Where to eat in Grand Forks.

[Und Princess]

Just now, SIOUXFAN97 said:

is skies even in the running for best high end dining in town?

ely's ivy?

 

I think it should be! Along with Ely's ivy

[gfhockey]

3 hours ago, Und Princess said:

I think it should be! Along with Ely's ivy

Can’t beat the speedway tho!

[Und Princess]

1 minute ago, gfhockey said:

Can’t beat the speedway tho!

That's good too!!!

[JohnboyND7]

On 5/23/2025 at 12:20 AM, gfNDfan said:

Hey el-chapo needs a shoe shine on BS-ville - go away

I am not sure what this even means

[NewUndFan]

I heard Dave's hot chicken is coming to grand forks in the old firehouse subs space. 

[SIOUXFAN97]

3 minutes ago, NewUndFan said:

I heard Dave's hot chicken is coming to grand forks in the old firehouse subs space. 

I thought that whole complex was getting torn down?

[NewUndFan]

45 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

I thought that whole complex was getting torn down?

Looks like construction crews are outside there. I think they are repairing it.  

[Dustin]

On 5/22/2025 at 12:10 PM, crb1 said:

I don't know how anyone would want to open a restaurant in GF. I was born and raised here but this town is so fickle when it comes to restaurants, even decent places come here to die. 

On 5/22/2025 at 3:22 PM, JohnboyND7 said:

Grand Forks is a bit culty for its size. 

I don't know for sure, because I don't have data, but I think there are two factors at play here:

1) In the past, Winnipeg traffic/tourism helped drive Grand Forks to have more amenities than normal for a town of its size.  The Grand Forks restaurant scene really ballooned during the early oil boom.  Oil is (was?) a primary driver of Canada's economy, and for a while, the Canadian dollar was on par with the US dollar.  With American investment in oil, however, the strength of Canada's dollar against the US dollar has settled back to where it had been historically (around 0.75) and can't gain ground on the US dollar anymore when oil is high.

2) Even though UND is at record enrollment, many of those students are online and not on campus.  When there aren't students on campus, restaurants have harder times filling out staffs.  It seem like most places close because of lack of workers, not lack of customers.

[SIOUXFAN97]

51 minutes ago, Dustin said:

I don't know for sure, because I don't have data, but I think there are two factors at play here:

1) In the past, Winnipeg traffic/tourism helped drive Grand Forks to have more amenities than normal for a town of its size.  The Grand Forks restaurant scene really ballooned during the early oil boom.  Oil is (was?) a primary driver of Canada's economy, and for a while, the Canadian dollar was on par with the US dollar.  With American investment in oil, however, the strength of Canada's dollar against the US dollar has settled back to where it had been historically (around 0.75) and can't gain ground on the US dollar anymore when oil is high.

2) Even though UND is at record enrollment, many of those students are online and not on campus.  When there aren't students on campus, restaurants have harder times filling out staffs.  It seem like most places close because of lack of workers, not lack of customers.

bingo and

bingo

bo needs to fix the mall thingy and the winnipegers will stop in gf like they used to (not in the same numbers...).....and get those shelly and mayville people to go north to shop and eat instead of south....

maybe these new ssd stuff will get some people that normally didn't have to work at all for welfare will now at least go to work at mcdonald's for a few hours a day and then progress to full time....

[JohnboyND7]

2 hours ago, Dustin said:

I don't know for sure, because I don't have data, but I think there are two factors at play here:

1) In the past, Winnipeg traffic/tourism helped drive Grand Forks to have more amenities than normal for a town of its size.  The Grand Forks restaurant scene really ballooned during the early oil boom.  Oil is (was?) a primary driver of Canada's economy, and for a while, the Canadian dollar was on par with the US dollar.  With American investment in oil, however, the strength of Canada's dollar against the US dollar has settled back to where it had been historically (around 0.75) and can't gain ground on the US dollar anymore when oil is high.

2) Even though UND is at record enrollment, many of those students are online and not on campus.  When there aren't students on campus, restaurants have harder times filling out staffs.  It seem like most places close because of lack of workers, not lack of customers.

Seems like an uphill battle in general for Grand Forks over past few decades. Did it start with the base shrinking by like 70-80%?

[SIOUXFAN97]

29 minutes ago, JohnboyND7 said:

Seems like an uphill battle in general for Grand Forks over past few decades. Did it start with the base shrinking by like 70-80%?

they are called the "brown years"....that says it all

[Dustin]

1 hour ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

they are called the "brown years"....that says it all

Big time disagree.  After the flood, Grand Forks got a big boost with lots of things that make it great - Alerus Center, Ralph, flood protection system and its associated parks and greenway.  What really hurt was the consolidation of media in eastern North Dakota.  Losing WDAZ newscasts, and a scale down of the Herald, made it much harder to Grand Forks to be seen amongst the shadow Fargo had begun casting, especially with Bison-mania.  

[SIOUXFAN97]

3 minutes ago, Dustin said:

Big time disagree.  After the flood, Grand Forks got a big boost with lots of things that make it great - Alerus Center, Ralph, flood protection system and its associated parks and greenway.  What really hurt was the consolidation of media in eastern North Dakota.  Losing WDAZ newscasts, and a scale down of the Herald, made it much harder to Grand Forks to be seen amongst the shadow Fargo had begun casting, especially with Bison-mania.  

agree to disagree ....mayor "ill take one more dinner to go after city meetings bc i don't have to pay for it ...the city will" brown is and was a cheap vindictive sob

alerus-nothing to do with him

ralph-absolutely nothing to do with him

dykes and greenway-our fed congressional guys got it after owens didn't make the big call to save parts of the city in 97

people aren't shopping here bc kevin nicewanger or travis's wife aren't doing fluff pieces about mosquiteos at 5:30 anymore.

[fightingsioux4life]

8 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

agree to disagree ....mayor "ill take one more dinner to go after city meetings bc i don't have to pay for it ...the city will" brown is and was a cheap vindictive sob

alerus-nothing to do with him

ralph-absolutely nothing to do with him

dykes and greenway-our fed congressional guys got it after owens didn't make the big call to save parts of the city in 97

people aren't shopping here bc kevin nicewanger or travis's wife aren't doing fluff pieces about mosquiteos at 5:30 anymore.

What could Owens (RIP) have done to save any part of the city in 1997? There was just too much water to hold back. That 1996-97 winter just dumped too much snow to melt without causing problems. The final storm in April 1997 added tons of moisture to the Red River basin and that was what made it impossible to win the war against the river.

[Kab]

Who ever owns the mall in Minot is doing things right

 they add on to the mall, it looks nice and seems to be busy even in the times of Amazon 

GF needs to tax the hell out of the mall here until it is sold , so much wasted space there, parking lot is huge 

Maybe look at something beside retail there

mixed use of apartments and retail

[SIOUXFAN97]

16 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

What could Owens (RIP) have done to save any part of the city in 1997? There was just too much water to hold back. That 1996-97 winter just dumped too much snow to melt without causing problems. The final storm in April 1997 added tons of moisture to the Red River basin and that was what made it impossible to win the war against the river.

clay right down belmont...north to south

[Dustin]

38 minutes ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

agree to disagree ....mayor "ill take one more dinner to go after city meetings bc i don't have to pay for it ...the city will" brown is and was a cheap vindictive sob

alerus-nothing to do with him

ralph-absolutely nothing to do with him

dykes and greenway-our fed congressional guys got it after owens didn't make the big call to save parts of the city in 97

people aren't shopping here bc kevin nicewanger or travis's wife aren't doing fluff pieces about mosquiteos at 5:30 anymore.

I wasn't offering a commentary on the mayor, simply that there was a lot of exciting things happening during that timeframe that happened to coincide with him mayor.