People look forward to vaccines like they look forward to the Super Bowl. I can see us all now, one sleeve rolled up, eating nachos and rooting for Pfizer.
A couple of hours of reclaiming a little of the pleasures of living in the Upper Midwest might be in order. A pair of skates, hot chocolate and cookies. There are a lot of places to do this in the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo area. One of the most classic is the Broadway Square rink in downtown Fargo — new to town, but classic nonetheless.
The skating rink, open evenings during the week and afternoons and evenings on the weekend, brings the casual and relaxed pastime of ice skating, which is often thought of in Fargo-Moorhead as a scheduled activity for organizations, associations and teams, back to the metaphorical pond behind the barn and the backyard/garden hose experience that many of us have forgotten.
So we went to the rink one night, and it did the trick. Were it not for the face masks, you’d recognize the age-old winter charm of an outdoor public skating rink by the smiles.
Black Waffle and Coffee Bar, 550 2nd Ave. N., offers a good view of the nearby Broadway Square rink. Eric Daeuber / Forum food critic
Across the street, a literal 20-second walk away, is Black Coffee and Waffle Bar, where one can get a coffee or hot chocolate. And if the wait seems too long, and the place can get busy, there's Silver Lining Creamery just around the corner, and they'll pass you a hot chocolate out the window in record time.
If this winter hasn’t been cold enough, they have ice cream, too, and ice cream is always strangely comforting regardless of the weather. Alongside hot chocolate, ice cream is a good way of exercising the kind of diversity in climate we seem to appreciate up here.
There is a host of downtown dining options in various stages of being open. Inside dining is carefully managed at the nearly empty Taco Shop right around the corner, and there are takeout options up and down the block.
Sammy's Pizza, 301 Broadway has had a presence in downtown Fargo for decades. Eric Daeuber / Forum food critic
To the north, Sammy’s Pizza is a breath of fresh, nostalgic air, if that’s not too much of an oxymoron. It’s very hard to find a diner in Fargo that opened before I was born, but there it is. A fabulous pie that has come through many a cold winter and will, hopefully, survive a pandemic.
It's just a block up historic Broadway from the rink, with its familiar yellow signage among the lights of downtown, its funky understated interior and its legendary crust, it takes you back to Frank Capra’s Bedford Falls where George Bailey reminds us, amid the seeming chaos of these past months, that it can still be "A Wonderful Life."
Sammy's Pizza is known for its funky understated interior and its legendary crust and pizzas. Eric Daeuber / Forum food critic
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To close out a dining tour of downtown sanguinity, and on a cold winter day rinkside more or less safe from many an ill that otherwise threatens, nothing tells us that the world can, once again, be a good place to live better than a hot cookie. Insomnia Cookies, a block north of Sammy's on Broadway, can take you from cinnamon whiskey to oatmeal raisin in a single box.
Insomnia Cookies, 412 Broadway, serves up hot cookies late into the night. Eric Daeuber / Forum food critic
It’s a funny thing what food does for us in a hard time. Perhaps it just reminds us of better times. Often, it’s the food itself that made those times better.
Whatever it is, one thing is very likely true: Hot chocolate and cookies on a cold winter evening in downtown Fargo are unlikely to make your day much worse.
Warm Insomnia Cookies help close out a recent dining tour of downtown Fargo while watching the Broadway Square rink. Eric Daeuber / Forum food critic
ARCHIVE: Read more of Eric Daeuber's restaurant reviews and essays
Address: 550 2nd Ave. N.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday
Phone: 701-566-8749
Website: https://ift.tt/3qIJplg
Address: 123 Broadway N.
Hours: 3-8 p.m. Monday to Friday and noon to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Phone: 701-532-0961
Website: https://ift.tt/3o16fm5
Address: 117 Broadway N.
Hours: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday
Phone: 701-540-6394
Website: https://ift.tt/3o9vOBA
A fresh pie at Sammy's Pizza, 301 Broadway. Eric Daeuber / Forum food critic
Address: 301 Broadway
Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4:30-9:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 4-8 p.m. Sunday
Phone: 701-235-5331
The cookies are sold warm at Insomnia Cookies, 412 Broadway. Eric Daeuber / Forum food critic
Address: 412 Broadway
Hours: 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday to Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Thursday and Friday, noon to 3 a.m. Saturday and noon to 1 a.m. Sunday
Phone: 701-595-7433
Website: https://ift.tt/394ufRa
Eric Daeuber is an instructor at Minnesota State Community and Technical College. Readers can reach him at food@daeuber.com.
The Link LonkJanuary 22, 2021
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Here's to downtown Fargo, cookies and hot chocolate, and a better day - INFORUM
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