"I'm Coming, Elizabeth"

(If the allusion in the title of this post escapes you, read this.)

Today my sister-in-law Cheryl stopped by our house on her way to a wedding in Bowman, ND (home of Miss Rodeo America 2007 Ashley Andrews, by the way). Cheryl shared her scrapbook of photos from her recent trip to Mexico with her husband, Jerrett (Susan's brother), and we gave her a tour of the home improvement projects that she hadn't yet seen.

Then we took her out to eat at a new dining establishment in Dickinson: Sanford's Grub & Pub. I went there for lunch this week to celebrate the birthday of one of our coworkers, and I really enjoyed it; and we enjoyed our meals there today, too. There are burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, and some dinner items, too (pasta, seafood, steaks, etc.). The flatware is oversized (the forks are the same size as those normally used to serve sliced roast beef in most restaurants), and so are the food portions--and everything's good.

The theme is most interesting. The walls inside are covered within an inch of their life with--for lack of a better word--"crap." It is supposed to evoke the atmosphere of a junk yard, and it looks like the interior decorators raided every antique shop, flea market, garage sale, and defunct county museum within a hundred-mile radius. Nothing is dirty or run-down, mind you; but everything is "of another era," and there is a lot of it, with one item screwed over the edge of another and half-hidden behind another, etc., for a distinctly "layered" three-dimensional effect on every wall, as well as on the exposed rafters in the ceiling, as well as in the lobby area, as well as on the ground outside the restaurant. There are road signs and old dolls and stuffed animals and kitchen gadgets and gas station memorabilia and ladies' hats and on and on and on.

There are no napkins. Instead, a roll of paper towels rests on pipes fitted into automobile wheel rims on the floor at the end of each table. The plates are made of molded, worn aluminum. The menu items have names that brag about the junk yard theme ("Bent Bumper") as well as the deep-fried theme ("Kardiac Arrest," "Angioplasty"). It's an overall approach that ought to turn someone off ("Why would I want to sit in a junk yard and eat food that's bad for me?"), but it's actually an appealing atmosphere. There is something to look at no matter where one's eyes might wander, and one could never manage to take in everything no matter how many visits one makes. The menu is huge, too--both figuratively (lots of choices) and literally (if it were firmer, it would make a good-sized tray for the servers to deliver plates of food).

We had a good time and have a photograph to prove it:

Abigail, Susan, Hillary, Cheryl, and Suzanna outside Sanford's Grub & Pub in Dickinson, ND

P.S. There are Sanford's restaurants in WY and SD, too. Read about them here and here.