Tag Archives: dempseys

The $10 three-meal day in downtown Fargo succeeds.

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Megan Havig, MSUM Multimedia Journalism

Two notes before reading

  1. My total for each meal includes the tax
  2. At the bottom of this post I have a list of specials that downtown eateries offer.  If you know of more that are not listed, comment on the post and I will gladly add them!

I present to myself a financially fiscal food challenge

I won’t lie. I love spending money on food. Despite my current college budget, I manage to squeeze in lunch dates with friends, night outings with whomever and the experimental food adventure with the significant other.

Also, true to my heart’s need for a big city get away and my stomach’s love for local joints, I tend to choose downtown Fargo’s offerings for on-the-town dining.

So I present to myself a challenge.  With only a crisp ten-dollar bill, I will eat three meals downtown in one day.

Here is how it went.

Ten-dollar day in downtown Fargo succeeds.
Breakfast is a budget and belly blessing

Breakfast done right is pleasurable.  Breakfast done right cheaply is borderline ecstasy.  I begin with one of my favorite places to eat – First and Deli.

This little joint is located at 520 1st Ave North, right next to J.L. Beers. Eating at First and Deli is like eating at grandma’s abode.  Homemade baked goods, soups made from scratch and fresh-baked bread can be enjoyed in a homey dining area. Vintage knick knacks crowd every nook, cozying up the restaurant.  If you really like an item, you can buy it; the decorations are for sale.

I choose the cinnamon roll for $1.98.  The woman calls out my order and sets a plate before my eyes.  Cream cheese smothers the white fluffy roll beneath it.  Heated up, the sweet confection glides down my throat.

Eating in downtown Fargo in the morning is a treat in itself.  Bankers, accountants, lawyers, retailers and other pedestrians walk briskly to work.  I feel like I am in a big city; I feel good.

Lunch is a gamble.
Lunch is tricky because there are many cheap options (see my tips section), but even the thrifty joints could bust my budget.  I need a special to pull this off.  Luckily for us college students, all 22,000 of us, there are places that offer dirt-cheap specials.

I head to Spicy Pie located at 322 North Broadway.

I will not only gamble money, but time.  I need to order between 2 to 4 p.m. because I am digging for the deal: slices of pizza are $2.

I am conscious of the clock (usually not the case) and arrive during this pizza happy hour of sorts.  I order a slice of cheese pizza and decide I can also splurge on a tostada, which is a flat taco shell smothered in mildly spicy red sauce and gooey cheese.  The pizza is, of course, $2, and the tostada costs $1.80.

Spicy Pie is one of my personal favorite budget friendly food places in downtown Fargo. Often, college kids behind the counter can be seen tossing pizza dough in the air, prep it for the next order. Hefty wooden tables and booths consist of hodge podge items topped with clear finish. Popular music creates the mood for a young and lively atmosphere.

And everyone must know: The special white sauce offered here is delicious on anything. I love drizzling it on tostadas, I love dabbing it on pizza and I especially love pouring it on grinders (heated up sandwiches I highly recommend especially with taco meat on top).

The total of my meal with tax is $4.07

With $3.95 left, I must choose wisely.

Supper is free, drinks are extra.
Dempsey’s Public House located at 226 Broadway, offers drink and food specials almost every night.  Providing free entertainment like open mic nights, karaoke and bingo, it is a great place for the aspiring singer or aspiring gambler for that matter.

My favorite Dempsey specials are $1 taco Wednesdays and free hot dog Thursdays.

On a Wednesday I can order a taco for $1 and a soda for $1.50 (wells, or cheap liquor drinks, are offered at $2.75 on Wednesdays as well, but I felt like drinking a soda).  Hanging out with friends and enjoying dubstep music are a plus. (Listen to an example of a dubstep remix of Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” here.)

My Wednesday night at Dempsey’s, with its loud music and fun games, only cost me $2.68.

This leaves me with $1.27 to leave for a tip.

With that, I have spent my $10 and can leave with an empty wallet and a full stomach.

Downtown deals attract college students
Facebook poll shows young adults’ favorite places.

I polled friends on Facebook about their favorite restaurants to see which ones would rank highest.  Here are the results:

Many gushed about different places along with their vote:

“Josie’s Corner has the best chai tea in Fargo,” – Samantha Ham, an MSUM alum

“Wasabi. Sushi is delicious and is a great option when you have allergies to dairy, wheat or yeast, also known as, the SAD (standard American diet).” – Meghan Feir, a mass communications major at MSUM

Restaurants boast of fun and games:

  • Rhombus Guys Pizza, 606 Main Ave, boasts of trivia on Monday nights, not to mention the never-ending fun of coloring on their paper table cloths
  • Tea Berry, 119 Broadway N, provides board games for costumers
Seeking specials save the buck.
  • Mezzaluna, a classy restaurant at 309 Roberts Street North has $7 appetizers from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.  “It’s perfect for a date night,” Nikki Black, a teacher at Oak Grove School said.
  • Dempseys offers specials every night but my favorites are the $1 tacos on Wednesdays and the free hot dogs (choose from a variety) on Thursdays
  • The Sons of Norway Club, 722 2nd Avenue North, provides delicious homemade lefse for sale and special prices on homemade pies on Thursdays. A slice of pie costs $3.
  • Chinese King House Buffet, 122 North Broadway, offers a dollar off for college students who present their I.D.

Fargo bars attract crowds with business model

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Story by Matthew Liedke

MSUM Journalism Major

Downtown Fargo has a great deal of people at the bars on the weekend, it is not uncommon to walk by a select establishment on a Friday or Saturday night and see a place that has a flood of people in it. To some this may be annoying however there actually is a professional business model based around crowd sizes.

The bars are usually so filled up downtown it can be hard to even maneuver. Dempsey’s always has a good crowd. While at The Old Broadway, trying to make it from one end to the other without spilling your beer could possibly make it as a challenge on a reality show.

Dempsey's, a pub that can get so filled that there doesn't appear to be any room left.

The idea of making it through these bars can be annoying to some. However, it doesn’t seem to be a problem for business.  Judging by some of the reviews that are found on sites like “Yelp!” and “Trip Advisor,” these packed places are very favorable. Many saying that despite the crowd, the drink specials at The Old Broadway make it worth the visit.

The Old Broadway, the place has so many on the weekends it is very common to see a large crowd standing outside as well.

The full crowds in the small area of the Dempsey’s musical stage, The Aquarium, are well liked too. One review saying,

“The Aquarium is one of my favorite places to see live music. It has a great ambiance, even though it’s tiny, but this factor adds an intimacy between performer and audience.”

It is not just speculation. Filled up places, including bars, is an actual business model. Dr. Wayne Alexander, an MSUM professor at the Center For Business calls it “the bandwagon effect.”

“If you see a bar that’s empty, you will probably be more inclined to stay away,” Alexander said. He also explained how bars and clubs in bigger cities use this model by not letting people in until a large line has formed.

This can be observed on most given nights when looking at the very crowded Dempsey’s and comparing it to the less filled Billiards on Broadway. According to this, it seems that for businesses downtown, the special discounts and other attractions are just bait for the first few. The real attraction is the customer’s themselves.

The crowd at Billiards can be small at times.

What influences your decision in bar hopping, do crowded bars make you more likely to enter?


 


Attracted to the bigger crowds?

 

Yes
No 

View Results

Make your own poll

(Edited by Kristin Kirtz, MSUM journalism major)

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All in the Family: The Downtown Music Family Tree

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The Downtown Music Family Tree - illustration by Zach Kobrinsky

Pat Lenertz on brotherhood

Pat Lenertz is a Fargo-Moorhead musician. He is the lead singer and guitarist for four bands: Heavy is the Head, The Quarterly, Bad Mojo and The Legionnaires, although the Legionnaires are currently on hiatus. How can one man lead so many successful bands at a time?

According to Lenertz, “There’s a whole collective unity amongst members of different bands and even across sub-genres….

“I don’t feel as if playing a gig is directly correlated with cutting someone out of a gig. People might feel that way in a larger city, per se, but I think there is definitely a feeling… of unity and brotherhood.”

Why Fargo is better than Minneapolis

Seth Holden performing with Sovereign Sect - Photo by Nicole Hofer

“I can personally vouch for Fargo being better than Minneapolis.” This is coming from Seth Holden of Sovereign Sect, a seasoned electronica group from F-M that has gained a reputation in F-M, Minneapolis and beyond.

According to Holden, bigger cities can never appreciate music that way the F-M downtown scene does.

“When you have that much music, you’re spoiled,” he said, “and you turn your nose up at everything…. The enthusiasm in Fargo is something not found in other cities, that’s for sure.”

Getting weird with Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

Tom Johnson on stage with the Johnson Family Band (one of the many groups he performs with) - Photo by Zach Kobrinsky

In some ways the downtown music scene has a little catching up to do. Tom Johnson (whose name is particularly not weird) and his pseudo-Semitic Avant-garde group Werewolf Bar Mitzvah actually got kicked off stage for being too weird.

Also, it’s worth mentioning that the band name “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” is a reference to an episode of NBC’s 30 Rock.


How it went down

The conflict began as a scheduling miscommunication at the VFW.

“Basically what happened was I was told we could start at 10 p.m.” Johnson said. “We get there, and we’re opening for Classical Chill, and the guy’s like ‘Bands start at 9:30.’ I told everyone we were starting at 10, so people were coming at 10. Basically we wanted to wait for the folks who had been drinking there since probably 4:30 (p.m.) to clear out so we could get the younger crowd in.”

“So we started playing probably our three most normal songs. I mean, we weren’t going as far out as we can go, and he came up and did a ‘you’re safe’ sign, but then he basically said, ‘You’re out of here, we’re losing business over you.’”

Let’s spell “irony”

Tom Johnson and Dianne Miller as "Tom and Dianne" - Photo by Zach Kobrinsky

The irony is that several groups of WBM patrons eventually showed up fashionably late to the show, (easily outnumbering the outgoing older crowd whose interest the bartender was defending) only to find that they had missed it altogether on account of a disgruntled bartender.

Perhaps even more ironic, however, is that word spread quite quickly over this little incident at the VFW, and WBM actually gained notoriety as a result. Weird.

Krueger Construction V.P. Corey Krueger in the recording studio - Photo by Zach Kobrinsky


Why don’t they get a real job?

There is an unfortunate truth about being a F-M musician: it doesn’t pay very well. This may come as a shock, but it is true, nonetheless. How do F-M musicians deal with it? Corey Krueger has the hook up.

Krueger, the drummer for Moody River Band and V.P. of Krueger Construction, has seen to the employ of countless F-M musicians. Corey’s father and employer, Greg Krueger the president of Krueger Construction, also happens to be a drummer. And so they share a mutual respect for the duality of a musician’s life.

According to Corey, Krueger Construction is happy to hire musicians, as long as they show up and work hard, and for the most part, they do just that.

Here is a list of some of the musicians who have worked for Krueger Construction:

- Guy Nelson (Age of Consent, Your Lord and the Infinite Soul Tribe)

- Mike Murphy (FUP, Crapbarf)

- A.J. Anderson (Necktie Suicide)

- Cody Conner (Bad Mojo, Legionnaires, Moody River, runs open mic night at  Dempsey’s)

- Tom Peckskamp (Moody River, Leaving the City)

- Charlie Young (Moody River)

- Matt Monson (Ancient Protector, Moody River)

- Pat Lenertz (Heavy is the Head, The Quarterly, Bad Mojo, Legionnaires)

Is it incestuous?

Some might call the network of F-M musicians nepotistic or even incestuous. Is this the case? From a certain point of view, one might say so, and here’s an example of why. The Fargo VFW is one of downtown’s primary music venues for locals. Nathan Pitcher, who is the lead singer of Inside Out Strings handles band booking on Thursdays at the VFW.

Oddly enough, a lot of bands that some might consider buddies to Pitcher tend to get booked (including his own group). Is this playing favorites? Does it really matter? Nepotism in a small entertainment scene is good for the gander. Besides, the F-M music roster is not nearly expansive enough to avoid it, ultimately.

Speaking of incestuous…

For the sake of full disclosure, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that aside from being a journalist, I am a freelance saxophonist. I’ve sat in with a number of aforementioned groups. Should this ethically ban me from covering these bands? The best I can do is try to stay as objective as possible.

Me not writing about bands I’ve played with would be like telling the editor of a small town paper he/she can’t write about any of his/her acquaintances. In some scenarios it is simply unavoidable. Besides, I avoid writing about groups that I am an “official member” of. Writing about groups I’ve only sat in with is a little more ethically sound, in my humble opinion.

When F-M bands don’t play well with others

In the simplest terms, one might say that F-M bands must work well with others to be able to survive. An example comes to mind of how a talented band can fail when it refuses to work well with others.

Carl Clinton and the Great Divide was once a band that embodied community among musicians. When it began, it was an amalgam of 14 prominent local musicians from groups like Sovereign Sect, Johnson Family Band, Inside Out Strings, Mindfunk Allstars and WBPN.

It had a lot of promise, but over time members of the group would wax and wane. Band members would inevitably get fed up with the leadership, peter out, and new members would come in to fill the gaps, only to inevitably quit or get fired. In the end it was a failure, because the band’s leader did not play well with others.

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A pizza maker with a fine arts degree and big heart ‘haunts’ Dempsey’s Public House

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By Michael J Weigand

Untitled nude painting inside Dempseys main bar. 
Photo by Anna G. Larson

With the energetic atmosphere and friendly faces, patrons at Dempsey’s Public House on Broadway in Fargo may not give much thought to the paintings adorning the walls. It’s hard to turn a blind eye to the two most prominent pieces, however, both painted by John S. Bailey, a former employee. Bailey worked in the kitchen at Dempsey’s, making pizzas.

 

Spirit lives on in art

Speaking with Dempsey’s current employees who knew Bailey, it’s hard not to get a sense that his spirit is still very much a part of the bar.

“He was a good guy,” says Jay Fox, Dempsey’s kitchen manager. “He was a bit on the eccentric side and definitely quiet, but people really liked him. His humor was a bit odd, too, but he was funny.” Fox explains how the kitchen workers use tickets to write down food orders, “We have abbreviations for everything that goes on a pizza. ‘Grn’ means green peppers, ‘Pep’ means pepperoni. So somebody’d write ‘Grn Pep’, and he’d look at it and go, ‘We don’t have green pepperoni.’ ” 

 

 

Patrons inside Dempseys, near the Jack Dempsey painting.
Photo by Anna G. Larson
 

Signature painting is boxer Jack Dempsey

Bailey, a Minnesota State University Moorhead alumnus, created the two largest paintings inside Dempsey’s, as well as several others. One, a painting of legendary boxer Jack Dempsey is based on a famous photograph of the heavyweight champion. 

“Bailey could draw anything, anyone,” says Cameron Critt, a Dempsey’s employee. “He could draw your picture right on the spot.”

 

Perfection close to the line

The pizza maker-artist was a stickler for details.

“If you look closely at the Jack Dempsey painting, there’s a small line that runs down the side,” Fox says. “That’s where the page was creased in the book that John (Bailey) painted the picture from. He had a photographic memory.”

 

Diagnosis, then death 11 days later

Bailey painted several of his works in the boiler room in the basement of Dempsey’s. “He’d spend hours down there by himself,” Fox adds.

“The guy chain-smoked unfiltered cigarettes like a mother (expletive). Then one day he says ‘I got cancer.’ ” Critt says.

Bailey learned he had terminal cancer on April 1, 2008. He passed away 11 days later at age 47.

 

Art as a way to give back

Bailey was a gifted artist who received his bachelor’s degree in fine arts from MSUM in 1984. He described his artistic style to those who knew him as “narrative impressionism.” After completing college Bailey worked closely with Access of The Red River Valley, helping people with disabilities learn how to become more independent. Bailey also established an art course through Access, for which he used his own resources.  

In addition, Bailey worked closely with Narcotics Anonymous, designing and painting banners for local Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

 

 

The boiler room beneath Dempseys, where John Bailey painted.
Photo by Anna G. Larson

‘His ghost still haunts the boiler room’

Bailey’s final piece, an untitled nude, hangs above the center table in Dempsey’s main bar. The piece, which Bailey began two days before he died, is unfinished.

“I think his ghost still haunts the boiler room,” Critt says.

Maybe that’s not such a bad thing considering the warm feelings Bailey left behind.  Many bars have interesting paintings on the walls, but few have the rich history that Bailey’s do, and even fewer were painted by the guy who made pizza in the kitchen. 

 

http://www.dempseyspublichouse.com