Celebrating Susan, Part II

The restaurants in downtown Bismarck, ND, have been raking in the profits lately, thanks to the Mobergs. Read on for the details.

(Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

One of Susan's birthday gifts from me last month was a date night in downtown Bismarck, which she redeemed on February 7. We started with a delicious seafood meal at Pirogue Grille. Then we stopped by Blarney Stone for a cocktail before going next door to Dakota Stage to see a play: Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson -- Apt 2B, a version of Sherlock Holmes with contemporary women as the pair of sleuths. Afterward we went to Shakers on 3rd for a post-show martini.

We spent this weekend, too, in downtown Bismarck to celebrate Valentine's Day.

A couple weeks ago, we read about a Valentine's Day weekend special at The Fire Pit and couldn't resist--so I got us reservations for last night.

• 1st course: steak-and-lobster pizza to share
• 2nd course: Louisiana gumbo for Susan and a chop salad for me
• 3rd course: surf and turf (lobster tail and steak) and a Cajun stuffed smoked salmon (we shared both)
• 4th course: Louisiana bread pudding and a chocolate cookie brownie, both drizzled with bourbon caramel sauce (we shared both)

Today is the 35th anniversary of our first date! I worked at the Ground Round in Grand Forks during college, so that's where I took Susan out for supper on that first date. In honor of that, we ate dinner today at the Ground Round in Bismarck. The menu has changed a lot since 1991, but the Long Island teas are still tasty.

Before learning of the Valentine special at The Fire Pit, I had already made reservations for us for tonight at Anima Cucina. They were offering a special four-course meal with a wine pairing for each course.

• 1st course: a Spanish tapas plate (fried artichoke, Serrano ham, and Manchego cream on bread crisps) with a Spanish sparkling wine
• 2nd course: a salad served with a German semi-sparkling wine
• 3rd course: (1) lobster tail and balanzoni, a pasta stuffed with mascarpone in a saffron butter sauce (wine = a Californian chenin blanc); and (2) prime rib rolled in Italian herbs with horseradish cream and garlic mashed potatoes (wine = a Tuscan chianti) ... and we shared both
• 4th course: chocolate ganache tart with strawberry jam and a cocoa shortbread crust (wine = an Italian sweet red)

And because we enjoyed Shakers on 3rd so much last weekend, we returned there tonight to end our Valentine evening downtown.

We have a couple more treats on the agenda for this weekend: tomorrow afternoon we will attend a performance of the play Our Town by the Capitol Shakespeare troupe followed by supper at La Cantina in Mandan, ND. Then we'd better stop galivanting around the BisMan restaurants for a while and actually cook our own food again!