Review: Rhombus Guys, Grand Forks

[Sal Atticum]

I love this place, and since I live right around the corner, I eat here a lot.  But here is a more formal review by one of the local bloggers.  Check out his blog at http://gcdining.blogspot.com.

Rhombus Guys Pizza: Grand Forks

Saturday, 31 March 2007

After a good afternoon meeting and the usual random assortment of events that fill in a Saturday, it was about dinner time, and Patti asked what was on my mind. "Pizza," I answered, and she quickly offered up Mike's Pizza, on the east side, which is her favourite pizza in town. I agreed, we pulled K away from whatever video game was consuming her day off, and we headed out.

About two minutes down Washington, I suggested trying Rhombus Guys pizza, the newest pizzeria downtown, and Patti was game. The first trick was figuring out where it was... my memory placed it on Kittson, so I turned off Demers there and we parked on 4th.

Not familiar with downtown of late, I started walking one direction, towards what turned out to be Sledsters. Patti, on the other hand, chose correctly and headed toward the river on Kittson. Unfortunately, what passed for signage at Rhombus Guys passed unnoticed, as she walked past, thinking it was a bar. However, as I caught up to her, I noted that it was, indeed, the place.

A quick glance at the interior revealed it to be a bit of a bar, so I ducked inside to see if under-21 was welcome. They are indeed (though through the dinner, K was the only kid in the place,) so I ran back to the car to get her (she wisely chose to stay out of the rain.)

Finally seated in the narrow building that recalled some of the restaurants I've been in in New York and San Francisco, the server (all three working that night were college age girls,) brought over the menu and took our drink order. The inside was a little sparse, decorated in "early spartan," though the original ceiling was pretty cool. There are two tvs over the bar, one an HD flat panel, the other not, they're about five feet apart, and they were inexplicably both tuned to the same basketball game. Don't go there anticipating a sports bar. Well, unless you like the one game that's on.

Additional entertainment is of the "provide your own" variety -- the tablecloth is a big sheet of butcher's paper, and you're given an assortment of colour crayons to adorn your spot with. No indication that masterpieces are immortalized anywhere, so proto-Picassos might want to save their valuable work for a more permanent medium. Me, I can't draw a straight line and made do with doodling and embarassingly bad "Kilroy was here" motifs.

The menu is what I would call "downtown particular." There's a certain crowd that eats downtown, and the menu would necessarily cater to them. Which I'm fine with, but I don't need eggplant fondue, personally. The pizzas ranged from semi-normal like pepperoni to goofy combinations I wonder if anyone ever orders. A good eclectic pizza joint can probably just order things at random and come up with their "taco-spinach-turkey-chewing gum" specialty and not care if anyone buys it or not.

Looking things over, I was in favour of the Barbarian (or the Cretin, or whatever they're calling an "all meat" pizza, they had cute names for some of these,) but was quickly voted down by my health conscious wife and vegetarian leaning daughter. I say leaning, because until she's old enough to make her own tofu casserole and eggplant fondue, she'll be eating some meat.

Anyhoo, back to dinner, where we ordered bread sticks (I don't know, probably about $5) as an appetizer and a large chicken alfredo pizza ($18.99) for main course. The bread sticks took about ten minutes to come out and were very good, with a side of marinara sauce. Pizza was out fairly shortly afterward, and was a very tasty item. Though there are times that you can't cram enough meat or cheese on a pie (sub-par pizzas like Dominos coming to mind,) this was a fairly austere affair, and the space between ingredients seemed just right.

It took about twenty minutes to polish off what we were going to eat, and then K ordered up a dessert, some sort of turtle cheesecake for about $5. I guess she realized that there weren't any real turtles in there, or maybe the chocolate banished vegetarian guilt to the sidelines. At any case, she carried on on her own, both Patti and I having given up that sort of thing for Lent.

The server remained reasonably attentive throughout and offered up some useful suggestions (including the bread stick upsell.) The owner (or his clone, looked just like the guy in the newspaper article pasted up at our table,) wandered through at one point, though, unlike Kim Holmes, seemed pretty ambivalent about socializing with the customers -- he sat down and started watching the basketball game.

At 6PM or so, the restaurant was fairly full, though I never noted a line waiting for tables. Apparently there is some space downstairs to supplement the five or six booths and dozen bar stools on the main floor, though I never ventured down there. All told dinner came to $35, with tip, which is on the pricier end of pizzerias, but higher quality food makes it very much worth it.

Verdict: we'll return the next time pizza calls and Mike's seems too far to drive

Rhombus Guys Pizza
312 Kittson Avenue
Grand Forks, ND

[Meest]

I'm there all the time also.

the girlfriends revenge or whatever its called is a must try at least once! That is if you can stand spicy food.

The other plus about this is that they have GOOD BEER ON TAP!! Let me say that again! GOOD BEER ON TAP!! ESB Red Hook, Sam Adam's, Summit, Guinness, Newcastle, and such. They have amberboch in a bottle to if you're in the mood for that..... and all those cheesy domestic's if you can't stomach some Real beer....

Aaron one of the guys who owns the place is awsome to talk to. John and Mike are some great bartenders. If you're drunk enough to have John make you a gin and tonic do it! Tasted good when i was drunk! and thats not ordinary! Best irish car bombs I've had in town. They actualy give you some guiness to chug.... unlike a specific "Irish pub" which give's you your guiness in a short glass....

[red hibiscus]

I wholeheartedly agree about their excellent beer selection!!! Good to know there are others out there who can't stand the crap beer! 

[Meest]

I wholeheartedly agree about their excellent beer selection!!! Good to know there are others out there who can't stand the crap beer! 

My other big argument is the so called "Irish pub" that is downtown....

Lets list the beers that it has...

Guinness
Killians
Domestics..

WHERE THE HELL IS THE IRISH PART OF THIS PUB!?!?!?

Where is the micro-brew's. the full flavored beer. the kind that us people that like beer actualy drink?

the Summits, Boulevards, Linneklugels(Spelling?) (To some extent) the Sam adam's, Red Hooks, Blue moon, and such?

If i want to get those for a decent price (YES I'M LOOKING AT YOU BLUE MOOSE) I have to go to the parrots cay, which is usualy packed....

Are there any other bars that serve GOOD BEER!? I'd like to know.

[red hibiscus]

Suite 49 has a somewhat decent selection- some are on tap, some are not. If you get there later in the evening they have great 1/2 price specials. Mike's Pizza & Pub carries Leine's and Newcastle...not sure what else aside from those.

[Meest]

I have a bone to pick with Suite 49, so I really don't go there much at all. Just a personal issue.

Mikes pizza I go there every thursday alsmost. great special for open mic night.

They also have same adam's and such.

Crosstown lounge is a favorite of mine, as they have a heck of alot of different beers in bottle..... and not at a bottle price sometimes.... summit is only like 2.50 or so. Not bad at all.