Grand Forks: A History of American Dining in 128 Reviews

by Marilyn Hagerty

  But I went to the restaurant Thursday to try the new Italian meal I had been hearing about. I asked Jan Zahrly (JZ), whom I also call Ms. Manage, to join me. We took a serious look at the offerings on the red Italian menu and noticed they include four appetizers. There is bella Napoli, or Italian nacho chips. There is calamari fritti, otherwise known as breaded squid, deep-fried with spicy marinara sauce. There is breaded ravioli as well as chicken strip Parmigiana.

  We asked for none of the above, sensing that we would be more than sated after eating our entrees. JZ chose tortellini alla prosciutto (Italian ham) ($8.99). This was a cheese tortellini tossed with prosciutto, peas and mushrooms in an asiago cream sauce. I ordered farfalle Milano—butterfly pasta with grilled chicken, sun-dried tomato and mushrooms in a pesto cream sauce ($8.99).

  The entrees—a total of 14—are served with an Italian bread that’s good and heavy. With the bread, there’s a plate of extra-heavy virgin olive oil, and another of olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar that we found more appealing and lighter eating. The bread was interesting and well-seasoned.

  Entrees were enormous, and were presented nicely with a sprinkling of dried parsley flakes. I would have liked at least a small salad or, perhaps, a slice of melon or other fruit with so much pasta. The sauce was appealing, but after eating about halfway through our entrees, we were ready to ask for boxes to take the rest home.

  There are three desserts on the menu including spumoni ($1.99), Italian ice cream that, to me, is the perfect ending to an Italian meal—if you save room.

  42nd Street Eatery also offers regular specials that seem to draw in diners. Besides the Exploded Pig special on Mondays, there is a $6.99 all-you-can-eat riblet special Tuesdays. On Thursday evenings, customers buy one deep-dish burrito ($6.49 to $7.49) and get a second one for a buck.

  With its proximity to UND and its reasonable prices, the restaurant draws students. Clarence and Maxine Thompson, who were sitting at a nearby table eating burritos, said you ought to see the place Sunday evenings, when UND is in session and students swarm 42nd Street Eatery for all-you-can-eat pizza for $5.99. Now on summer evenings, you find young people playing volleyball and using the seating on the deck outside.

  Our waitress, Shari Thompson, is a UND student. She seems to have a good time on the job, and her cheery approach adds to the dining experience.

  42nd Street Eatery changed locations and names to become 32nd Street Eatery. It is no longer in operation.

  Lutefisk, Lefse Greet Holiday Diners at the 2-29 Cafe

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  DECEMBER 8, 1999

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  The afternoon sun streams into 2-29 Cafe on Gateway Drive and casts a pleasant feeling over the newly refurbished truck stop restaurant. The place is redone in subdued tones of sage green with wainscoting of wood with a reddish cast. There’s piped-in music playing, and even in the middle of the afternoon, several tables are occupied. Usually, there are people at the counter.

  Because it’s open around the clock for truckers and travelers—as well as the local following—2-29 is rarely quiet. It’s a good stop in December, when most of us are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I was there around 3 o’clock one afternoon last week. I was in the middle of a list of errands and not sure whether I was eating a late lunch or an early supper. So, I ordered the Wednesday special: an open-faced sloppy joe for $4.75 with soup or a salad. I also had a glass of milk.

  The soup at 2-29 is worth the drive out to the edge of town, where U.S. Highway 2 and Interstate 29 intersect. It was tomato-macaroni the day I was there. The soup with plenty of ground meat was rich and hearty—and the serving was sufficient. It was almost a meal in itself, and they don’t scrimp on crackers. They gave me eight. I really didn’t need the cucumber salad I ordered to go with this repast. It had more sour cream dressing than I wanted, although it was nice-tasting, with the addition of dill weed. The cucumbers weren’t too crisp. But the parsley that came as garnish on my sloppy joe was good enough to eat.

  The 2-29 Cafe on Gateway Drive offers the same menu as its cousin, the I-29 Cafe in the travel center at the intersection of I-29 with South 32nd Street near Columbia Mall. The restaurants are leased by Dean and Vicki Soltis, who got I-29 going again after the flood and gave up temporarily on 2-29, formerly known as the Big Sioux Cafe. However, they have been back in business since April.

  “Right now, 2-29 is featuring lutefisk and lefse for the holidays. We get calls from people every year asking about it,” Vicki Soltis says. The lutefisk is served with drawn butter, mashed potatoes and choice of lettuce, coleslaw or cucumber salad. The price is $7.95.

  On a second visit to 2-29 last week, I took a second look at the surroundings and the menu. The restaurant has two small U-shaped counter areas, but they are a little smoky. Tables closest to the door are set aside for nonsmoking. The booths in the cafe have wall phones. Servers in white shirts with black ties look more professional than most servers in overnight cafes.

  The menu features 19 different breakfast combinations ranging in price from $2.35 for two eggs and toast or a pancake and egg to $6.85 for a 10-ounce ham steak with two eggs, choice of potatoes and toast. Coffee is extra (75 cents).

  There is a full selection of sandwiches and salads at 2–29. Dinners include steaks, walleye, chicken and chops. The truckers 16-ounce T-Bone, topped with onion rings and served with potatoes, salad and bread, is $9.95. One section of the menu offers smaller meals at $2.50 for children and seniors.

  2-29 is now called the Roadhouse Cafe, located with Simonson Station near the intersection of I-29 and 32nd Avenue S. in Grand Forks. The I-29 Cafe is now called the Big Sioux Cafe, located at the intersection of I-29 and 32nd Avenue S.

  The Blue Moose Bar and Grill—Little to Criticize, Lots to Love at EGF Restaurant

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  MARCH 24, 2000

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  Usually I pay as much attention to the price column as I do to items listed on a menu. But one night in March, I settled into a roomy booth at the Blue Moose in East Grand Forks and decided I would have the most expensive entree on the menu. After all, I had a $25 gift certificate as thanks from people who went on our last Sioux Booster basketball bus. So did Rose Skyberg (RS), who coordinates the bus trips with me, and we were winding up another good winter of basketball.

  I ordered five jumbo prawns prepared scampi style ($17.99), and it turned out to be the best dinner I have had in a restaurant all winter. The prawns were huge and broiled with crunchy Japanese bread crumbs as a coating—a unique and most tasty approach. Halfway through the meal, I realized I could have settled for a three-piece order for $11.99.

  Meanwhile, RS was enjoying walleye, which is a Blue Moose specialty ($13.99). She said it was excellent. Entrees are served with a choice of soup or salad and bread. In this case, it is soft French bread, with little pots of butter whipped with garlic.

  Because of extra touches, the Blue Moose is easily one of my favorite spots for dinner. The place is arranged in comfortable seating areas. There is a pleasant hum of conversation, but no overbearing music. There is an inviting veranda where you can linger over drinks or have a meal in good weather. You look out over the Red River and Grand Forks.

  Sometimes the entryway seems congested, but I find little to criticize and lots of pluses at the Blue Moose. Pluses include the ice water in carafes they leave at tables. I like the way they bring the check in a folder and tell you they will pick it up. And when they return your change, they bring an individually wrapped mint. The Blue Moose definitely is a hot spot on the Grand Forks/East Grand Forks dining scene.

  Royal Fork’s a Homey Delight—You’ll Find Plenty of Old-Fashioned Meat and Potatoes

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  MAY 19, 2000

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  Marijo Deitz Whitcomb (MDW) strikes me as a creative person, but I didn’t know just how creative she was until I saw her build a dessert at Royal Fork Buffet in Columbia Mall.

  MDW calls herself Que
en of Desserts, so I asked her to show me what she had. In the first place, she uses a soup mug rather than one of those small dessert dishes. She makes a bottom layer with a chocolate chip cookie if she can find one. She just loves those cookies. Last week, they were all gone, so she made her bottom layer of banana bread. Then she topped it with soft-serve ice cream and used some hot brown Betty dessert and a little cherry cobbler. This was followed by caramel sauce.

  “Sometimes,” she confided, “I finish it off with sprinkles.”

  MDW is a woman with a nice figure. I asked how she could eat desserts like that and stay so fit. Her answer: I walk a lot. Her approach to the Royal Fork Buffet is to start out with a nice big salad. Then she skips the hot tables and goes for the gold—the dessert. She wouldn’t eat like that at home, she says.

  MDW’s approach to the buffet piqued my interest. I wonder what strategy other people have as they approach a buffet. I would like to hear from them by telephone or e-mail.

  Outside of MDW and her husband, Kyle Whitcomb (KW), I didn’t see anyone I knew at the Royal Fork, except for Chad Mustard, all-American Sioux basketball player. He was quietly filling up and told me he is working hard to make the UND football team this fall. He still could have two years’ eligibility, even with basketball behind him.

  Royal Fork Buffet has been a popular eating place in the mall for the past 16 years. It’s the place to go if you yearn for home cooking. If you remember Sunday dinners with roast beef or pork and mashed potatoes and canned vegetables, you will like this food.

  You quickly can get a daily quota of fruits and vegetables at the salad tables. Help yourself to a nice glass salad plate and browse. I found honeydew melon, cantaloupe, green peas, greens, sunflower seeds, sliced black olives. Then I found a table where I could sit.

  When I finished, I went back to the hot tables and got a dab of mashed potatoes, brown gravy, green beans and a small slice of ham. You can find all kinds of beverages and ice and water. Just help yourself.

  Back at the table, I eavesdropped as three teachers were visiting at the next table. I could tell they were accompanying some students from out of town, who had gone elsewhere for pizza. The teachers grinned and agreed, this is so much better.

  Royal Fork Buffet is done in warm tones of green and peach. There are women attendants who wear aprons from home and who come around to pour coffee and remove plates. It’s a health department requirement that customers take a clean plate each time they go through the serving lines. Manager Scott Heilman, who has been in his job 13 years, says he doesn’t even like to think of how much some people can eat.

  Baked and fried chicken moves fast. So does glazed Alaskan pollock and the beef ribs on Thursday. Each day, there is a different menu to help keep the buffet interesting.

  The philosophy, Heilman says, is to offer home-style foods in a comfortable and friendly, all-American, apple-pie atmosphere. The restaurant has a couple of party rooms, and promotes its catering services. It’s one of four in North Dakota and two more in South Dakota under the same ownership.

  After twenty-five years in business, the Royal Fork Buffet closed in 2008.

  Twilight Dinners Are a Draw at Ramada—Walleye Is Most Popular Choice off the Menu

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  JULY 7, 2000

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  When you find regular customers who come in and joke around with the waitresses, you know you are in a friendly, dependable restaurant. That’s the way it seemed the other day when a customer came into the Ramada Restaurant and asked, “What’s the special?”

  When the waitress said, “Ummmmmmm,” the customer said, “Oh, I haven’t had any of that for a long time.” It was before noon, and she offered to go out to the kitchen to inquire about the special. The customer quipped, “Never mind. It’s probably what’s left over from yesterday.”

  In recent weeks, I have had two excellent meals at the Ramada. Last week, I ordered a club sandwich, which comes with soup, salad or fries ($5.95) and a glass of iced tea ($1.15). That is my idea of a perfect summer lunch, and the Ramada serves it well. The chefs have the correct formula for a club sandwich. They serve it on toasted white bread, three slices, with turkey, tomato, lettuce and bacon. They cut the sandwich diagonally twice to make four triangles. And they fasten each section with a toothpick topped with colored cellophane.

  Someday, I will find a club sandwich like this with olives on the toothpicks, and my joy will be complete. Nevertheless, the sandwich at the Ramada came as close to being a real club as any I have eaten for a while. The fact that the iced tea was served in a tall, thin glass goblet made it taste even better.

  Earlier in June, I had dinner with Stuart and Marceda McDonald (SM and MM), who were visiting here from Denver. With them were their grandson Alex McDonald (AM) and his friend Jak Kmetz (JK), who are students at UND this summer, and MM’s mother, Anna Wright (AW).

  We gathered around a table in the restaurant for the twilight dinners served between 5 and 7 P.M., Monday through Friday. These dinners are popular with people who enjoy eating a little earlier and a little less for a little less.

  We liked the fact that our waiter, Doug, brought out a basket of garlic toast first. We all were puzzled about where to put the bread. We could have used bread plates. Most of us had soup. SM commented it was good because it had real turkey and not those little cubes. AM, who eats on a student’s budget, said, “It’s better than ramen.”

  The salads won our approval because of the variety of greens and presence of red cabbage and carrots. Both AM and I ordered the walleye ($7.25), the reason why many people go to the Ramada. It is excellent, with its crisp covering that includes slivered almonds. The baked potato that came with my dinner was moist and good.

  Hot beef with hash browns was the choice of the others, except for SM. He ordered chopped sirloin Sizzler Steak ($7.25) and said it was well cooked. Really good and juicy. With it, there were sautéed onions and mushrooms. More, SM said, than a growing boy should eat.

  If It’s Monday, It’s Chicken Wings at Players

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  SEPTEMBER 15, 2000

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  They not only have mustard, they have Grey Poupon at Players Sports Bar and Grill on South Washington Street. But I found out Sunday afternoon you have to ask for it. To me, any self-respecting hamburger or hot dog needs mustard. And I found the hamburger at Players to be respectable. It was good meat. It was moderately sized. The bun was tasty. The coleslaw was at least a B, but the portion was modest. The hamburger and slaw was $5.29, the Diet Pepsi, with free refills, $1.49.

  In two visits to Players this past week, I sat in the lounge. Often for lunch at Players, I sit in the lighter and brighter dining room at the south end of the place. There still are tables for dining there, but some of the space has been taken over with a pool table, air hockey, Internet jukebox and a golf game.

  Players has in recent years built up a good following for breakfast. There are groups that gather regularly for coffee or the $1.99 Skyscraper Breakfast. That’s two eggs, two strips of bacon and all the pancakes you can eat.

  Owner-managers Rod and Tammy Oas keep a close watch over their business. When something works, they do it. As he sat in the busy lounge Sunday afternoon, Rod Oas said, “NFL Sunday is huge. Without the screens showing seven football games, you and I might be sitting alone in here.”

  All around me, people were eating potato skins or burgers and drinking Mountain Dew or lemonade. There were some eating salads served on mammoth platters. And since children eat free on Sundays, there were families seated here and there.

  I arrived at Players just after 2 P.M., too late for the Sunday breakfast buffet served from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. for $5.99. At least 100 people had been there in time for the buffet, though.

  Monday Night Football and all-you-can-eat chicken wings brings customers in each week. The wings are served with bleu cheese, dressing and celery. And on a decent Monday night, they go through 300 pounds of wings. Two-for-one burgers
are a big draw Tuesday evenings.

  There are attractive plaid valances on the windows and on the brass railings that serve as dividers for semi-privacy. Walls are dark green with contrasting light wood wainscoting and parquet floors. Mirrors on posts add an illusion of space.

  All of these observations were made with the help of Marge Leigh (ML) when she and Jim Leigh (JL) and I stopped at Players for the baked potato bar before the Potato Bowl football game. We found the potatoes exceptionally good, although they were russets rather than reds. We found the small paper plates inadequate. We needed two or three to hold our potatoes and toppings.

  The building that housed Players was found to be not code-compliant, and was razed in the mid-2000s.

  Lola’s Captures Flavor of Italy

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  OCTOBER 6, 2000

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  When I smell the wood fire or see one of the kitchen workers out splitting logs beside Lola’s in downtown Grand Forks in the late afternoon, I wish I was going there for supper. It’s only occasionally I eat there, so I suggested Lola’s when Jan Zahrly (JZ) and I were trying to decide where we should meet and eat.

  We met at 6 in front of Lola’s and went in together. I had a vague recollection about an ad Lola’s has run saying reservations are suggested, but walk-ins always are embraced. I half-expected a hug from the head waiter when we said we had no reservation. Instead, he gave us a choice of seating. After all, it was early. And it was Monday. Before the evening was over, JZ and I agreed Monday is a fine time to go out to dinner. Things are relatively quiet, and you get all sorts of attention.