Fargo Monthly December 2013

50+ AMAZING PHOTOS FROM THE PAST YEAR!

DECEMBER ‘13

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FARGO

Contents 48

Go Murphy: The Band on the Go The band Go Murphy is a band on the go and they aren’t slowing down.

Contents

6 Capture Guru From the son of a rockstar to a professional baseball player to a professional photographer, Jesse Hoorelbeke of J. Alan Paul Photography has had quite the life.

20

50

Local Heroes

Kipp G and Tony the Butcher

We honored the firefighters, National Guard members and police officers who are acting as our local heroes.

Things got weird during our shoot with hip-hop duo Kipp G and Tony the Butcher.

Regular

60

Maturing Our Music Scene Our music columnist believes that it’s time for our music scene to grow up and be more accommodating to younger people.

62 Progress For Foodies 2013 has seen some great progress in the culinary scene in Fargo-Moorhead. Chef Eric Watson wrote a little something about it.

On The Cover The band Tripwire graces our cover. You can read more about their shocking photo on page 16.

64 Live Music and Event

Fargo Monthly Magazine is published by Spotlight Media. Copyright 2013 Fargo Monthly Magazine and fargomonthly.com. All Rights Reserved. No parts of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission of Fargo Monthly Magazine and fargomonthly.com. Fargo Monthly Magazine & fargomonthly.com will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions found in the magazine or on fargomonthly.com.

Spotlight Media accepts no liability for the accuracy of statements made by the advertisers.

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Calendar

Looking for our monthly event calendar? For this month only, we transitioned it to our website, fargomonthly.com.

FARGO M O N T H LY

DECEMBER 2013 Fargo Monthly Magazine is published 12 times a year and it’s free. Copies are available at over 800 Fargo-Moorhead locations and digitally at

fargomonthly.com.

Publisher SPOTLIGHT MEDIA LLC President MIKE DRAGOSAVICH Editorial Director ANDREW JASON Art Director ANDY NEIDT Graphic Designers ANDY NEIDT, SYDNEY SCHERMERHORN, SARAH GEIGER, MIKE DRAGOSAVICH, GEORGE STACK General Manager BRENT TEHVEN Sales Manager PAUL HOEFER Marketing/Sales TRACY NICHOLSON, PAUL BOUGIE, DENNIS BRITTON, BETHANY NEWGARD Research/Contributors ANDREW JASON, ERIC WATSON, SETH HOLDEN, JESSE HOORELBEKE Copy Editors CANDICE GRIMM, MEAGAN PITTELKO, JOSIE EYERS, SARAH TYRE, NORAH KOLBERG, ANDREW JASON Circulation Manager SETH HOLDEN Administration ERIKA OLSON Photographers J. ALAN PAUL PHOTOGRAPHY (JALANPAUL.COM) Social Media/ Website ERICA KALE, JAKE SCHAFFER Delivery CODEY BERNIER, CHRIS LARSON, GEORGE STACK

CONTACT 502 1st Ave N First Floor Fargo,ND 58102 701-478-7768 info@fmspotlight.com

THE NEW YEAR

3

WHERE DO 365 DAYS GO?

65 days add up quick. One minute you’re ringing in the New Year, the next you’re ringing it out. Soon those 365 days add up to 30 years, 50 years, 80 years, then what?

In theory 80 years seem like a long time. In practicality, it’s not. You arrive to this world and you leave this world because those 365 days never stop adding up.

There are few things that slow time down. At Spotlight Media we believe photography is one of those things. Sure, photos fade (or as is more common nowadays, files are lost when your computer crashes) but photos can be cherished for months, years and decades to come.

Many of the people who have appeared in our magazine won’t be doing what they’re doing forever. Food only looks good for a short time.

Bands come and go. Jobs change from one day to the next. Athletes’ bodies eventually give out. These photos that have appeared in our magazines in the last year are a testament to what this city and its people have achieved.

This issue isn’t to showcase what we’ve done (although our photographer, J. Alan Paul, has done an incredible job.) This magazine serves as a testament to what makes this area great. Each person we’ve photographed has made this community better. Each restaurant dish we’ve featured has made my taste buds dance in delight.

As always, this issue is for you, Fargo-Moorhead. You’re doing the amazing work, we’re just putting it into print. Now get out there and do something with your next 365 days.

ANDREW JASON Fargo Monthly Editor fargomonthly.com // 5

Meet our Team!

FARGO

Peeps Our Team

We are the people of Spotlight Media.

Every month, Spotlight Media brings you Fargo Monthly, Stride, Bison Illustrated and Design & Living Magazine. Here are the people who make these wonderful mags.

MIKE

SETH

JESSE

TRACY

NORAH

ANDY

JAKE

SARAH

CANDICE

DENNIS

ERIKA

BETHANY

GEORGE

KRISTINA

MADALYN

SYDNEY

JOE

JESSICA

ANDREW

JOSIE

BEN

SARAH

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MEAGAN

MICHAEL

BRENT

ERICA

PAUL

To learn more about the team at Spotlight Media, go to spotlightmedia fargo.com

FARGO

Photography

PHOTOS

J. ALAN PAUL Jesse Hoorelbeke is the owner of J. Alan Paul Photography. He is the head photographer for Spotlight Media.

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Words by Andrew Jason · Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography

Capture Guru

Jesse Hoorelbeke is a Harley-riding, ex-professional-baseball-playing nerd with a camera.

I

t all started with a six-megapixel, 2 ½-frames-per-second Nikon D70s.

With that camera, Jesse Hoorelbeke dove into the world of photography world. However, the journey that brought him to that camera from his hometown of Los Angeles is a long one.

Hoorelbeke is the son of Peter Rivera, the former lead singer and drummer for the Motown rock group Rare Earth. (You probably know their hits “Get Ready” and “I Just Want to Celebrate.”) Growing up, he never realized what that meant.

“He was just Dad to me. I saw him as my little league coach and the guy who was always in my business just like dads do. He was the same as anyone else’s dad... but he had this thing where he’d go play this rock and roll music that everyone knew. And everyone knew who he was.”

Baseball However, Hoorelbeke wasn’t to follow in his father’s footsteps in the world of music. At the age of five, he started playing baseball. “It was playing

sports as a kid that grasped me,” said Hoorelbeke. “I had every opportunity to pursue music, but I went my route with sports.”

Hoorelbeke played throughout little league, high school, college and eventually made it to the professional level. “My dad would always say, ‘If you are going to do something, do it to the best of your ability. There is no giving up.’ I didn’t and I made it all the way to the doorstep of the Major Leagues,” said Hoorelbeke.

Hoorelbeke played for various baseball teams including Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs before pursuing his photography career.

fargomonthly.com // 9

PHOTOS

Hoorelbeke landed on the doorsteps of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Angels of Anaheim and various independent professional teams. He holds numerous records in his career.

He was named player of the year for the Atlantic League, led almost every team in Home Runs and RBIs, and is the alltime home run leader for Independent Baseball. His baseball journey eventually led him to the FM RedHawks where he holds several organizational records as well. For almost 12 years, Hoorelbeke lived a nomadic life, moving from one city to the next and playing almost 160 games a year while chasing the professional baseball dream. That is, until he settled in Fargo.

I started learning how to read the light of a room and the light outside. That’s all photography is, capturing light…

The idea is to take a camera with a sensor and make it read the light the same way the human eye does.”

KS, he worked at a photography studio as technical support, while also playing around with photo manipulation.

Photography

“I was gifted an old camera with a couple of lenses, and I started taking pictures.

I learned real quick that taking good pictures is not as easy as it looks,” said Hoorelbeke. “It takes a lot of practice and thousands of really bad images before you start understanding how things work.

I would put my camera into manual mode and just go try things.”

Hoorelbeke is a self-confessed nerd at heart, so it’s no surprise that during his off-seasons while living in Wichita,

Over the next several years he carried that camera with him everywhere and

learned everything he could about taking pictures. He joked that his teammates made fun of him because he would take his glove, bat, helmet and camera bag out to the dugout with him during the games. Over time, his picture taking ability took shape and he started working with light. “I must have taken 20,000 bad pictures before I started getting the results I wanted. But eventually, everything fell into place and I started taking the type of images you see today,” said Hoorelbeke.

Hoorelbeke’s life has led him in many different directions but he sees a clear path for himself in the future.

“Being able to shoot so many different subjects for the magazine has been helpful in deciding the path I want to pursue with my photography,” said Hoorelbeke. “I am looking to expand into a larger commercial demographic, as well as continuing to hone my dramatic portrait work for individuals.”

Follow J. Alan Paul Website: jalanpaul.com Facebook: facebook.com/jalanpaul Twitter: @JAlanPaul

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DINING

FA RG O

Photography Fargo Monthly is published by Spotlight Media. We also produce Stride, Bison Illustrated and Design & Living Magazine. Here at Spotlight Media, we believe that a picture is worth a thousand words. This issue celebrates a year of photography at Spotlight Media. Enjoy!

Meet the New 32 Below FARGO MONTHLY We kicked off the new year right with 32 Below appearing on our cover.

We rented out the massive photo studio at Media Productions for this four-hour photoshoot that involved makeup artists, art directors and three talented photographers.

Photographer’s Take: Working with a professional makeup artist and some fake snow, I lit the image with a combination of both warm and blue toned lights to make these guys look like they were dug out of an ice cave and brought back to life.

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Photography

PHOTOS

Diane Miller and the Silver Daggers FARGO MONTHLY During this shoot, this new band composed of Steve Burket, Tom Johnson, Jason Boynton and frontwoman Diane Miller, decided on the name Diane Miller and the Silver Daggers while we were photographing them at Mezzaluna in downtown Fargo.

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Photographer’s Take: I love the look of the old wood. It really works well with the light that I used. It gave a sort of pensive, stoic look to the image.

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Photography

Hanging Out With the Guys From Tag FARGO MONTHLY

PHOTOS

To celebrate the opening of the pop-up T-shirt shop Tag, we photographed founders Jeff Knight and Joe Burgum hanging out at their store. Tag was recently purchased by Jade Presents and their new store can be visited at 300 Broadway N. in downtown Fargo or check out their website at tagfargo.com.

Kaaa Boom!

FARGO MONTHLY

(From left to right) Tim Melin, Mark Arneson, Lars Hegland and Bryce Smith from Tripwire stopped by our office for a couple of hours for this fun photoshoot. No one was harmed in the making of this photo.

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The Road to Miss America STRIDE To celebrate Rosie Sauvageau’s crowning as Miss North Dakota, she stopped by our studio for a photoshoot. This photo is actually comprised of two images. We photographed her in our studio and J. Alan Paul went to a highway south of Moorhead for the road image. He then composited the two images into one.

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Photography

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The Anderson Dynasty BISON ILLUSTRATED NDSU’s number one golfer of all time, Amy Anderson, has to overcome living in an environment that only permits her to practice outside five months of the year. Anderson and her brother Nathan prove that it’s possible to be great no matter what the obstacles.

Photographer’s Take: No, we didn’t take Amy out into the snow for this one. This is actually three images that were each independently shot and combined later into a composite. The lighting effects were done in the studio and in post production.

5-Iron Men BISON ILLUSTRATED For our April Bison Illustrated, we met up with the NDSU Men’s and Women’s Golf Team at the Sports Bubble.

Kyle Jandro (left) and Nate Varty (right) really wanted the ball to go to its home.

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Photography

PHOTOS

Local Heroes

Photographer’s Take:

This year our August Stride was dedicated to local heroes in Fargo-Moorhead. We featured police officers George Vinson and Nicole Reno, firefighters Dean Bloch and Dan Schoonhoven and National Guard members William Kennedy and Stephanie Collins.

This is a four-image composite. Two of them were photographed in the studio, and one was at their place of work. Can you guess which one was shot where? The background is the new Fargo Brewing Company building before the tanks arrived.

STRIDE

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Photography

Spreading the Word BISON ILLUSTRATED Valley News Live reporter Jamal Spencer proves that he’s one classy fellow in our January Bison Illustrated magazine celebrating the media men who cover Bison sports.

PHOTOS

Spreading the Word BISON ILLUSTRATED We honored the voice of the Bison, Scott Miller, by having him appear on the cover of our media men issue. This was particularly important to us as he was diagnosed with melanoma a couple months beforehand.

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Expires 1/1/14

Photo courtesy of Plains Art Museum

Buy any regular priced beer or drink and get one FREE!!

Excludes pitchers and discounted drinks or specials. One drink per person, per day.

FARGO

Photography

A Conversation with Saul Phillips Head Men’s Basketball Coach Saul Phillips replicated a photo of Michael Douglas from an Esquire photo for the cover of Bison Illustrated.

BISON ILLUSTRATED

Photographer’s Take: We had this black and white picture of Michael Douglas that we all really liked. A simple pose with simple light. When Saul came in, we showed him and he was game. It’s still one of my favorites.

PHOTOS 26 // fargomonthly.com

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Photography

PHOTOS 28 // fargomonthly.com

Poitin FARGO MONTHLY The Irish band Poitin includes Jason Thorstad, Lance Tessmann, Bonnie Haney, Donny Rice, Jim Haney and Alex Rydell. They helped us celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at The Aquarium above Fargo’s most authentic Irish pub, Dempsey’s.

Photographer’s Take: What better way to shoot a great Irish band than at the bar having a pint? I balanced my lighting in this image to match the atmosphere of the room to make this great “moment out of time” shot. Also a personal favorite.

FARGO

Photography

Jeff Reitz FARGO MONTHLY

No, the kitchen of Mezzaluna isn’t haunted. In August we honored the chefs who are making Fargo’s food scene great. This shot is composed of multiple images and is meant to show off the constant movement in a kitchen.

PHOTOS

Ryan Nitschke and Nick Weinhandl FARGO MONTHLY Don’t worry, they washed this pot after the photoshoot. We promise.

Nitschke (right) and Weinhandl (left) took a break from preparing the fantastic food of the Hotel Donaldson to have a little fun in the August Fargo Monthly.

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FARGO

Mike Nelson and Tom Wilberscheid

Photography

BISON ILLUSTRATED Former NDSU Basketball players Mike Nelson and Tom Wilberscheid played a little one-on-one in our photo studio in our story celebrating the Fargo Basketball Academy.

Shape It Up with The Newlyweds

PHOTOS

STRIDE The couple that works out together stays together. At least that’s what Nicolette and Kevin Jackson believe. This couple got married a couple weeks after this shoot for the June Stride.

It’s a Good Day in the Neighborhood FARGO MONTHLY The folks at Prairie Public stay plenty busy with all they do. This photo is composed of three images as they took a break from their annual pledge drive to discuss TV, radio and education.

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Phil Hansen BISON ILLUSTRATED

NDSU Hall of Famer Phil Hansen stopped by our office to discuss his time in the NFL, his current involvement with football and his decision to go into politics.

Photographer’s Take: This is a panoramic of three images where I told everyone to stay as still as possible. I used my light to match the production lights and then stitched it together later to show all that goes on at Prairie Public... which it turns out is a lot!

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Photography

PHOTOS

May Fargo Monthly Cover FARGO MONTHLY

Fargo artist McCal Joy created this piece for our May Fargo Monthly.

This was our longest photoshoot as she created the artwork in our studio. We spent eight hours on a Saturday perfecting this shot.

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Photography

Maria Bosak and Ethan Grefsrud DESIGN & LIVING Bosak and Grefsrud from Eco Chic got a little dirty for our story on “Do It Yourself-ers” in Fargo for the May/June Design & Living Magazine.

PHOTOS

Modern Lake Living DESIGN & LIVING We traveled to Alexandria to shoot this gorgeous five bedroom, five bathroom lake home that was designed by owner Paul Ringdahl.

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Photography

PHOTOS 38 // fargomonthly.com

Three-year anniversary (The Harlem Shake) SPOTLIGHT MEDIA

We celebrated our third birthday Harlem Shake style. Our team has grown and some people have moved on, but the one thing that remains is that we’re all passionate about creating such wonderful publications.

“Fortune Favours My Life” DESIGN & LIVING

Stevie Famulari has created a fashion line like you’ve never seen before. “Fortune Favours My Life” is her new line and features a number of unique coats.

Each jacket was created

by Famulari and was painted by somebody important in her life.

fargomonthly.com // 39

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Photography

PHOTOS

Back to the Basics of Yoga 40 // fargomonthly.com

STRIDE Co-owner of Fit Hot Yoga, Lucky Plested (left) and yoga instructor, Krystle Kvidt (right), showed us the basics of yoga. They demonstrated a variety of yoga positions, from beginner to expert, for the story.

Dr. Superwoman STRIDE Dr. Marie Moeckel owns her dentistry office, is a mother and competes in triathlons. Needless to say, she’s more than your regular doctor. She’s Doctor Superwoman.

Photographer’s Take: This is another composite. The background is actually NYC and the street and lens flare are from Redondo Beach, CA. Marie struck this pose for me in the studio. Also, 90 percent of the “smoke” was captured on camera in the shot too.

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Photography

Eat Like a Triathlete with Dana Cirks STRIDE Cirks has competed in 30 plus triathlons and a half IRONMAN. He took a break from his training at the Fercho YMCA in downtown Fargo to pose for this photo.

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Ivan Castro FARGO MARATHON COMMEMORATIVE BOOK A true American hero was featured in our Fargo Marathon Commemorative Book. Ivan Castro was a Captain in the US Army when he lost his eyesight from an explosion in Iraq. He now travels the country as a motivational speaker and still serves as a Captain in the US Army Special Operations.

FARGO

Photography A Look Inside the Red River Zoo

PHOTOS

FARGO MONTHLY This was one of our favorite photographs to capture, as we were able to get up close and personal with the endangered animal, the Red Panda. Their fur is incredibly soft and they ate grapes right out of our hands.

Hydration STRIDE Our Art Director, Andy Neidt, took one for the team to demonstrate the importance of hydration for our Fargo Marathon issue of Stride. It was even more impressive that he did it on a chilly 25 degree April morning.

June Stride Cover We gathered a group of kids together at Island Park for our Serving Up Summer family Issue. As can be imagined, it’s not easy photographing a large group of young girls but we were able to capture this adorable image.

STRIDE

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FARGO

Photography

PHOTOS

Marcus Williams BISON ILLUSTRATED The awards that Marcus Williams has received throughout his career at NDSU are too numerous to list. We had the chance to photograph Williams and several other members of the football team to celebrate their championship.

Photographer’s Take: I tried to show a bunch of different “slices” of the NDSU football players personalities. This is two images. The faded versions are one single shot and the main one is a high speed action shot to freeze his flying dreadlocks giving him a “who’s the man?” look.

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Sitting Down with Mayor Walaker FARGO MONTHLY In September, we celebrated the economy in Fargo and North Dakota with our “Boom Issue.� We were honored to have the chance to sit down with Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker.

fargomonthly.com // 47

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Photography

PHOTOS 48 // fargomonthly.com

A Look Inside the Rooms of the Hotel Donaldson DESIGN & LIVING All of the HoDo’s 17 rooms are a work of art. We were able to take a peek inside each of the rooms to see what this 100-year-old building turned hotel has to offer.

Lights, Camera, Action Art and MaryAnn Phillips are the founders of Video Arts Studio. They have produced shows that have ranged from “Monster Quest” to the documentary “The Road to Little Rock,” which tells the story of Fargo judge, Ronald Davies and his involvement in the Little Rock Nine.

FARGO MONTHLY

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Photography

Interview

PHOTOS 50 // fargomonthly.com

Go Murphy: The Band on the Go This fun shot was a challenge to create but turned into one of our favorites. We feel it captured the band’s fun and crazy attitude. The photo is actually composed of three different images.

FARGO MONTHLY

Track and Field BISON ILLUSTRATED

Deborah John of the NDSU Track and Field team showed off her hurdling skills for the March Bison Illustrated celebrating the success of the Track and Field team.

Photographer’s Take: This has to be one of my favorite band shots of the year. We marked off the size of the tracks in the studio and shot each of them jumping out the way of a “train.” It took a few tries to get their expressions right, but they nailed it. No trains were hurt in the making of this photo. fargomonthly.com // 51

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Photography

The Crazy, Unpredictable, Unapologetic and, Sometimes, Demented World of Kipp G and Tony the Butcher

PHOTOS

FARGO MONTHLY We harnessed our inner Quentin Taratino for this wild shoot with rap duo Kipp G and Tony the Butcher. (Fun fact: Tony is an actual butcher at Hornbachers in North Fargo.)

The Presidential Spotlight FARGO MONTHLY We were honored to meet with the Presidents of Minnesota State University Moorhead, North Dakota State University and Concordia. Here Concordia President William Craft poses in front of his impressive library in his office.

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FARGO

Photography

Making Fargo Beautiful FARGO MONTHLY

We dubbed Susanne Williams as the “Fabricator” for our look at eight local artists who are making Fargo beautiful. (Fun fact: we weren’t able to make the flame show in the original photo so it was added afterward.)

PHOTOS

A Look Inside the Red River Zoo FARGO MONTHLY

Leila Goulet, Education Director of the Red River Zoo, spends most of her day surrounded by animals. Here she hangs out with the Chinchilla, Pikachu, and the Flemish Giant Rabbit, Frodo.

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FARGO

Photography

The Consistent Life of Marshall Bjorklund BISON ILLUSTRATED In the February Bison Illustrated, we celebrated North Dakota native Marshall Bjorklund. This 6’8” forward has become one of the key components to the NDSU Men’s Basketball team.

PHOTOS

Local Heroes Firefighter Dan Schoonhoven is one of the many local heroes we featured in our August Stride where we celebrated the people who dedicate their lives to the protection of our community.

STRIDE

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College GameDay NDSU Football Coach Craig Bohl BISON ILLUSTRATED adorned the cover of the October Bison Illustrated that was dedicated to ESPN’s College GameDay coming to Fargo, which was arguably the biggest event that happened in town this year.

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Photography

Rowing Your Way to Fitness

STRIDE We have to confess, there was a lot of Photoshop in the creation of this photo. Check out our photographer’s explanation of how he crated this image.

Photographer’s Take:: PHOTOS

I brought in a really big fan... No, just kidding. He’s actually suspended on a small stool which I later took out in post production. It took a few tries to get his expression right. Do not attempt any of these stunts without proper training.

Deluxe Patio in the Sky DESIGN & LIVING

The view from the rooftop of 300 Broadway is just as spectacular as the vision that architect Brian Reinarts and the team at Land Elements had.

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Let us find you your new home!

218-291-1875 | prairiepropertymgt.com

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FARGO

Photography

PHOTOS

North Dakota is a Great Place to Live...

Really. Just ask Marc de Celle Marc de Celle has created the bestselling book about North Dakota of the 21st century with his book “How Fargo of You.” We hit the streets of Broadway to showcase what he wrote about.

FARGO MONTHLY

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DOWNTOWN FARGO | (701) 232-2491

www.royaljewelersfargo.com

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT Maturing Our Music Scene

By Seth Holden

A

month ago I discussed the ridiculous inconsistencies in our state and municipal alcohol codes when it pertains to music venues and patron age restrictions. My suggestion to remedy this situation was to amend Title 5-01-08 of the North Dakota Century Code and Article 25-1509 of the City of Fargo Municipal Code. We can’t allow liquor establishments to arbitrarily allow minors to enter, so last month I also suggested that some restrictions need to be put on these amendments to ensure that the privilege isn’t abused.

columnist

First, and probably the most obvious, would be that legal drinking age attendees and underage attendees are clearly differentiated. For example, different colored wristbands or a second wristband identifying legal drinking age. Another restriction could be a one-drink-at-a-time per customer policy to decrease the likelihood of someone buying a minor a drink. To help decrease this likelihood, there should be security requirements as well. For example, a ratio of one bouncer per 100 people or something similar. There should also be door time restrictions so that bartenders know exactly when to start looking for proof of legal age markers as well as excluding free shows from the amendment. I feel there should also be some kind of stage requirements so that some bar owner can’t just throw a chair in the corner, put an acoustic guitar player/singer on it and call it a concert.

I know that this may seem like a lot of restrictions but I feel that the more restrictions that can be put into place to ensure that minors can’t obtain alcohol and that will protect

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The less restrictive we make our city and the more we can offer, the more attractive it is for young people to come here.”

bar owners from police scrutiny and lawsuits, the easier an amendment like this will pass. I also feel that the benefits will outweigh the extra costs and labor that will accompany, allowing this demographic to enjoy live music.

An amendment like this could help our city in several ways.

It would dramatically enhance our music scene and allow struggling musicians to make more money by increasing the size of their audience. It would attract more artists to make Fargo a tour stop, which in turn could create the need for more venues and create business opportunities.

It could possibly curb underage drinking by giving them entertainment in a place where they are not allowed to drink. I recently listened to entrepreneur and downtown Fargo advocate, Doug Burgum, speak about doing things that will make downtown Fargo more attractive to talented young people so that they seriously consider our city as a place for them to come live, work or study. This would do just that. The less restrictive we make our city and the more we can offer, the more attractive it is for young people to come here.

It’s not rocket science; other cities allow this, and it’s time we grew up a little.

*Email me with your thoughts at seth@fmspotlight.com. **Seth Holden is a local promoter and drummer for several local bands. He is also the Circulation Manager for Fargo Monthly’s parent company, Spotlight Media.

Live Bands Every Weekend No Cover Charge

Bands in December Dec. 6-7 ~ Save me CJ Dec. 13-14 ~ Pucker UP Dec. 20-21 ~ 24 Seven Dec. 27-28 ~ October Road

A DECEMBER TO REMEMBER!

Wishing all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Across from West Acres Shopping Center

CULINARY SPOTLIGHT Progress For Foodies

By Eric Watson

A

fter all this time living in Fargo-Moorhead I’m still taking criticism from some for praising the progress of our culinary scene. I’m all for maintaining a realistic and truthful mindset when it comes to critiquing our local chefs and food establishments, but I also believe in the value of positive reinforcement when it comes to pushing our culinary community to the next level. I’m sure I could spend the majority of my time focused on the terrible food within our community, but I’d rather zero in on the good stuff and do my best to promote it.

columnist

In the past 12 months there have been some great changes gastronomically. The HoDo found a way to push octopus and bison tongue to a place a little more mainstream. Pinch & Pour has brought a new appreciation for fine oils and vinegars. We successfully launched a chef’s organization that will unite and educate both novice and veteran culinarians alike. A physical retail shop for a local food co-op is on the horizon, and local farmers are continuing to grow in popularity. The guys at the Fargo Brewing Company have started brewing locally, and food trucks are continuing to pop up. Food festivals are a top discussion point for many business leaders and our local young entrepreneurs are pushing more than ever for good food concepts. It doesn’t end there, though. There are many more developments that won’t fit into the maximum word content of this column.

To the food-cultured, this may seem like “too little, too late,” but I see it as a giant step in the right direction. We’ve come a long way in the last decade. The only things missing from our past culinary landscape were tumbleweeds and dust storms.

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... An empty restaurant should not be looked upon as a disappointment but rather an opportunity for the next great local culinarian.”

Now we simply need to hold onto our momentum and make sure we don’t steer this thing in the wrong direction. The last 10 years have brought us plenty of knowledge and progress, and every year from here on out will snowball exponentially.

I remember when events like “Corks and Canvas” attracted a modest amount of patrons. Today these events are bringing folks out in great numbers and providing local restaurateurs an opportunity to capitalize on their popularity. Needless to say, I think the Downtown Community Partnership is spending money wisely.

Every year brings with it successes and failures. We have seen new restaurants pop up and we have certainly seen some close their doors. I’m sure it’s the entrepreneur in me speaking when I say I would suggest that an empty restaurant should not be looked upon as a disappointment, but rather an opportunity for the next great local culinarian. I would definitely encourage our young culinary students to start brainstorming now. It won’t be long before they’re running the show and orchestrating next year’s food scene.

*Eric Watson is the owner of Mezzaluna and Mosaic Foods in Fargo. He is also the founder and president of the Fargo branch of the American Culinary Federation. **For more information on the ACF go to acfchefs.org and like it on Facebook by searching The Red River Valley Chef’s Association.

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