Tag Archives: bars in Dickinson North Dakota

Managing A Bar Or Restaurant In Dickinson, North Dakota

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Most bars and restaurants have similar management in Dickinson, North Dakota.  First, what the manager is looking for, is a waitress or bartender with many jobs of short duration.  With many jobs of short duration, there is no need to contact previous employers, because the employee obviously excelled.

Another thing that the bar or restaurant manager is looking for, is a waitress or bartender who is a first or second year student at Dickinson State University, and they are obviously better than most of their customers.  Even if they are an elementary education major in their first or second year at Dickinson State University with an enrollment of about 1,000 students, they are far superior to customers with a degree in business or engineering from a university with 50,000 students.  You know, they are 19 or 20 years old, and they have been around, done it all, far more so than any of the 40 year old or 50 year old customers, who are losers.

Another good thing about hiring a 19 or 20 year old Dickinson State University student, besides the prestige, with DSU in the news for being investigated for fraudulently awarding degrees and financial fraud, the DSU student can let all of the customers know that this job is not important to them, and that they would rather not be there.

What the manager of a bar or restaurant in Dickinson, North Dakota is looking for, is a waitress or bartender that does not want to be there, and that they say it out loud, and say it often.  It is good that the waitress or bartender either talk about things that they wish they were doing in front of the customers, or talk about their problems.

Although it is good for a waitress or bartender to talk in front of customers, it is not good for them to talk to customers.  The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is about 3:1.  Most of the customers in a bar or restaurant in Dickinson will be men who do not have families in Dickinson.  Because these men work all day, do not have families in Dickinson, and there is a shortage of women in Dickinson, the waitress or bartender is probably the only woman the customer will speak to all day.  Therefore, it is good that the waitress or bartender not talk to the customer, and walk away, out of sight is the best.  That way, even if the customer needs mustard, ketchup, silver ware, or a drink, the waitress or bartender is not around.  It is important to not be available if the customer wants something.

There are all kinds of good ways for a waitress or bartender to not be available to customers: going to the bathroom, going outside to smoke, going out to their car to talk on the phone, socializing with friends, and eating.  It is important to ignore customers as much as possible.  It is very important to not be hospitable or provide good service in the hospitality and service industry, just ask any bar or restaurant manager in Dickinson.

In order to be a good waitress or bartender in Dickinson, you have to not be good at just one thing, you need to combine the things mentioned above.  For instance, if you seat a customer at a table, you need to walk far away from them, turn your back to them, and become occupied with texting on your phone.  This accomplishes several things, you are not talking to them, you are not available to them, you are showing that you are more important than them, you are showing that you don’t want to be at work, and you are ignoring them.

Once you have had many waitressing and bartending jobs of short duration, complete less than three years of college at some place like DSU, get a DUI, have a drug or alcohol addiction, and have caused several restaurants to go out of business, then you will be ready to manage one of the bars or restaurants in Dickinson.

Problem Women Moving To Dickinson, North Dakota

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In many previous posts, I wrote that there had been a shortage of women in Dickinson, and a lack of attractive women in Dickinson. I also wrote that the women in Dickinson had all decided that they were going to be overweight, not in shape, that they were not going to wear nice clothes, get their hair done, get their nails done, or act friendly, because they did not want men bothering them or wanting to have sex with them. I was writing about the women from Dickinson. The women from Dickinson don’t want any kind of attention.

One year ago, I was working as a subcontractor in Dickinson, at a large business that employed many women. After a couple of weeks of working there, I asked this one woman who was older than me, who I had to exchange work information with hourly, why her coworker was so short with me. She said, “Don’t you dare tell her that I said this, she is just nutty and crazy, she told me that she sold her house and moved here to Dickinson, to try to find a guy working in the oil field to get hooked up with. She had heard there were so many single guys in Dickinson. But as you can see, she ain’t very good looking, and she’s a crazy bitch, so it hasn’t worked out for her, and now she’s just an angry person.”

I recall those words now, because I recently encountered an angry young woman working in the restaurant where I often eat. I have been going to this restaurant since 2011. I know the owner, and about 10 out of the 13 people who currently work at this restaurant, plus many of the former employees. I talk to the waitresses some, I know where they are from, and a little about what is going on with them in their lives. I don’t make fun of them, and I don’t say anything lewd or crude to them. Some of the waitresses talk a lot, some don’t. Some of the waitresses talk a lot about their personal life, some don’t. Some want to be friends, some don’t. However, I have in the past met women who have recently moved to Dickinson, who begin working at this restaurant, who have blackness and darkness in their background, demons, and it is only a short amount of time before they start acting evil.

About four months ago, there was a pretty, petite young woman about 25 years of age, who came to work at this restaurant. She is unmarried, and has a young daughter. At first, she seemed to be making friends with some of the staff and some of the customers. She dated one of the customers briefly after she started working at the restaurant, I don’t know why, he looks just like the Devil. Currently, another customer is asking her out, he is an O.K. person, but he is not handsome. More and more over the past weeks, her countenance has grown angrier and angrier, she acts angry, she says that she is angry, and that she hates her job. As of several days ago, she is not speaking to me, and she acts like she is mad at me, like I have done something to her.

This makes me very uncomfortable, because she acts like I have done something to her. It makes me very uncomfortable, because I have seen this play out before. I have seen women that are so full of anger and hate, that they try attack someone around them, usually a male, but because they are small, they attack some man using a scheme or false allegations. I know a little about this young woman’s background, it appears that she got into some trouble and a bad lifestyle in Wyoming, her family had some relatives that had come to work in Dickinson, so they thought this would be a good place for her, they thought she would meet some guy working in the oil field. The problem is, it didn’t take long for her to start acting crazy here too.

I can think of about eight additional women that I have met, that have traveled from several states away to be a bartender or waitress in Dickinson, and they hate their job, they hate their customers, they dislike their coworkers, they hate being here, and they hate their life. You might think that it would have been easier for them to stay where they were, but no, it wouldn’t be, because they were unable to keep or get a job where they were because they had a bad attitude and acted crazy.

I have met women working in other industries in Dickinson and Watford City, that have traveled from several states away, that act like they have got something mentally and emotionally wrong with them. Just like the older men who never learned a skill or trade, or never did any work competently, drove across the country thinking they were going to get a $100,000 per year job, crazy women came out here thinking they wouldn’t be crazy anymore or people wouldn’t notice.

Bartender Women in Dickinson, North Dakota

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In this post, I would have liked to have named the bar that I am writing about, but I can’t.  I suppose that what I write may be applicable to many bars, in many places.  Young women, please don’t let this happen to you.

I have written in this blog many times that it is very dangerous to go out to bars in Dickinson at night because the police in Dickinson are overly eager to arrest people for DUI.  I try not to go to bars, especially in Dickinson.  Sometimes, like when my room mate has been drinking and is talking to himself like a crazy person,  I want to go some place else.  I don’t want to drink, but if you don’t want to go to the movies, or go to the West River Community Center, the only place you can go for a couple of hours at night in Dickinson is a bar.

In December, the bar that I decided to go to, I had not been there for about a year.  It has a restaurant associated with it, so this narrows it down to about four possibilities in Dickinson.  In the past, I had met some people that I became friends with in the restaurant.  One of the waitresses who no longer works there, she is very pretty and funny, and I see her about once every two months somewhere in town, she is always nice to me and we always talk.  Some other waitresses that have worked there have been very nice and friendly to me.  Usually, the waitresses in the restaurant are too young to work as bartenders.

After having not been in this bar for about a year, I went into the bar.  I was shocked that a bartender woman, who I will call “Cuddles”, was working there.  I had first met Cuddles in the fall of 2011 when she was a bartender at this bar.  I had told her that I really liked her, and I did.  I had a shitty construction job at that time, it was more dangerous and screwed up than most construction jobs, and I thought about Cuddles all day at work, and looked forward to seeing her after work.  After work, when I got to the bar, I would say hello to her, and go sit down and behave.  When nobody was around, I would ask if I could talk to her and she would say, “No, I don’t want to talk to you.”

Cuddles knew that I liked her, because I had told her.  Unwisely, she started to kind of antagonize and taunt me.  When she did, I became angry.  Not admitting any guilt, not admitting any involvement, must have been just a coincidence, the building lost electrical power.  For a time after that, Cuddles didn’t screw with me.

About a month later, Cuddles started taunting me again.  There was a guy that would come into the bar, and start joking with Cuddles.  She would stand there and let him pull her shirt neck down and open, let him play with her breasts, in front of me.  I asked him if he was her boyfriend, he said he was not, why did I ask.  I said that I liked her a lot, that if he was her boyfriend, I would leave her alone.  He said he was not her boyfriend.  I said,”I am letting you know, that I like her, a lot.”  About a week later, the same thing happened with the same guy, when I was sitting there.  I had had enough.

I was angry about the shitty job that I had, I was angry about how shitty Dickinson was, I was angry about Cuddles and this guy disrespecting me.  Both of them knowing that they were making me mad, I had already warned the guy.  I went outside the bar, I drove my truck around to the other side of the parking lot where I could watch the door where this guy had entered, and I waited for this guy and his friends to come out.  When he and his friends came out of the bar, and walked to a truck, I pulled my truck in right behind them so they couldn’t leave.  I got out of my truck and started yelling at the guy, that I had already given him warning about what he was doing with Cuddles in front of me, so now it was time for him to get a beating.  The three of them were very surprised, scared, didn’t want to fight, and seemed to sense something was wrong.  They pleaded with me to let them go.  They were correct about something being wrong, I wasn’t going to lose that fight, for several different reasons which I am better off not naming.

I didn’t see those guys again.  Cuddles quit fucking with me.  That was 2011.

I left Dickinson in December of 2011.  I returned in May of 2013.  While I was away, working in a part of Texas that had even fewer women than Dickinson, I spent a lot of time after work on the internet.  I looked at Cuddles’ Facebook page, she was in a relationship with a guy I will call “Lucky”.   I believe that Cuddles had her first child by Lucky in 2012, and they became engaged.  Cuddles looked happy in her photos, though she had put on some weight.  I felt happy for her, and happy for me too.  I would not have wanted to have had children with Cuddles outside of marriage, not sure that I wanted to have children at all.  I also would not have been happy with the way she was putting on weight, so I was glad that she was with Lucky, not me.

I got back to Dickinson in May of 2013.  I went to the bar and saw Cuddles and said hello.  She was civil toward me.  She was still not married.  I could have misread her, but it seemed that she was happy to have one of her admirers back.  She was a little heavier, and now a mom.  I think that she missed not having as many guys propositioning her as she used to.  She was pregnant with her second child by Lucky.  They were still engaged.  I believe that they got married in August of 2013, and moved to eastern North Dakota.  I thought that this was good for both of them, and for their children, to get away from Dickinson.  Cuddles had been a little bit of a party girl, she was known for that, so it would be good for her to go someplace else and be a housewife and a mom.  Good, good riddance.

So it is now December of 2015, and I am going to the bar because my room mate is drunk and talking to himself. I walk into the bar, and here is Cuddles.  I wasn’t expecting to see her.  It was like 2011 all over again.  She was not as pretty as she had been four years ago.  She was just an average looking woman now.  I said,”Cuddles, I thought you had moved to eastern North Dakota.”  She said,”I did, I moved back six months ago.”  I complied with the rule established back in 2011, “She doesn’t want to talk to me.”, so I went and sat down and behaved.

I had not been in this bar for at least a year.  To my surprise, here was bartender “Morticia”.  I said to Morticia,”Did you move away too, or have you been here since 2011?”.  Morticia said that she had been here the whole time.  Then Cuddles and Morticia had to have a conference to decide what to do about me.  They didn’t do anything mean to me that night.

I came to the bar a few days later, different bartender women were working, they were nice looking, and were pleasant to me.  I came to the bar a few days later, Cuddles and Morticia were working.  The bar was not busy, I went and sat at the end of the bar, because I didn’t feel like talking to bar patrons.  Neither Cuddles nor Morticia were waiting on me, I thought, “Uh oh”.  Time went by, enough time for me to start thinking about what side of the building their electrical weatherhead was on, what rope I had in the back of my truck, what type of knot I was going to tie in the rope after I threw it over their power line and tied the other end to my trailer hitch.  “Come on Cuddles!, don’t you and Morticia start pulling this shit on me again, I don’t want to go to jail for pulling down your power line.”

I knew where the bar owner was sitting, “Ringo”.  I was thinking of going over to Ringo and saying,”If I am kicked out of the bar, let me know, otherwise can you get me a drink.”  I was mulling it over,”Did I want to get Cuddles and Morticia in trouble?  I would probably be kicked out, if in fact Cuddles and Morticia said that they really couldn’t deal with me being here, for some reason.”

Cuddles eventually walked by, after too much time had passed, and asked me if I wanted a drink.  Was this their way of telling me that I was not wanted there?  Were they just fucking with me?  I was feeling angry mostly because they were making me mad enough, to where I was going to do something to retaliate, and end up in trouble.  Why are they giving me a hard time?

When I got home, I looked at Cuddles’ Facebook page, and Morticia’s Facebook page.  I got the full name of Cuddles’ husband, Lucky, and put him into my background check service.  I am very experienced in running background checks, and it was very nearly 100% clear that Lucky went back to the state where he came from, far far away, he was gone.  Huh, no wonder Cuddles is being mean to me, the father of her two kids, has left and gone away.  I guess she is just plain mad.

I put Morticia in my background check service.  I did not know that she had been married before.  After her first marriage ended, she moved to Dickinson.  Morticia had a kid about a year ago.  Let’s see who the father is.  Oh man, this guy is a loser, no accounts, no bills, no utilities ever in his name, looks like no current job, looks like he never moved out of his mom’s house here in Dickinson.  No wonder Morticia is being a bitch to me, I think that she’s just plain angry too.

I thought about Cuddles and Morticia differently, once I realized that they both had had kids by guys that were no longer with them.  Although I believe that both of their guys were not very good people to begin with, I wondered,”Did Cuddles and Morticia act so bitchy that both of those guys didn’t want to be around? I think so.”  I was grateful that I had never been in an intimate relationship with Cuddles or Morticia, both of them had gotten pregnant outside of marriage, and I would not have wanted to have gotten either of them pregnant.

I Want To Beat The Chamber of Commerce In Dickinson, North Dakota

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I want to beat the Chamber of Commerce in Dickinson, North Dakota.  I want to get to you, before they do.  I want to tell you the truth, rather than have you listen to lies and bullshit.

The individuals in the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce may not be bad people, but they have a job to do, and that job is to lie to you about Dickinson.

When I first wrote this blog post in November of 2015, the housing prices in Dickinson were very, very high.  Extremely high.  This was the result of greed, lack of human decency, and stupidity.  There was this lie going around that everybody in the oil field was making $100,000 per year.  In the five years that I have lived in Dickinson, I have only ever met three people who made over $100,000 per year in the oil field.

The Oil Boom was over in western North Dakota by the end of 2015, due to the price of oil falling from over $100 per barrel down to $40 per barrel.  Many oil field jobs went away, and many out of state workers returned to the states where they came from.  Once the apartments, manufactured home parks, and trailer parks in Dickinson became less than half occupied, the rents throughout Dickinson dropped greatly.

During the Oil Boom, the people in Dickinson were not friendly, not helpful, and not cooperative.  Now that the Oil Boom is over, the people in Dickinson are even meaner, in part due to increased competition for fewer jobs, and also because they want people to leave Dickinson.

The people in Dickinson dislike people who are from someplace else, and they also dislike each other.  Anything you say to people in Dickinson, will probably make them dislike you more.  If you arrive in Dickinson now, you are better off staying away from people.  Remain in your hotel, or your home, there isn’t anything to do or anywhere to go anyway, and you will likely be followed and stopped by the Dickinson Police.

There is a shortage of women in Dickinson, and a lack of attractive women.  The ratio of men to women in Dickinson is probably 3:1.  The Dickinson Police Department try as hard as they can to not allow prostitution in Dickinson, though it is needed.  The Dickinson Police create fake advertisement for women wanting to have sex, and then arrest people when they show up.

You can not safely go out to bars or restaurants in Dickinson at night, because the Dickinson Police try as hard as they can to arrest people for DUI.  In Dickinson, the Police are so eager to arrest people for DUI or other charges, that they will follow you and stop you for any reason that they can think of.  The Police try to encourage people to leave Dickinson.

In Dickinson, all of the restaurants have employees and servers that don’t like their jobs.  All of the restaurant employees think that everyone else is making over $100,000 per year, and they aren’t, and they are mad about it.  The servers are disappointed and can’t understand why people don’t spend $50 per meal and leave them a $20 tip, like they all heard about.  How are they ever going to make $300 a night at Applebees like they planned?

There is not a lot to do in Dickinson.  It is cold and grey from about October through April, at least seven months of cold weather.

The oil field work has been reduced by about 80% over the past several years.  Most of the oil field workers who lost their jobs went back to the states where they came from because housing prices were so high here, the people are unfriendly, there is a shortage of women, you can’t go out to bars or restaurants at night, the restaurants have terrible service, there is not a lot to do, the Police encourage people to leave Dickinson, and it is cold for at least seven months of the year.

The people in Dickinson, and the employers in Dickinson, hate people with an education.  The employers in Dickinson would much rather hire someone with several felony convictions, than someone with a college degree.  In Dickinson, your supervisors and co-workers will be people convicted of robbery, theft, assault, and drug charges.  Perform a Google search and look up your company owners, managers, and personnel on www.ndcourts.gov/publicsearch/default.html before you accept a job with a company in Dickinson.

What do I want?  I want the truth to be known.  I had thought that Dickinson could change, but once the Oil Boom was over, the local people in Dickinson became ever meaner.  I had not realized that the local people in Dickinson were on their best behavior during the Oil Boom.  All I can do now is warn people what Dickinson is like.

Bad Service, a Common Problem in Dickinson, North Dakota

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A couple of days ago, I had a problem at a restaurant in Dickinson.  In the past, I had recommended this restaurant to people.  I said that the service was good in this restaurant because the husband and wife owners were always there, waiting on tables, seating customers, checking on customers, making drinks, and serving as cashiers.  A couple of days ago I walked out of this restaurant due to not be waited on.

I wrote a review of this restaurant on the website “Yelp”.  I read other reviews of this restaurant on “Yelp”, and was surprised to see that the very same thing had happened to other customers.  Other customers had had to walk out for not being served, and other customers had been treated very rudely.

I went and read the reviews for the Players Sports Bar on “Yelp”, and found that there were about four or five reviews complaining of bad service, which is what I had experienced.  I then read on “Yelp” all the other reviews for all of the restaurants that I had eaten at in Dickinson, and bad service was common complaint.  Eventually, I started to see reviews that started out saying, “…this is Dickinson, you are not going to find a good restaurant…this one is worse than usual…”

If you have lived in Dickinson for even a short while, you will see “Help Wanted” signs in most restaurants in Dickinson, and most retail stores in Dickinson.  One reason for this is that there are many jobs in Dickinson that pay more than restaurant or retail jobs, so there is currently a shortage of restaurant and retail workers.  So, the wait staff or bartender that served you, that wasn’t good at their job, or wasn’t friendly, was possibly the only person available, or the best of the lot that was not a very good lot.

Additionally, the restaurant that I went to a couple of days ago and walked out of for not being waited on, that I used to recommend, they are very busy.  I believe that the husband and wife owner have come to the point that they believe they don’t have to be nice to every customer, they have enough customers.

Getting a DUI in Dickinson, North Dakota

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I have thought about it, and probably the most important thing that I could tell someone from out of state, is that you have to be extremely careful not to get a DUI in Dickinson, North Dakota.  In fact, if you have come here to make money, you should probably not go to bars in Dickinson at all.  It seems like that must be the intention of the police in Dickinson, they should probably just go ahead and make bars illegal.

Bars have parking spaces for automobiles.  People drive automobiles to bars.  People have a couple of drinks, and get in their cars to drive home.  The police have already seen your car in the parking space at the bar.  Maybe you are driving too fast, too slow, you did not come to a complete stop, you changed lanes without using your signal, you had a headlight out, you had a brake light out, your license plate light was not working, they could not read your license plate, your license plate was expired, you were not wearing your seat belt, something, you are stopped by the police.

You are asked if you have had any alcohol to drink.  If you say yes, I had one beer, you have just given the police officer probable cause to ask you to step out of the vehicle to take a field sobriety test.  At this point in Dickinson you are probably going to be arrested for DUI and are going to jail.  Once you said that you had one beer, you have just given the police the first piece of evidence of guilt for driving under the influence, you have just admitted that you have been drinking.  The field sobriety tests are just additional pieces of evidence to be used against you in court.  You will be placed under arrest for DUI and you will be taken to jail.  At the jail your blood alcohol level will be tested by breathalyzer or blood test.  You will be given the opportunity to post bail.  You will have a court date set.  From what I have been told by people that I have talked to in Dickinson that have been arrested for DUI,  all of the attorneys in town want $3,000 paid in advance to defend you.  If your BAC was below .08, maybe you will be found not guilty.

The law in North Dakota is that you can be convicted of a DUI if your blood alcohol level is greater than .08.  But you have to remember that in North Dakota, you are just a piece-of-shit, out-of-town, oil field trash, piece-of-shit construction worker.  They don’t want or need any piece-of-shit construction worker or oil field worker driving around, trying to rape their women, ruining their town, probably trying to kid nap their children.  Dickinson was nice before you got here.  Make them pay that $3,000 to my cousin the attorney, we got ten of them boys this month, boy we is making some money now, and we ain’t even working on no oil rig.

Hey, I know that you would rather be back home where it is warm, back in your own home with your wife, your kids, your family, your friends.  It would be nice just to be home mowing your own lawn, changing your oil in your driveway.  Here in Dickinson, because you are tired of work, you are lonely, there is nothing else to do, you don’t know anybody in Dickinson, you don’t know anywhere else to go, you go to a bar.  You might only have a few drinks.  You get a DUI on your way home.  You know that you are going to lose your job, you know that you really don’t have an extra $3,000 to throw away. But you have to have the whole North Dakota experience, first you get fucked paying fifty percent of your take home pay for an apartment, then you have to work out in the -20 below freezing weather, there aren’t any women, there isn’t anything to do, now you’ve got a DUI on your record, you are out $3,000 for an attorney, thousands of dollars more in court fines, fees, and the mandatory substance abuse counseling sessions, you have lost your job, and probably your apartment, and probably just about everything you own if you were making payments on a vehicle or anything else.  Hey it’s “Legendary North Dakota”, you come back now, you hear.

Night Life in Dickinson, North Dakota

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(This post was re-written and updated on 4/18/2018 in order to provide current information.)

I am going to start at the north end of town, and work my way south, in naming the bars and restaurants that serve alcohol in Dickinson, North Dakota.

But before I begin listing places where you can drink alcohol, I want to tell everyone the most important thing that they need to know about Dickinson, and that is, that the Police in Dickinson try as hard as they can to arrest people for DUI, like no other place that I have ever been.

Many bars and restaurants, will provide customers with a free voucher for the Camajur Bus Service and Taxi Service to get a ride home.  Even without a free voucher, the Camajur Bus or Taxi Service is very cheap, and I recommend using it.

  • Players Club – On the north side of Dickinson, just south of WalMart, is the Players Club sports bar and restaurant.  This building and restaurant, was built and is owned by the Fisher Group.  This sports bar is probably more upscale for Dickinson, and professional people and their wives would feel comfortable in the bar area.  The formal restaurant dining area is completely separate from the bar area.  Though you could expect that the formal restaurant would be suitable for an important business dinner, birthday dinner, or anniversary dinner, I would recommend to anyone in Dickinson who is planning a special dinner, to telephone the restaurant manager before hand, to emphasize that you are planning an important dinner, and ask if there was some way to help make sure that you would not be seated beside over intoxicated or rowdy people.
    • For any nice restaurant in Dickinson, I am going to have to give this warning, that if you are planning an important business dinner, family dinner, a date with your wife, or a date with a girlfriend, you are going to have to take steps yourself, to make sure that your dinner is not ruined by construction workers or oil field workers.  The young or inexperienced wait staff in Dickinson, will not hesitate to seat a group of intoxicated and rowdy males, beside a business meeting, family dinner, or couple on date, so you will have to do something about this yourself.
  • The Crossing – On the north side of Dickinson, on State Avenue, this upscale bar and formal dining restaurant was built and is owned by Seth Murphy, owner of SM Fencing and Energy Services.  From what I hear, this is the most expensive bar and restaurant in Dickinson, and that it is very nicely furnished.  I will not go there, because I do not like the owner and his wife.  If you work in construction, or if you work in the oil field, and you have a big pay check, please gather your friends together, have some drinks before hand, and then go try the Crossing bar and restaurant.
  • Grand Dakota Lodge – On the north side of Dickinson, southwest of the Prairie Hills Mall, is the Grand Dakota Lodge.  The Grand Dakota Lodge is probably one of the nicest hotels in Dickinson, with a bar, restaurant, several lobbies, conference rooms, and indoor swimming pool.  This hotel is a fairly safe, comfortable, indoor environment.
  • Elks Lodge – Just south from the Grand Dakota Lodge, the Elks Lodge in Dickinson has recently downsized, has sold the upstairs to their building, in order to move into the basement of the building.  I don’t know what they are doing.
  • New Life Pentecostal Church – Just south from the Grand Dakota Lodge, the New Life Pentecostal Church has recently purchased and renovated the upstairs of the Elks Lodge building.  Live music and entertainment on Wednesday night and Sunday morning.  A place to meet friendly people in Dickinson.
  • El Sombrero Restaurant – On the north side of Dickinson, just south of the Prairie Hills Mall.  Just average Mexican food.  A restaurant with a small bar.  At this restaurant, you can experience not being waited on, which was a common experience for myself, my friends, acquaintances, and other people that I have asked.
  • El Puricatan Restaurant – On the north side of Dickinson, just south of the Prairie Hills Mall.  A small Mexican restaurant with a wide variety of authentic, good, unique Mexican food, for reasonable prices.
  • Astoria Hotel – At the intersection of I-94 and Hwy 22, is the Astoria Hotel, which is one of the nicer hotels in Dickinson.  The very large ballroom is often used for shows, parties, and events.  There is a recently opened restaurant and bar inside the hotel, adjacent to the main hotel lobby.  A fairly safe, comfortable, indoor environment.
  • Applebees Restaurant – At the intersection of I-94 and Hwy 22, is Applebees Restaurant.
  • Sakura Japanese Restaurant – On the north side of Dickinson, across Hwy 22 from the Prairie Hills Mall, is the Sakura Japanese restaurant where you can order sushi, or watch your food being cooked at your table top hibachi by an entertaining chef.
  • Sanfords Pub And Grub – On the north side of Dickinson, adjacent to the Sakura Japanese restaurant, and surrounded by newer hotels, is Sanfords Pub And Grub sports bar and restaurant.  A fairly normal and fairly safe sports bar.  I believe that it is O.K. for wives and children.
  • The Wurst Shop – On the north side of Dickinson, behind Sanfords Pub And Grub and Sakura Japanese restaurant, is the Wurst Shop which serves bratwurst, hot dogs, sausage, and other meats that they create and process right there on the premises.  Though they might not serve alcohol, this food is something interesting to try in Dickinson.
  • Buffalo Wild Wings – On the northwest side of Dickinson, at the new Menards and Family Fare shopping center, is Buffalo Wild Wings.  This Buffalo Wild Wings is a fairly large sports bar and restaurant, which I believe is O.K. for wives and children.
  • Army’s West – On the south side of I-94, just west of Hwy 22, is Army’s West Sports Bar.  This bar, which is owned by Dan Porter of Dan Porter Motors, sometimes has live music.  Though adults of all ages go to this bar, it is sometimes the most liked bar of the Dickinson State University college students.
  • Mavericks Saloon – On the south side of I-94, next door to McDonalds, is Mavericks Saloon which is a fairly normal and safe bar.
  • Red Coach Lounge – Across the street from McDonalds, inside of the Motel 6, adjacent to the motel lobby is the Red Coach Lounge.
  • King Buffet – On Main Avenue, in the T-Rex Shopping Center, is the King Buffet Chinese restaurant, which is a fairly large buffet style restaurant.  You can have fresh food prepared on a hibachi, at no additional cost to the buffet.
  • JDs BBQ – Across the street from the West River Community Center complex, very close to DSU, is JDs BBQ restaurant, which is a medium sized restaurant, with fairly good food, and it is safe for families with children.
  • Liquid Assets – Across the street from the West River Community Center complex, very close to DSU, is Liquid Assets, which is a fairly large sports bar.
  • The Spur – On the west end of Villard Street near DSU and downtown Dickinson, is The Spur bar, which is as medium sized bar.
  • The Paragon Bowling Alley, Diner, and Bar – Near the west end of Villard Street, DSU, and downtown Dickinson, is the Paragon Bowling Alley, Diner, and Bar.  During the day, the diner and bowling alley are fairly safe for women and children.  Once it gets past about 8:00 p.m., the Paragon begins to fill with more adults and college students who are interested in drinking, and it becomes less suitable for families and children.
  • Blue 42 – In the heart of downtown Dickinson, on Villard Street, is a new sports bar owned by Mike Lefor, called Blue 42.  It is a medium sized sports bar, which is currently fairly popular.
  • The Rock Bar – In the heart of downtown Dickinson, on First Street, is a small bar owned by the Kathy Fisher family, called the Rock Bar.  This is a fairly calm and mellow community bar, which has outdoor sidewalk seating during the Spring, Summer, and Fall.  The Rock Bar is usually the sponsor for the downtown Thursday Summer concerts which sometimes bring thousands of people to downtown Dickinson.
  • Odd Fellows Lodge – In the heart of downtown Dickinson, on First Avenue, is the Odd Fellows Lodge.  Though the Odd Fellows Lodge is active throughout the year, their main effort is organizing and operating the downtown Thursday Summer concerts in Dickinson, which host well known bands and music performers.
  • Bernie’s Esquire Club – In the center of downtown Dickinson, on First Street across from the Post Office, is Bernie’s Esquire Club, owned by the Bernie Marsh family.  This is a medium sized bar, which is a little like a biker bar, but also like a community bar.  In the Spring, Summer, and Fall there is outside sidewalk seating.  Bernie, his wife, his sons, and his daughters operate the bar, and if you are very lucky, you might even get to see Marinna Marsh.
  • Brickhouse Grille – In the center of downtown Dickinson, on Villard Street, across from the old train depot is the Brickhouse Grille and Lounge, which is owned by Mike Riesinger.  The restaurant is located inside a restored historic building, with one bar located downstairs, and a larger bar located in the lounge upstairs.  This is Dickinson’s nicest fine dining restaurant, and there is a dress code requirement.
  • Eagles Lodge – In the heart of downtown Dickinson, situated between the Post Office and Villard Street, is the Eagles Lodge.  In Dickinson, the Eagles Lodge is open to the public.  There are lunch specials for dining in the afternoon, but in the evening the Eagles Lodge is primarily a community type bar.
  • Southside Bar – Located on Broadway Street, on the south side of Dickinson, is the Southside Bar, which is a fairly large bar, frequented mostly by local working class people.  I advise non-local people to not come into conflict with local people in this bar.
  • Upin Thai – Located on the south side of Dickinson, on Main Avenue, is the very small Thai restaurant, which is used mostly for take out, called Upin Thai, which has very good and unique Thai food.