Restaurants
New Duluth restaurants served up comfort classics in 2025
Minnesotans have a soft spot for comfort food, and three new Duluth restaurants are serving up hearty, warming dishes to help locals through the coldest winter months. (more…)
Popular Palestinian restaurant among 2025 closings
Palestinian deli Falastin closed after a year of rave reviews and lines out the door. A new Hong Kong-style café has taken over the Lakeside location. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).
Two of the most high profile restaurant closings this year saw their locations quickly replaced with new offerings. It doesn’t always happen that way — some abandoned kitchens sit for years before inspiring another project. (more…)
New Hong Kong-style cafe coming to Lakeside
Chef Antony Gor is opening a new Hong Kong-style cafe in Lakeside. The restaurant will take over the former longtime home of the New London Cafe. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
A new Hong Kong-style cafe will take over a longtime restaurant space in Lakeside as its chef-owner moves from hosting special pop-up dining events to a permanent brick-and-mortar location.
Chef Antony Gor has launched plans to open Sōl Cafe at 4721 E. Superior St., the former home of New London Cafe and, most recently, Falastin Palestinian Food. The new fast-casual, breakfast-and-lunch place is expected to open later this year. (more…)
Dāv Kaufman Eats the North Shore
Following his Duluth episode, Dāv Kaufman heads up the North Shore in this week’s edition of Dāv Kaufman Eats the World. (more…)
Lincoln Park salad shop moves to Lakeside; adds dining room
Ritual Salad owner Cori Zastera poses in the doorway of her new restaurant location in Lakeside. Zastera and friend Jenna Wersal, left, were prepping the building for paint June 11. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
A year after opening in Lincoln Park, a popular grab-and-go lunch counter and mystic shop is moving to a bigger building in Lakeside.
Ritual Salad & Apothecary plans to open a new restaurant in a former driving school at 4501 E. Superior St. this month. The business debuted last spring in a tiny, renovated building on the corner of Superior Street and 18th Avenue West. The move will increase indoor seating capacity from five to 25. (more…)
Sunshine Cafe gets new life as training space for entrepreneurs
Family Rise Together Executive Director ChaQuana McEntyre stands outside the Sunshine Cafe, 5719 Grand Ave. The social service organization purchased the diner and will remodel it to serve as a food-service industry small-business incubator. (Photo by Lissa Maki)
A shuttered building that once housed a landmark West Duluth cafe won’t reopen with breakfast specials and counter seating but new owners will use the space for a program to train ambitious food entrepreneurs and deliver meals.
St. Louis County records show the former Sunshine Cafe, 5719 Grand Ave., was purchased in December by the Duluth social service organization Family Rise Together for $230,000. The nonprofit started renovations on the historic building this winter and has launched a fundraising campaign to install a state-of-the-art, commercial-grade kitchen inside the space. (more…)
PDD Geoguessr becomes Duluth Deep Dive (with a Geoguessr)
PDD Geoguessr is getting a rebranding for 2025. Last year’s analytics showed that a lot more people were reading the context around the games than playing the games themselves. In recognition of this, the new monthly format will put more focus on the topic rather than just providing a link for the game. To keep the posts connected to cultural geography — and to show some appreciation to the dedicated PDD Geoguessr players — the posts will still conclude with a Geoguessr challenge. This announcement marks the transition with a Geoguessr challenge that fits the old format better than the new one. (more…)
Postcards from Shorewood Terrace
Sherwood Terrace operated as a seasonal restaurant during the middle of the 20th century. Arthur and Ada Neeb were the proprietors. The location was either “on London Road” or “near Knife River,” depending on which old newspaper article is referenced. (more…)
New restaurants brought a fresh wave of flavors in 2024
The Pali Platter from Falastin
If 2024 has a Twin Ports restaurant trend, it’s cultural cuisine. Two of the restaurants most anticipated by area foodies, Alto Pino and Falastin, brought unparalleled culinary options to Duluth this year. (more…)
Black Water Lounge, Chalet among 2024 restaurant closures
The Black Water Lounge featured live music in a classy atmosphere. The restaurant closed in July after a 15-year run in Greysolon Plaza. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
Downtown Duluth suffered blows to its dining scene over the past year with two restaurants leaving prominent, historic buildings while Hermantown will lose a landmark establishment at the end of the month. (more…)
El Jefe Bar & Grill brings back flavors of Bucktales
Dee Morales is back in the restaurant business. He opened El Jefe Bar & Grill in early October.
There’s a familiar face in the kitchen of a new eatery in the Town of Superior. Dee Morales quietly opened El Jefe Bar & Grill in early October after closing Bucktales Cantina & Grill in the city of Superior, 12 miles north. El Jefe operates out of the same building that served as the original Bucktales. (more…)
Duluth Grill expands into West Duluth with new chicken eatery
Mural artists Kevin Ballecer, left, and Mela Nguyen are painting the exterior of Chicken n’ Whaaat?! on Central Avenue in West Duluth. The pair also painted murals for Burger Paradox on Superior Street. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).
A family-owned restaurant group that helped revitalize Lincoln Park will expand outside the neighborhood for the first time with a new fast-casual chicken eatery attached to a West Duluth gas station. (more…)
Ichiro Sushi & Ramen wows guests on Miller Hill
Bella, the robot server at Ichiro Sushi & Ramen, glides through the Duluth restaurant. (Photos by Melinda Lavine)
A cat-eared robot buzzed around Ichiro Sushi & Ramen. “Bella” sported white digital whiskers up top, and in its fur-less belly sat plates of fried rice and sushi.
After a series of silent maneuvers, Bella stopped at a table of two, where Cody Tesser served fellow humans their orders from the robot’s racks. (more…)
Duluth lands new food truck with Bowlz n’ Thangz
Rachel Nielsen of Duluth gets served a mac bowl and Southwest eggrolls from Bowlz n’ Thangz food truck owner Sarah Hovis. (Photos by Melinda Lavine)
Bowlz n’ Thangz’s black food truck sat outside Wild State Cider in the Lincoln Park Craft District. Every seat in the cidery’s patio and tap room were filled with trivia players and spectators, sipping and snacking. (more…)
Wisconsin dairy set to open specialty cheese shop at RiverWest
New Duluth store manager Jessy Peterson, left, and Vice President of Retail Operations Jamie Swan stand in front of the cheese cases at the Burnett Dairy Cooperative store in Alpha, Wisconsin. The new Duluth store will feature a similar layout. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
Duluth cheese lovers will have an extraordinary place to shop for their provolone, cheddar and curds next month when an award-winning Wisconsin dairy opens a large specialty store in a newly developed section of the Riverside neighborhood below Spirit Mountain. (more…)
A & Dubs won’t open in summer 2024
A & Dubs, Duluth's first and last drive-in restaurant, won't reopen this year - Duluth News Tribune | News, weather, and sports from Duluth, Minnesota
Owners say health concerns forced them to forego reopening for the summer season.
duluthnewstribune.com
A & Dubs owners Syl and Sandy Hantz posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page that they will not reopen their drive-in Lincoln Park burger joint this summer. It was founded as an A & W in 1948 and parted with the chain to become A & Dubs in 1973. (more…)
Ritual Salad planning mid-March opening
Cori Zastera, left, and her husband Jason, stand in front of the Ritual Salad location at 1802 W. Superior St. in Lincoln Park last summer before a remodel of the building began. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske).
New Lincoln Park restaurant Ritual Salad is slated to open to the public March 17. It will serve salads and soups, and feature a gift shop with crystals, books, jewelry and more. (more…)
Falastin will take over former New London Café
Palestinian Cafe, Market To Open In Former ‘New London Cafe’ Building
Fox 21 reports a Palestinian café and market will replace the New London Café at 4721 E. Superior St. in Duluth’s Lakeside neighborhood.
Lyla Abukhodair and her mother Ann have operated a Palentinian pop-up restaurant called Falastin for more than a year. They plan to open their brick-and-mortar location later this year. (more…)
Trifecta of restaurants opened in Duluth’s Lincoln Park in 2023
Dan Lefebvre at Burger Paradox
Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood has burgeoned with new businesses of late. Three new restaurants opened there in 2023, including Bali Asian Cuisine, Burger Paradox and Oasis del Norte. A fourth, Ritual Salad, is slated to open in early 2024. (more…)
Sunshine Café leads the list of 2023 restaurant casualties
The Sunshine Café in West Duluth closed at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020. Owners announced this year it will not reopen. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
One of Duluth’s most significant restaurant closures of 2023 technically happened in 2020. The Sunshine Café closed more than three years ago as COVID-19 swept the country. What was considered a temporary closure at the time was finally announced as permanent in September 2023.
The Twin Ports restaurant scene has stabilized and grown as the pandemic has wound down, but the closure of the beloved diner at 5719 Grand Ave. in West Duluth can be seen as evidence the coronavirus fallout lingers. The Sunshine Café had been a neighborhood gathering place for more than three decades. (more…)
Oasis del Norte restaurant opening soon
Oasis Del Norte opens Lincoln Park restaurant - Duluth News Tribune | News, weather, and sports from Duluth, Minnesota
Known for its food trailer, the business' Mexican cuisine will be served year-round starting Sept. 29.
duluthnewstribune.com
The brick-and-mortar Oasis del Norte restaurant in Duluth’s Lincoln Park Craft District finally has an opening date. The Duluth News Tribune reports that Eduardo Sandoval Luna will open the taqueria-style Mexican eatery at 2401 W. Superior St. on Sept. 29, pending inspection from the Minnesota Health Department.
Sandoval Luna has operated the Oasis del Norte taco food trailer since 2015.
New restaurant to offer salads, soups and mystical gifts
Cori Zastera, left, and her husband Jason, stand in front of the Ritual Salad location at 1802 W. Superior St. in Lincoln Park. The new restaurant is scheduled to open in October. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).
A new fast-casual restaurant featuring healthy salads and soups is in the works for Lincoln Park as the booming Duluth neighborhood sees redevelopment push east along Superior Street toward Garfield Avenue. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Restaurant Roundup
This summer has seen lots of movement on the restaurant front: new restaurants are popping up and existing restaurants are moving or expanding to additional locations. Dig into this week’s quiz to test your knowledge of the local food scene.
The next PDD quiz comes your way on Aug. 27; it will review the month’s headlines and happenings. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Aug. 23. (more…)
Bali Asian Cuisine bringing Pan-Asian food to Duluth
Bali Asian Cuisine owner and chef Nevi Mariadi stands in front of her Lincoln Park restaurant bar.
A restaurant featuring Indonesian food and an array of other Asian fare will open in Lincoln Park as early as September. Bali Asian Cuisine will serve up fresh and flavorful food, according to chef and owner Nevi Mariadi. (more…)