The building at 602 Main Avenue in downtown Fargo has been standing since 1879, which makes it the oldest brick structure in the city. For most of its long life it was something other than a kitchen. But on the evening of October 3, 2026, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m., it will fill with the smell of garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and flambéed cherries, as a small group of couples, friends, and solo cooks gathers around the island for a hands-on class called Date Night | Marry Me Chicken.
The menu is built for romance by design: a garden salad with fresh vegetables and a handcrafted dressing, "Marry Me" Chicken served over fresh pasta, and Cherries Jubilee — a dessert finished, as the class description puts it, "with a touch of flair and fire." The instructor is Lana, and the class is priced at $100 per person. Everything needed is provided; students are asked only to wear closed-toe shoes and to arrive fifteen minutes before the start, when the doors open. Wine, cocktails, and other drinks are available for purchase. Participants cook in pairs unless they request a larger group, and the whole menu can be made gluten-free on request. The class is subject to cancellation if a minimum number of sign-ups isn't met, with refunds issued and 24 hours' notice given.
What makes the evening more than a cooking demo is the story of the place hosting it. The 1889 is the product of a mother-and-daughter team. According to the venue's own account, Lana had a chance meeting with the owners of 602 Main in the fall of 2022. She had been dreaming of starting a business where she could teach cooking classes, and the building — then empty, but full of history — struck her as the right home for it. The idea sat for a few months until her daughter, Addie, came home for Christmas. Over the holiday they talked through the concept, and Addie realized she was the natural fit to run the day-to-day operation. After touring the space, the two decided they could offer more than cooking: the building's upper mezzanine, with its ample seating and three large tables, was ideal for crafting workshops, and the location lent itself to small private events as well.
Addie moved back to Fargo to begin planning, renovations began at 602 Main in August 2023, and the business opened its doors that December. The name is a deliberate nod to statehood: North Dakota was admitted to the Union as the 39th state on November 2, 1889, the same year the building went up, and the founders frame the venue as a place that carries forward what they call North Dakota's community value — gathering, learning, and making memories. The main floor runs about 1,200 square feet and includes the ovens, refrigerators, sinks, and large island that make a hands-on class possible; the mezzanine adds another 650 square feet above.
The dishes on the October menu carry their own histories, which is part of what gives a themed class like this its texture. "Marry Me Chicken" is a genuinely modern phenomenon — a creamy skillet chicken with garlic, herbs, sun-dried tomatoes, and Parmesan that was developed by Lindsay Funston and published by Delish in 2016. The recipe's original name was forgettable, and the story goes that it was rebranded around the idea that the dish was so good it might prompt a proposal. The name stuck, and the recipe spread across social media until it became one of the most recognizable viral dishes of the past decade, with countless variations now served over pasta, exactly as this class will do.
Cherries Jubilee is the older counterweight, a dessert that reaches back to the Victorian era. It is generally credited to the French chef Auguste Escoffier, who is said to have prepared it for one of Queen Victoria's jubilee celebrations — most commonly identified as the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, marking sixty years on the throne. The dish is made with cherries and a liqueur, typically kirschwasser, flambéed tableside and usually spooned over vanilla ice cream. The flambé is the theatrical centerpiece, and it is the reason the class description promises "a touch of flair and fire": students aren't just assembling a dessert, they're setting it alight, which is a rare thing to do in a public cooking class and a memorable way to end an evening.
That combination — a viral internet recipe, a 19th-century royal dessert, and a building older than the state itself — is what distinguishes this date night from the usual sit-and-watch dinner event. The 1889 has built its identity around participation: its classes are described as hands-on for all skill levels, and its stated aim is to "inspire confidence at the kitchen and connection at the table." For a couple looking for something to do on an autumn Saturday in Fargo, the pitch is straightforward. You chop, you sauté, you flambé, and then you sit down and eat what you made, in a room that has been part of the city's Main Avenue for nearly a century and a half.
The class is one of a rotating series at the venue, which runs cooking and crafting classes throughout the year for adults and children alike, alongside private events and space rentals. Seats for the October 3 session are limited by the size of the room and the paired format, and the venue notes that a class will be called off if enough people don't sign up — so anyone planning to attend should book ahead rather than decide at the last minute. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. for the 6:00 p.m. start.
For those who go, the takeaway is likely to be less about the recipe than the setting: a date night that ends with a flame in a pan, in the oldest brick building in Fargo, on a menu that spans from a 2016 food-blog experiment to a dessert invented for a queen.