Some say you can judge the mood of one of the state’s most iconic animals, the bison, by the way it moves its tail. If it is standing straight up, it is ready to charge, which makes sense, as I know some people who feel like that after their first Martini. Though there are more bars per capita in North Dakota than any other state in the country, one of my favorite aspects of the state would be the names of some cities: Voltaire, Prairie Rose, Nome, Grace City, Mantador, Jud, Fort Ransom, Maxbass, Starkweather (which sounds like the name of a Game of Thrones episode), Noonan (any relation to Caddyshack?), Pick City, Wing, Buffalo, Dwight, Zap, Bowbells, Buelah (Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?), Wahpeton, and Hope.
North Dakota
North Dakota might have my favorite nicknames in the United States. In addition to the Roughrider State, North Dakota is the 701, Peace Garden State, Norse Dakota, and, for the win, Heaven. Polka—a German dance accompanied by an accordion (and usually older people), bingo games, and beer—is very common in North Dakota, due to the state’s many inhabitants with German ancestry, and the fact that polka king Lawrence Welk is from North Dakota.
North Dakota has one of the most extreme temperature ranges in the United States. Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop us from enjoying the outdoors and venturing out to socialize. Bismarck, the state capital, has a vibrant downtown community filled with many different types of restaurants, bars, breweries, and boutiques.
—Tristen Hoffer, bar manager (Bismarck)
Flickertail ground squirrels are everywhere in North Dakota. They flick their tail up and scurry every which way and are commonly celebrated throughout the Flickertail State (yes, another nickname for North Dakota) but don’t tell Turtle Lake, famous for its annual turtle racing championships. Rutland is famous for being home to the largest hamburger ever constructed, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, topping out at 3,591 pounds, forming a whopper of indigestion. Stop by the Myra Museum in Grand Forks and experience the nineteenth-century way of life of pioneer women, touring one-room schools and the original log cabin post office. Or grab some famous knoephla soup (aka potato dumpling soup), coffee, and pie at Kroll’s Diner. Plenty to see and do, and watch the buffalo, too!
Cocktail bars are gaining in popularity throughout North Dakota, so it wouldn’t hurt to stop by Fargo’s Boiler Room and Mezzaluna, Bismarck’s Lüft rooftop bar, and Grand Forks’s Brick and Barley, known for some knockout Bloody Marys featuring a top-secret homemade spice blend.
North Dakota has helped make bars even more entertaining for decades. Fans of trivia might be interested to know that “Think and Drink” began in Grand Forks in 1973 at the Westward Ho peanut bar, and subsequently spread through the nation to become what we now know and love as “bar trivia night.”
My favorite piece of trivia about the state? North Dakota grows more sunflowers than any other state. One for each of you.
North Dakota’s Oldest Bar
The oldest bar in North Dakota also features an extensive cocktail selection, which is a nice accompaniment to its sprawling bar. Located in the lobby of the historic Patterson Hotel and opened the year Prohibition ended, the Peacock hosted politicians, wayfarers, gamblers, and all sorts of ne’er-do-wells in its prime, and still manages to get people riled up with its modern- day Espresso Martinis, and the prices are spookier than the ghosts haunting the old space!
North Dakota Bucket List Bar
Yes, Toasted Frog does sound like a bar in Times Square that’s been open for forty-plus years, one tourists go to after seeing the famous episode on Bar Rescue about the older, wisecracking New York owner who fought the mafia, the cops, and, well, even the tourists, and somehow made the place lovable. But the Toasted Frog turns out to be a small chain of great restaurants with creative cocktail programs in Bismarck, Fargo, and Grand Forks. Their cocktail menus feature a nice balance of craft American distilleries and international standbys.
North Dakota Spirit
Award-winning distillers of whiskey, vodka, gin, and varying liqueurs, Proof has been serving Fargo only since 2016, but it’s housed in plenty of North Dakota tradition, headquartered in a building that is nearly a hundred years old, and the tasting room has a bar from 1892 Grand Forks, rescued by friends of the distillery who affectionately call themselves “minions,” so beloved and devoted to the distillery that Proof has named their house gin, Minions gin, in their honor. They recently produced North Dakota’s first bourbon, Crooked Furrow, named after the furrows created when you plant corn; as distiller Jeremy Meidinger told Fargo Monthly, “Grandpa always said corn grows better in a crooked furrow. Of course, he just said that because he drove crooked.”
Our drinking tradition is steeped in community and craftsmanship. The US is home to hundreds of great craft cocktail bars that have paved the way. If it wasn’t for Americans wanting to enjoy the company of our friends and community, we would not be able to create amazing cocktails and trends inspiring others across the world. The cocktail industry is like one massive family. Everyone knowns everyone, and we learn and adapt from each other, and we get inspiration from our fellow bartenders. Every bar needs passion. Passionate staff drive your business’s success, and if your bartenders love what they do, it spreads to the patrons and their subsequent enjoyment of a truly wellcrafted cocktail.
—Tristen Hoffer, bar manager (Bismarck)
North Dakota Cocktail Bar
Humpback Sally’s was opened by a wife-and-husband team, one of those great American business stories that proves that not only can a couple stay happily married, they can also achieve life goals together. As my good friend Gabriel Stulman would say, “Yahtzee!” Their menu features variations on classics (Grasshopper with coconut milk? Two, please), a fall Old Fashioned with sweet potato–infused bourbon, and a separate list that makes my little juniper-soaked heart go pitter-patter: Gin and Tonic variations with house-made 510 tonic. And if you like the drinks they’re making at Humpback Sally’s, don’t be afraid to sneak into 510.2, their speakeasy in the same building. It’s a No Dak winwin, yes yes.
North Dakota Beverage
In April 1951, a farm in Tioga struck oil, and the state was inundated with wildcatters, land speculators, geologists, and roughnecks. Wendell Smith and James Curran were partners during the North Dakota oil surge, and their office was on the second floor of the Prince Hotel in Bismarck. However, they spent plenty of time downstairs imbibing at the Blue Blazer Lounge. One day in 1952, they challenged the bartender at the Blue Blazer, Gebert “Shorty” Doebber, to come up with a soothing “hair of the dog” concoction for them. It quickly became a favorite drink of the oilmen. And because oilmen tend to travel, they spread word of the drink around the world. So these days, anywhere you find oilmen, you’ll probably find the Smith and Curran (under one of its many modified names like Smith and Kearns, which was the result of a bartender not hearing “Curran” over the loud din of a drinking crowd). The original recipe is crème de cacao, heavy cream, and club soda, but the recipe was modified in the 1960s once Kahlúa started popping up. Either way you wrangle it, you’re basically drinking a milkshake—or, I drink your milkshake, or Daniel Day Lewis will drink your milkshake like he does in There Will Be Blood.
STATE FACT
Although North Dakota’s official state flower is the wild prairie rose, the state grows more sunflowers than any other. Nearly 90% of North Dakota is farmland and ranches, leading the country’s agricultural charge with flaxseed, durum wheat (pasta), canola, and honey production.
Black Market Negroni
This Negroni variation is exactly what I would want to drink on a cold, wintry North Dakota night. Make sure your spiced orange black tea has cinnamon in it, which is a terrific ingredient when mixing these flavors. Fords is one of my favorite gins on the market, and it also boasts one of the best packaging labels ever produced, listing not only each ingredient that goes into the gin, but its origin and flavor profile—and it isn’t just four or five ingredients. Most Negroni recipes call for equal parts of savory, sweet, and bitter for their ideal balance, but Mezzaluna goes the way of cocktail historian and Negroni cocktail book author Gary “Gaz” Regan, who notoriously prefers a little more gin for the win. And now, we dance!
1½ ounces Fords gin
½ ounce sweet vermouth spiced orange black tea (recipe follows)
½ ounce Tattersall bitter orange liqueur (Combier or Cointreau also work)
½ ounce Cynar amaro
Garnish: orange peel
Stir the ingredients with ice until chilled; strain into a chilled rocks glass with fresh ice. Garnish with the orange.
Sweet Vermouth Spiced Orange Black Tea
Makes one 750 ml bottle
2 tablespoons spiced orange black tea
One 750 ml bottle sweet vermouth
Combine the ingredients and steep for half an hour. Taste before straining, but be careful not to oversteep: Leaving the tea in the vermouth for any extended period of time will cause the tannins to overpower the vermouth. Strain and refrigerate for up to 1 month.
Thunder Alley
Thunder Alley is not only the name of my next bluegrass-folk album, it is one of Proof ’s cocktails that combines 2 Docks cream liqueur, a variation on Baileys Irish cream, with 2 Docks Fire by Proof, a cinnamon-flavored whiskey in the vein of Fireball. What’s great about this drink is that you can have it hot with coffee (winter-friendly in North Dakota) or iced for the summertime (August in North Dakota 
).
1 ounce 2 Docks cream liqueur (Bailey’s or Amarula also work)
1 ounce 2 Docks Fire by Proof (or Fireball, if you don’t live in North Dakota)
3 to 4 ounces hot coffee or cold brew coffee (store-bought, or see this page for homemade concentrate recipe)
Combine ingredients in a heat-resistant cup (if using hot coffee) and stir. If you would like to have it iced, combine ingredients in a chilled rocks glass with the diluted cold brew, add ice, stir and serve.