Bismarck/Fargo/points between

I hope this question isn%26#39;t too broad:

Driving from Portland, OR to Brooklyn, NY. Will be stopping for the night somewhere in North Dakota. Looking for a town/city that has a unique non-chain hotel in the downtown core within walking distance to a good restaurant with regional cuisine and a non-fratty pub with more than A/B or Coors beers on tap. Preferably built before WWII. Just one thirtysomething traveling alone so family-friendliness is irrelevant. This will be for the night of either Wednesday, September 10th or Thursday, September 11, so bonus points for some sort of midweek festival that may or may not be going on. A river would be nice, too.

Bismarck/Fargo/points between

Well Medora has a lot of non-chain hotels and it is quite quaint but it might be too far west for what you want. Jamestown would fit the bill except no river. Bismarck has a river (not downtown). Fargo might fit your bill best (the HoDo would be good and the restaurant/bar is below plus lots of other bars and such within walking distance). I highly doubt there are any festivals in midweek September unless you count Big Iron in West Fargo (but not sure if farming stuff is your thing).

Bismarck/Fargo/points between

Ok, I realize I%26#39;m a little late in answering this but I just wanted to point out to the previous reply that Jamestown does have a river--in fact the town is named after it, the James River. Actually there%26#39;s too--Pipestem Creek if you count that.

Well, maybe on your way home if you%26#39;d like to stop in Jamestown you could stay downtown at the Gladstone. I think the hotel serves food, but I would skip it and head over to either Babb%26#39;s coffee house, The Bistro, or Buffalo City Grille--all within a couple blocks of the hotel. There%26#39;s also a B%26amp;B called Snuggle Inn, probably a quarter-mile walk to downtown. If you want regional cuisine, we mostly are just bland Midwest American here, but I%26#39;m pretty sure Tuesday nights at The Frontier Fort (near the giant Buffalo) is German night and I think The Depot (another one downtown) serves knoephla soup on Thursdays (or at least they used to). Neither of those restaurants have a good beer selection however, in fact I think The Depot is dry. Buffalo City Grille has some dishes with bison too as Jamestown is known as the ';Buffalo City,'; and there%26#39;s an okay beer selection although nothing compared to Portland.

If you stop in Bismarck my favorite restaurant there is The Walrus and they have a pretty good beer selection too (for the area).

Fargo has some pretty good restaurants too. And for hotels, I%26#39;ve stayed at the Howard Johnson and the Raddison downtown. Radisson is nice; HJ is not quite as nice, but it%26#39;s a bed to sleep on anyway. There%26#39;s several restaurants downtown there. I%26#39;ve only eaten at a couple and the only one I remember is Old Broadway, american cuisine and a decent beer selection.

Anyway, maybe this will help someone else driving through, even though it%26#39;s too late for your trip.

Have a good one!

I know this is too late to be of any help to Oregone, but in case anyone else reads it down the line . . . We just got back from ND at the beginning of the month. The tourist lady that check for available rooms in Medora told us all the hotels in the area were owned by the same company other than, I believe, an Americinn. It wasn%26#39;t a chain. But it was a giant collection of accommodations. There were no vacancies so we stayed in Belfield instead. Turned out well for us.