sharp-tasting tomato in it. It was 1 o’clo
ck Thursday afternoon when we sat down to eat at the Royal Fork Buffet Restaurant in Columbia Mall. The place was fairly full. You had to scout around to find a table.
I had told a friend that Constant Companion was feeling like breaking out of the house and we had decided to go the Royal Fork. “Royal Fork?” she asked. “Isn’t that kind of a feedlot?”
“Well, yes,” I told her, “but the grazing is good. And the price certainly is right.” Lunch is $4.35, and dinner is $5.65.
As of late, I’ve noticed that some people empty their trays, and others eat right off the tray. I like to keep the tray myself. I don’t know why.
I was going backwards with this meal. After I finished my entrees, I approached my vegetable soup, which was slightly thick, but clear, with little parsley bits in it. It was better than some restaurant soup, but a tad too salty. Most restaurant soup is.
CC was working his way through a plate of salad. In deference to a low cholesterol diet, he sprinkled it with French dressing rather than the cream dressing. He ate spaghetti, fish and one of those cinnamon rolls that are a trademark of Royal Fork Buffet.
I ate my salad last—European style. It’s amazing what you can stack on one small plate if you really set your mind to it. I had lettuce, tomato slices, broccoli, shredded cheese, pickled beets, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds, green peas, grapes and pineapple.
I munched happily along, noticing that CC had finished eating long before me. I encouraged him to graze through the dessert bar. I told him the soft-serve was low fat even though it is high in sugar. Later, I learned that it is 4 percent milk fat. That’s not nearly as high as ice cream.
Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews Page 7