Nightlife in Minot, North Dakota?

Minot, North Dakota is a far cry from the cultural mecca of other places in the US like Seattle, Dallas, San Antonio, NY or many others, however if you like vanilla - it may be the place for you.

Night time activities include movies at one of two theaters or you can bar crawl from the many bars - I think there are about 20 in town and more in the surrounding area. If you like to play pool, there are two places that stand out, The Rack and J & S Shooters, although there are other places that host that activity as well. Night clubs include Legends, One 01, Starlite Club, Fridays Club, Landing Bar Grill & Casino, Landing Bottle Shop, and Klub Minot.

Klub Minot is an eclectic mixture of a bar, dance, and tiki club offering reasonable food and drink with a fun, relaxed atmosphere. The owner is active in the community and seems to care if all are having fun. One of the more unique features of this place is that they offer rides if you cannot drive and sometimes host car sleepovers (they take you home after a night of drinking and then take you back to get your car the next day).

I'm not a bar frequenter so, my opinion on this is slim check them out for yourselves before taking my advice. I prefer the restaurant scene for which there are some pretty good choices here, but if you go out often you may get tired of the same things.

There is the Royal Fork buffet which offer a good selection, but isn't always the best value. Homesteader's offers a nice variety in a family setting with good food. Applebee's is always good and seems to be the same from one town to the next. Dragon Delight is one of the Chinese/Japanese places in town. I prefer China Star with the Mongolian BBQ - free cocktail with buffet purchase after 4 pm through the week - that is always good! Planet Pizza and Space Aliens offers a fun place for the family with games and prizes for the kids and decent food for adults. Best truck stop food: Schotz on 2/52 heading east. Michael's is fabulous for Italian food. 10 North Main is the best upscale restaurant in Minot and has a famous person involved (Josh Duhamel) - Quality and Taste is fantastic - really a favorite. Seven's, Primo, Up the Creek, and Grizzly's offer some other places that are good to go to once and a while.

If you get here in the day time, there is one mall - Dakota Square. It has the usual anchor stores Sears, Target, JC Penney, and Herberger's with a smattering of others tossed in. Old Navy, Vanity, Maurice's, Scheel's (sports), Hot Topic, Victoria's Secret, a couple of book stores, a couple of video gaming stores, GNC, Deb, Icing, and some jewelry stores. Sadly, this is the shopping here outside of a newly opened Hobby Lobby, newly expanded Wal-Mart, and an older Kmart. Of course there are other shops, but really not the kind of shopping one would look for as a cultural experience.

There are some activities that go on through the university like music performances or plays, outdoor theater and also through the Mouse River Players. Arts in the park occur through the summer months with special events at the fairgrounds, the zoo, or Roosevelt Park.

If you are moving to Minot from a place where you have 24-7 activity, please be ready to slow down. I mean more like skid to a stop. Nothing opens before noon on Sunday (except a couple grocery stores) and things close early too. There are enough things to do, but they will become repetitive and boring after a while. My advice? Get involved with service clubs, your kid's schools, or in things you like to do. Just be ready to slow down. A great place to raise a family or learn about Norwegian culture - ya sure you betcha.