The Best Restaurant to Take a Date in Bismarck: The East 40 Chophouse & Tavern

Sometime around, oh, 30 years or so ago, my prom date took me to dinner at The East 40 Restaurant, as it was called then. We had a booth in the first dining room on the left, with curtains that we could pull for more privacy if we chose, and the server treated us as if we were adults. It was the best dinner in my high school memories.

Back then, The East 40 was still fairly new. Now, it's a Bismarck tradition. And a poll of Bismarck Tribune readers determined in 2006 that The East 40 Chophouse and Tavern, owned and managed by Chef Matt Levine and his wife Kim, is still the best restaurant to take a date. Located at 1401 Interchange Avenue, it is designed to provide a turn of the century (that's 19th to 20th!) ambiance, and both the exterior and the interior use authentic building materials, decorative items, and design from that era. As you drive up to the building, you know you're going to someplace that's out of the ordinary. The exterior is covered with wood from old barns and farm buildings, and the architectural style seems to be "add another room when you need it." That goes along with that "East 40" theme, and there is an authentic old windmill next to the building. A fairly new addition is the outdoor patio, used in warm weather as additional seating for both the restaurant and the bar. For those of you who don't come from a rural area, when people say "the east 40" or "the north 40" they are referring to a 40 acre field, either crops or pasture. The first homesteaders in the Dakota Territory received land grants of 40 acres and a mule, then had to "prove" them by building a house and a barn, and ploughing and planting the land. After 5 years of working the land, it was theirs. Since the industrial age, a 40 acre farm won't feed a family, so most farms have several 40 acre lots, and describe them by direction from the house.