reviews

Beautiful view adds to Usher’s appeal

By Eric Daeuber, Special to the Forum Published Wednesday, July 30, 20xx

Some of the best eateries in the area find themselves in strip malls and alongside downtown sidewalks with hardly a foot of space for an outdoor table or little more than an acre of asphalt outside the window for ambiance. Usher’s House, in Moorhead, is not one of those places.

The space formerly occupied by a number of businesses – including the Broken Axe, Red Bear, Moorhead American Legion and Bruno the Bear, who lived in the stone cage below the patio – overlooks the Red River at Davy Memorial Park through floor-to-ceiling windows. They give the dining room a natural, roomy feel and make each table seem both intimate and open.

The shaded outdoor deck is a delight on a summer evening and complements the indoor English pub with its dark wood and warm atmosphere. Each has its own menu suitable to the space.

Located in the big stone building at the north end of Eighth Street, Usher’s House and Monk’s Pub are venues that promise a fine dining experience in keeping with its extraordinary view; and it delivers, in part. Entrees are well thought out, well executed and even inspired. The Whiskey Blue Cheese Sirloin ($19), done exactly to order, comes, not with a blue cheese bourbon sauce like you might expect, but with crumbled blue cheese, caramelized onions, and walnuts served on a peppered steak.

The traditional Minnesota walleye dish ($15) is delivered to your table in one of two ways – our choice being encrusted with almonds and lightly fried. The menu is basic and includes a variety of well conceived dishes and at very reasonable prices.

Diners enjoy a lunch recently at Usher’s House in Moorhead. The restaurant overlooks the Red River at Davy Memorial Park through floor-to-ceiling windows. Jay Pickthorn / The Forum

Side dishes, however, just don’t seem to get the same attention with the possible exception of the roasted carrots, rough cut, chunky and seasoned. The peas, for example, aren’t the plump, colorful vegetables that the wonderful pancetta they’re tossed with really deserve. Rosemary red potatoes come whole with little in the way of dressing. These are small irritants, but the thoughtful entrees have earned better presentation and more sympathetic side dishes. Similar things could be said about the promising tomato soup ($5), which should be served hotter and could be easily dressed up with fresh herbs.

The wine list is short but complete – and expensive. Your choice of wines by the glass includes a variety of Maddalina wines that offer excellent value at $5 a glass. A bottle of the same in a pinot approaches $27. The very excellent Freemark Abbey cabernet sauvignon is on the list at an eye-popping $72. There are choices in between, but it’s nice to see the better-than-average Maddalina in reach. A surprise on the list, and out of reach at $100 unless you’re celebrating a knighthood or something similar, is Silver Oak. The California winery is devoted to making only cab sav wines. Remember it for the day your ship comes in.

The restaurant’s service is attentive and polite but a bit uneven. We were not offered a wine or beer list, but the table next to us was. This is a particular pity in that the pub side offers an excellent selection of beers.

Also, our initial reservation was accepted for a Monday even though the dining room is not open on Monday. But Usher’s House is relatively new and, with access to arguably the best view in Fargo Moorhead and housed in one of the most charming buildings in the area, it may well be one of the nicest places to sit down – no small advantage here on the prairie.

Restaurant Review

Usher’s House

700 1st Ave. N., Moorhead

Cuisine: Classic

Ratings (out of four stars):

Food: Two and One half

Service: Two and One half

Ambiance: Four

Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 5 to 10 p.m. Monk’s Pub has longer hours

Phone: (218)

287-0080

Reservations accepted: Yes

Eric Daeuber is an instructor at Minnesota State Community and Technical College. Readers can reach him at [email protected] .

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Sample Review Essay

Written by a Student

Nancy Hanson

English 1101

28 March 20xx

Usher’s House:

A Great Getaway in City Limits

Fargo/Moorhead has a vast array of restaurants to choose from, but not very many fine dining establishments. This evening, in hopes of finding something a little out of the ordinary, my spouse and I chose Usher’s House, a casual fine dining restaurant located near the Red River in downtown Moorhead, just off First Avenue North. We were looking for a romantic feel in the atmosphere, high-class service, and food that was a bit unique and pleasurable to the palette. Since it was a special occasion for us, we were not concerned about the cost of our dining experience. Usher’s House was new to us, and for the most part, it did not disappoint. The restaurant has a beautiful atmosphere, satisfactory service, and a unique blend of quality menu items.

For diners who haven’t been to Usher’s House before, prepare to be blown away by the warm and classy atmosphere of the restaurant. Walking up to the building, I was intrigued by the stone walls, giving it a castle-like feel. As we entered the oversized doors, and walked through Monk’s Pub to the back of the building known as Usher’s House, I was astonished by the view. Three of the four walls were floor-to-ceiling windows, empowering the gorgeous view of the Red River and its long, narrow valley. The fourth wall was built of large, rectangular stones which gave the room an enchanted feeling.

In addition, Usher’s does a good job of making the dining room feel warm and intimate. There were only fourteen tables in the dining room, but they were nicely spaced for privacy. The tables were decorated with black tablecloths and cloth napkins. The warm lighting in the room came from a custom-grid ceiling with recessed lighting. It gave our dining experience the romantic feel we were looking for. Candlelight would have added to the already relaxing atmosphere, but the votive candle on our table wasn’t real and had a burnt-out light bulb inside, so we set it aside and enjoyed the rest of the charming experience. No other restaurant in the Fargo/Moorhead area offers the same charm as Usher’s House. Diners will feel like they’re secluded from the busy cities of Fargo and Moorhead while still within city limits.

Unlike the fantastic atmosphere, the service at Usher’s House was nothing more than satisfactory. Guests can expect immediate seating due to the sparse population of guests. However, they seem to be short-staffed. Our server, who happened to be the only server on duty at the time, served us with a smile, but she seemed to be rushed, and therefore gave us the feeling that we were being rushed as well.

Our server took our orders down in memory, thanked us, and left as quickly as she had arrived. It’s impressive when a waiter/waitress can take your food order without writing the orders down. Ten minutes is all it took to prepare our meal and serve it to us. In most cases, quick service of food is wonderful, but at a fine dining restaurant, you expect a wait; therefore, you can look forward to a nice conversation in the meantime. Unfortunately, the quick arrival of our food, once again, made us feel as though we were being rushed.

As the evening continued, the restaurant began to fill up. Another server was added, but by this point they still weren’t adequately staffed. Our waitress passed us by more than once while our drinks sat empty. Other fine dining restaurants, such as the HoDo, Monte’s, and Porter Creek all do a much better job regarding the service. Usher’s House needs to increase its staff to better serve their customers.

But service aside, Usher’s House has many fantastic menu items. They offer a variety of appetizers with options like calamari and hot artichoke dip. They also have several unique options on their appetizer menu, like Pork Belly, or Gravlax, a “House cured Scottish-Atlantic salmon on focaccia toast points w/sliced egg, red onion, capers, cucumbers, and balsamic reduction.” Appetizers cost between $8 and $15. The pub menu offers a spread of entrees, including some that are unique to the area, such as Shepherd’s Pie or Bangers and Mash. The children’s menu, though, is limited to three items: macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, and cheese flatbread. Clearly, it’s not intended to be a family restaurant.

The dinner entrees include the traditional Top Sirloin ($25), Ribeye ($30), Vegetarian Pasta ($22), and Pork Tenderloin ($24), all with a non-traditional twist, adding sweet sauces and delectable vegetables. Unique to most restaurants in the Fargo/Moorhead area, they serve elk in the form of burgers ($18) and steaks ($29). Their other burgers and sandwiches have enticing names such as the Grilled Portabella, Crabby BLT, Flyin’ Hawaiian, and Shrimp Po’ Boy, all ranging in price from $8.00 to $13.00 and served with hand-cut chips or sweet potato chips.

The food was definitely pleasurable to the palette and appealing to the eye. The pan-seared peppercorn-crusted elk steak was prepared as ordered. It arrived upon a bed of sweet potato bleu cheese whips, long-stemmed seasonal broccoli and carrots, and was surrounded by lingonberry demi, a sweet raspberry sauce, which packed a punch to the taste buds when used as a dipping sauce. The cut itself was not a huge portion, but overall, the meal was pleasurable. The elk steak was prepared to a perfect medium rare, and the side dishes were outstanding. It’s clear Usher’s House is run by a top-notch chef. The taste, presentation, and creativity are hands-down as good or better than other fine dining establishments in the Fargo/Moorhead area.

In short, Usher’s House has a beautiful atmosphere for a romantic evening, the service was just satisfactory for a fine dining restaurant, but the food was beautifully created. I would recommend Usher’s House to anyone who wants to try something new and get away from the traditional restaurant. However, I would not recommend it to a family with small children. All in all, if diners want something different, Usher’s House is the place to go.

Usher’s House

700 1st Avenue North

Moorhead, MN

56560

(218)-287-0080

Monday – Saturday: 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Atmosphere – 4.9 out of 5

Service – 3 out of 5

Food Quality – 5 out of 5

Overall Grade – 4.5 out of 5

What is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement is the one sentence in your essay that expresses your overall claim about the topic. For a review essay, the thesis statement needs to be an evaluative claim.

Criteria for a Thesis Statement in a Review Essay:

Takes a stand

Makes a claim

Is an arguable point

Anticipates all the points in the body of the essay

Is not a question

Is specific about the subject of the essay

Placement of the thesis statement:

The thesis needs to be part of the introduction to your paper. Generally, the thesis statement will be the last sentence of your introduction.

Options for a Thesis Statement in a Review Essay:

You have two options for your thesis statement. You can either write a specific thesis statement, called a point-by-point thesis, or you can write a general thesis statement.

Point-by-point thesis:

Example 1: Value-minded diners in the Fargo/Moorhead area will appreciate the Speak Easy’s unique atmosphere, attentive service, and excellent food. [Note: the three points are atmosphere, service, and food]

Example 2: Even though the Speak Easy in Moorhead has an oppressive atmosphere, the attentive service and excellent, reasonably-priced food options will make diners want to come back again and again.

Nancy’s comments: The above thesis statements are called “point-by-point” statements because they are naming the categories (or criteria) for the review. Please note how the statements include evaluative words about each of the categories (unique, attentive, excellent, outdated, etc…). These evaluative comments are essential when you’re writing a thesis statement. A thesis-driven essay, by its very definition, is an argument, so words like “poor,” “sub-standard,” “good,” “excellent,” etc.., work to set up the argument in the essay.

The order of the points in the thesis statement is also important. If you mention atmosphere first in the thesis statement, then it also needs to be the first point in the body of your paper. The order I gave you in the sample thesis statements (above) is typical for this type of writing. You should save the food discussion for the last point in your paper.

The thesis statement needs to anticipate all the points in the body of your essay. In the above two examples, I could address atmosphere, service, food, and price, but I couldn’t address something that’s not listed in the thesis statement. For example, if my thesis statement looked this this: “Spicy Pie offers good pizza at a reasonable price,” I couldn’t address the atmosphere, the service, or the other menu items at Spicy Pie because those things aren’t mentioned in the thesis.

You need to keep the word “I” out of a thesis statement because your thesis has to make a claim about the business, rather than about yourself. So while a review starts out as an opinion, it quickly moves to argument when you write a strong thesis and support the thesis in the body of the paper with specific evidence for your claims. (See page 221 in your textbook for an explanation).)

General Thesis Statements:

Example 1: The Speak Easy Restaurant in Moorhead offers area diners an out-of-the-ordinary dining experience.

Example 2: The Speak Easy is by far the best Italian Restaurant in the Fargo/Moorhead area.

Nancy’s comments: Instead of providing a specific list, general thesis statements make an overall claim about the restaurant. The benefit of writing a general thesis statement is that you have more leeway in the body of your essay. If you’re reviewing a grocery store, for instance, you might have six categories that you’ll address in the body of the paper. Having a six-point thesis statement is just simply too much information for one sentence.

Scroll down for a sample outline

Sample Outline:

Thesis: Even though the Speak Easy in Moorhead has an oppressive atmosphere, the attentive service and excellent, reasonably-priced food options will make diners want to come back again and again. [the thesis statement should be the last sentence of the introduction]

Main Claim #1 (atmosphere): During the 1920s, speakeasies were underground bars that sold alcohol illegally, and as such, the Speak Easy Restaurant attempts to recreate this underground feeling. From the dark ceilings, windowless walls, and heavy draperies, the décor feels over-the-top dismal. [paragraph would continue with more evidence as support for the claim]

Transition and Main Claim #2 (service): Unlike the heavy-handed atmosphere, the service at the Speak Easy is refreshingly attentive. [The transition shows the connection between the first point (atmosphere) and the second point (service). The paragraph would continue with specific evidence as support for the claim]

Transition and Main Claim #3 (food): By far the best reason to go to the Speak Easy is for the wonderful food. The restaurant has an extensive menu….. [this transition isn’t as strong as the previous one, but it still gives the reader a cue that the writer is switching to a new topic]

Main Claim #4 (food): The restaurant specializes in made-from-scratch Italian food, and if customers order from this portion of the menu, they won’t be disappointed. [paragraph would continue with specific evidence as support for the claim]

Main Claim #5 (food/drink): To compliment the entrees, the Speak Easy features a full bar and a carefully chosen dessert menu. [paragraph would continue with specific evidence as support for the claims]

Conclusion: For customers who are tired of all the chain restaurants that abound in Fargo and Moorhead, the Speak Easy offers a refreshing change from the ordinary.[conclusion wraps-up the paper and offers advice to the reader]

Atmosphere: 3/5

Service: 5/5

Food: 5/5

Overall: 4.3/5