A look at new restaurants Porter Creek and Barbacoa

For some reason I have always thought of West Fargo as anything west of I-29, don’t ask me why, it just felt right. In actuality West Fargo is much further out, but the boundary is quite confusing the further west and south you travel. Every time I head out that way I am amazed at the growth. Apartment complexes are popping up all over the place and with that more retail shops and restaurants: good restaurants, not just your typical chains, and there is no shortage of those.

So the brunette and I were out running errands on Saturday afternoon getting things lined up for All Hallows Eve, and I was feeling a tad hungry so we swung over to Porter Creek Hardwood Grill, one of the latest additions to our dining scene. Porter Creek is a concept created by John Sheehan and Lynn Reimer, much like their other concept, Doolittle’s. I like Doolittle’s -- it has a nice feel for restaurants in that genre and is consistently good. Porter Creek is sleeker, sexier and a more polished older sister.

Located on the corner of 45th Avenue and 15th Street South, next to the Clubhouse Hotel and Suites, it has easy access and lots of parking. Upon entering we were greeted by a delightful lady who not only showed us to the bar but gave us a complete tour of the restaurant. First stop, a private dining room reminiscent of an old-world wine cellar complete with a red brick vaulted ceiling. If you have a party of 10 this is the place to be. Anchored by a large, nicely aged-looking wooden table with matching high backed chairs, I could see myself quaffing their fine wines with friends and savoring some wood-fired steaks.

The restaurant has another larger room with high ceilings that would accommodate larger groups, say 40 to 60. The nice thing about this room is you don’t feel closed in like in a hotel banquet room. It is airy with lots of windows and numerous other nice touches. If you haven’t booked your holiday party yet I would suggest looking at Porter Creek. The main room of the restaurant is centered on a bar with booths surrounding it and table seating in an adjacent area. The tour continued to a closed-in patio dining room with a fireplace and the actual patio itself with a creek running through it, of course.

We were seated at the bar and Kelsey, our server/bartender, welcomed us and walked us through the wine and beverage list, complete with flights of not only wine and craft beers but tequilas and single malt scotches. As we were just grazing we opted for a glass of wine and two appetizers. James Foley, the corporate chef for Doolittle’s and Porter Creek, has put together an extensive, eclectic menu with a strong focus on wood-grilled and rotisserie meats and fish. It is a chef-driven menu, and Derek Brewer is the chef and the man responsible for keeping standards high.

The designers of this restaurant did a good job and the finish oozes class: reclaimed wood floors, beautiful ceramic tile, nice fabrics, framed art and an interesting metal sculpture over the bar depicting a flowing creek, which is Porter Creek, of course. We are looking to return and try some of their 21-day-aged beef, smoked and roasted over the wood fire, along with some of their fine wines.

Our errands took us further south to the somewhat barren flatlands and pop-up suburbs of southwest Fargo. This is where two failed restaurants, one pizza and the other a take-home dinner joint respectively, have been raised from the ashes in the form of Barbacoa, a South American/Mexican-inspired barbecue restaurant with the tagline “Flavors of the South a Bit Further North.”

The folks behind this phoenix rising are the owners of Monte’s and the Boiler Room restaurants in downtown Fargo. Now they have added Barbacoa to their family. I met head chef and partner Ian Berry at the recent Pig and Pint event at the Plains Art Museum, where he wowed people with his puerco dishes. Berry told me of his early years growing up with Hispanic flavors and tastes, which have inspired his cooking and the dishes at Barbacoa.

It’s named for the classic Mexican dish of slow cooking a steer head wrapped in a burlap bag over mesquite coals for eight hours or so, resulting in super, tender, flavorful beef cheeks and other bits served up in tortillas with onions, cilantro and chilies. Here the steer head has been replaced with more accessible beef short ribs, slow cooked in a similar manner. The menu is varied with a number of options and I am looking forward to sitting down and trying a number of the dishes. With two brightly colored dining rooms, a bar area and a patio, the restaurant reminds me of a joint you might find in Los Angeles or Tucson.

The two restaurants are not alike in any way and they are both welcome additions to the dining scene and worth visiting.

On a different note, I posed this question once before and will now pose it again. Why don’t restaurants in Fargo, being set in the frozen north for several months of the year, offer coat check? It is such a drag stuffing your parka into the corner of the booth, and if you are at the bar where do you put it? Restaurants and clubs in other milder winter climes have coat check. So I have never understood why restaurants in Fargo don’t offer the service. On that same note, valet parking downtown would be a nice touch as well.

IF YOU GO:

Porter Creek

1555 44th St S, Fargo, ND

http://www.portercreek.com/

Barbacoa

3241 42nd Ave South, Fargo

http://www.barbacoafargo.com/