MARCH 24, 1993
Tables are set with crisp white napkins folded into water goblets. Narrow vases on the tables have fresh flowers and tiny branches of trees with spring buds on them. Sanders 1907, with its green tin ceiling and roping painted along the walls, is an inviting setting for dinner. It’s a cozy place, narrow and long with three high-backed booths and a series of smaller tables.
At the rear, chef Kim Holmes supervises his crew as another evening of fine dining begins at 312 Kittson Ave. Taped music is playing. The phone keeps ringing.
On Thursday evening, I spent two hours on a bar stool at the counter watching the show—no, make that the three-ring circus—that is Sanders. Presiding at the stove in a small open kitchen was chef John Gjovik. Working with him was sous chef Paul Browning, chopping parsley and arranging antipasto plates.
Three waiters in black shirts, bolo ties and white aprons were doing the side-work. By 6 P.M., the first seating of diners was under way. Sanders 1907 can handle 44 between 5:30 and 7:30 P.M. and another 44 after that.
At 9:30 P.M., it’s a free-for-all. It’s what owner Holmes calls “a scene in here.” That’s when Sanders starts serving off its late-night menu featuring appetizers, salads, buffalo burgers, buffalo lavosh and desserts. Along with this late-night show, there are specialty coffee drinks. For dinner during the week, midweek specials for $11 are offered. On Tuesday, it’s Italian food. On Wednesday, it’s French food. And Thursday is German night. Last Thursday, the special was pork roast with green caper sauce, German spaetzle and red cabbage.
While diners order the specials, they also favor the fresh fish entrees that are priced according to the market. On Thursday, mahi-mahi was served with fresh asparagus spears artfully arranged on a bed of rice. Plates were garnished with lemon and lime wedges nestled in parsley.
Trademarks of Sanders 1907 include barbecued split beef ribs ($14), roast caraway duck, Czechoslovakian style ($18) and an Italian dinner for two ($50). Swiss Eiger beef ($16) is offered only on Friday and Saturday.
While I watched the activity in the tin-lined kitchen, I nibbled on an antipasto plate ($6.50) and sipped a glass of Chardonnay. The antipasto offering is a meal in itself, when you eat it yourself. Usually, though, two or four people share this positively delightful appetizer while waiting for their entrees. It includes cold rice salad with roasted peppers, barbecued beef, pickled herring in a thick cream sauce, beet and cabbage relish, pickled grapes flavored with cinnamon, clove and onion, and cold duck salad with North Dakota Prairie Juice (a Holmes creation).
The driving force behind Sanders 1907 is Holmes, who drove into Grand Forks in 1985 with all of his belongings in his 1970 van. As he sipped bottled water and reflected on the past eight years, he said he is doing OK. In the next breath, he added, “I have struggled.”
He took over full ownership of the cafe in 1989 from Bob and Linda Evenson. They established the restaurant in 1981 in the building her grandfather, Sander Johnson, constructed in 1907. They have since moved on to operating a resort at Lake Winnibigoshish in Minnesota.
Holmes remembers lean times when he was getting started here. Once, on a January night, no one came in the front door. He wondered what he had gotten himself into.
But he didn’t wonder long. On many nights, he has to turn away diners who don’t have reservations. The small cafe on a downtown side street has established a reputation for exquisite meals. Holmes has drawn on his experience as a restaurant owner in the state of Washington and several years as a chef in Switzerland.
Now he lives upstairs with his wife, the former Beth Hookstra of Northwood, N.D. She helps him with the Sanders line of sauces and marinades, which are marketed with a Pride of Dakota label. Their products include a jerky called “Dakota Jerk.” Holmes has developed his own philosophy for operating a cafe.
“You have to be professionally casual,” he says. “I hate to hear a waiter say, ‘My name is so-and-so, and I’ll be your server.’ You have to be secure in knowing you give good service and you serve good food. You don’t have to go around asking how everything is.”
He relies on three regular waiters: Dirk Homeier, Shawn Clapp and Phil Lofthus. His kitchen crew includes Richard West, Dan Slattery and Matt Castle. Becky Rubin does the flowers and upkeep.
As he keeps an eye on the kitchen, Holmes says, “I run this place like a basketball team. Everybody is important. Everybody plays the game.”
Each booth and table has a name. When the waiters talk about “Cloud Nine,” they mean the booth by the front window. “Cat’s Eye” is the booth at the back with lights like the eyes of a cat.
At this point, he doesn’t want Sanders 1907 to get any bigger. He just wants it to get better.