Photo credit: Kensie Wallner

Clock Tower Cafe: Pedal-Powered Provisions

By Dan Nygard
Staff Writer

Anyone familiar with the downtown area knows about the Great Northern Bicycle Company and the Clock Tower Café; where else can you shop for a new bike, or get a tune-up for your current bike, and have lunch at the same time?

The café, open since 2009, has a great selection of sandwiches, salads, coffees, and sweets, which include (my favorite) gelato or sorbetto.

However, one aspect of the café remains tragically little-known: unlike every other place in town, the Clock Tower Café offers bicycle delivery to the downtown area.

Recently, I sat down with manager Matt Florence to discuss this aspect of the business. “When the café reopened this spring, we vowed to do anything we could to keep the café open all year,” he explained. “Bicycle delivery was a natural fit.”

And the service is, basically, what one thinks: you place your order, then ten minutes later Mr. Florence or another employee shows up at your door with lunch.

Even large orders and winter-time deliveries are pedal-powered: they have a cargo bike, and in fact, it is possible to commute by bicycle year-round. For a bicycle shop slash café, it is a no-brainer, a way for the employees of the café “to practice what we preach at the bike shop,” as Florence explains.

Yet on a deeper level, this service is a revolutionary way of doing business, at least in downtown Fargo. For one, it is clean: no cars means no carbon dioxide. Florence calculates that since the bike delivery service began, it has prevented 250 pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

In addition, it makes economic sense: a bicycle is a lot less expensive than a car, and no car means no money spent on gas. And according to Florence, bike delivery is faster: “I’m not out looking for a parking spot, and I’m not stuck in traffic.” Ultimately, this is a model that should be supported by the progressive consumer, and emulated by other businesses.

Yes, there are limits: The Clock Tower Café’s bike delivery is offered to an area bounded by 10th Street N to 1st Street N, east to west, and 9th Avenue to Island Park, north to south. And truly massive orders may be impossible to fill without an automobile.

But often change happens in small steps; if we accept that the service is limited to downtown, we must also realize that downtown contains a lot of office buildings, living spaces, and a hospital. At the very least, we should be asking ourselves why vehicle delivery is the norm; why don’t businesses offer local bicycle delivery mixed with car-delivery for longer trips?

If you live or work downtown, and that last question intrigued you, give The Clock Tower café’s bicycle delivery a chance. As Florence explains, “Bicycle service predates automobile service; and in areas like our downtown, it is much more viable.”

In addition, tell your other delivery places about it, and find out if bicycle delivery is something they would consider.

The Clock Tower Café (701-478-2058) offers a delivery menu that can be picked up at 425 Broadway, but if this writer can make an order without it, so can just about anyone.

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If You Go

What: Clock Tower Cafe
Where: 425 Broadway
When: M-Th 10-8; FSa 10-7; Su 12-5.
Info: 701.478.2058