The Best Place You'll Never Go

Are you planning a vacation? Maybe the next great American road trip is in your future? Hitting national parks and hot cities all around the country? There’s one place that’s not on your list, but I would argue that it should be. That place? Bismarck, North Dakota.

No, I’m not drunk. Seriously. There’s more than meets the eye to this little town in the middle of nowhere. The capital of North Dakota, Bismarck has a population of about 60,000. North Dakota, also known as Worst Dakota, or South DaCanada, is a drive-through state. I feel like that should change.

Charles and I were looking for a long weekend away. Bismarck is not too far away, so we made the drive. We figured that even if it was a total bust, we could go for a nature walk and spend time together, which is our general fallback plan. Boy, were we surprised. Admittedly, I think that we both went in with expectations very low, but we were blown away.

Arrived in Bismarck!

I’ve got three great reasons that you should add this place to your long weekend to-do list.

Food

One of the things that surprised us the most was the vibrant downtown restaurant and bar scene. There were all kinds of cute places to stop and eat, or to try a microbrew. I think that our favorite (well, definitely my favorite) was Humpback Sally’s.

Humpback Sally’s bills itself as a small-plates tapas pub. The menu items are all appetizer-sized, for sharing as a table. They had over 25 (!) options. We tried quite a few things, included Reuben wontons, cowboy mac n cheese, roasted poblano pepper, short ribs, and a berry bread pudding. They also have homemade soda, which tasted phenomenal blended with a little ice and gin into a quick cocktail. The staff was wonderful, and the atmosphere is casual while still feeling upscale. 

We were seated at a little alcove with a cutout that went straight to the bar, so our server was never more than a few feet away. He was very attentive and had a lot of excellent suggestions for us. Highly recommend. After that, the same restaurant owned not one, but two bars, conveniently located upstairs. We had another cocktail in a 1920s-themed lounge before making our way back to the hotel. And the best part? Dinner for two, including all that food so much food and cocktails was less than $70.

An honorable mention also goes to Pirogue, a nice Italian place that had some fantastic soup and cold beet salad.

We had a brilliant time eating our way across Bismarck. Highly recommend.

Attractions

There are two primary attractions that we went to that I would recommend pretty quickly. There is a zoo, but we didn’t make it there, so no comment on the greatness of the Dakota Zoo. We went to the Capitol building. It’s a giant Art Deco building that was built in the middle of nowhere. Now, Bismarck has grown up around it. We sadly did not get to go inside, but peeking through the windows, it has such beautiful architecture. If you’re a fan of that Gatsby-era crystal chandelier look, it’s worth taking the tour of the building and hearing about its interesting history.

The second attraction is right next to the capitol, the North Dakota Heritage Center. Again, this museum was something that I had low expectations going into, but I totally loved this place. This is a fantastic museum. They have a wonderful dinosaur and prehistoric life collection, as well as a lot of artefacts relating to the history of North Dakota, from the history of the Native Americans to the discovery of oil and coal in the region. You can definitely spend hours wandering the collections, and the staff was very helpful at interpreting the items.

People

The people we met…this was such a friendly place. From the hotel staff to waitresses and bartenders, everyone was friendly and had time to chat. They wanted to know why you were in town, and had a million suggestions about where to go, what to do, foods to try…it was so refreshing. Maybe it’s because lately, I’ve been getting used to the “Minnesota Nice” superficial friendliness, and Bismarck seems so genuine by comparison. There’s no shade on Minneapolis for that, but there’s a much more Scandinavian distance-keeping as opposed to the warm and friendly Dakotans. So if you’re out and about, chat with people. We got some of our best recommendations just talking to locals.

There are honestly so many other things that I could mention. We toured antique shops and boutique stores, had coffee at a chic hipster café. I loved walking around and stopping by the little stores, including a combination photo studio-beard care salon. Somehow, while the rest of the world was ignoring it, Bismarck became a fun place to be. I wouldn’t want to spend a long time there, because it is still quite small, but if you’re looking for a long weekend away, keep Bismarck in mind. I don’t think you’ll regret it.