Perfect New Restaurant: Corktown Deli & Brews
A Lincoln Park sandwich shop emerged as the hero in Perfect Duluth Day’s 2019 poll to discern the area’s best new restaurant. Corktown Deli & Brews won 43 percent of the runoff vote in a pool of three finalists that was narrowed down from a list of 25 nominees. Pak’s Green Corner and Martha’s Daughter were runners up with 33 percent and 24 percent of the votes, respectively.
Corktown Deli & Brews opened in June. Jeff Petcoff, the fast-casual restaurant’s general manager, was thrilled to hear the poll results. “That’s one of the biggest compliments you can get,” he says, “because readers and people vote on it; it’s a vote of confidence from everyone. It’s humbling and will help keep us going.” (more…)
Duluth’s Best Website
In 2011 Perfect Duluth Day chose as its official slogan “Duluth’s Duluthiest Website.” It was a statement we felt pretty confident making. Maybe other Duluth websites are better, but certainly none are Duluthier.
But this week we’ve been wondering if PDD truly is Duluth’s best website. This line of thinking was prompted by the Duluth Reader weekly newspaper conducting a poll and ultimately publishing in its Jan. 31 “Best of the Northland” issue that PDD won the title of “Best Local Website.” (more…)
The Slamming Doors – “Clover”
Duluth-based roots-rock band the Slamming Doors perform the song “Clover” for The White Wall Sessions in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The band has Duluth gigs coming up Feb. 13 at Teatro Zuccone during TED at Teatro, Feb. 23 at Blush, and March 15 at Ursa Minor.
Tim Kaiser – “Organelle”
Tim Kaiser appears to be reorganizing his recordings on SoundCloud, and so this gem appears on my feed. (more…)
1970s Duluth Radio
I believe WEBC had a slogan and I had won a T-shirt of this:
“WEBC blew the WAKX outta my ears”
I cannot seem to find any archives of this.
Any thoughts?
The BBC Interviews Duluth Cyclist Leah Gruhn
Photo by Jeremy Kershaw
Leah Gruhn, geologist at Barr Engineering and avid Duluth cyclist, was the first woman to complete Northern Minnesota’s Arrowhead 135 mile race in record-breaking low temps on Tuesday, Jan. 29.
How to Change a Flat Tire
I think it’s been something like 10 years since I’ve blown a tire while driving and had to replace it with a spare on the side of the road. What’s weird about that is I remember having to change flat tires fairly often in previous years — like once every 20 months or something.
The most I have ever paid for a motor vehicle is $4,000. My current car cost $3,500. The seven others I’ve gone through over the years each cost about $1,500 or less. Every one of them was a bargain, but involved a bit more maintenance than newer cars. The well-worn tires on some of those clunkers used to give me my share of roadside adventures. I’m not sure why that has stopped in the past decade, but I’m certainly not complaining.
About 15 years ago, as a public service and also as a reminder to my future self, I compiled a list of advice about changing flat tires. I’m assuming all of it still applies to today’s vehicles and might be useful to the general public at some point in the future or me tomorrow. It’s not really technical advice, it’s more for emotional preparation. (more…)
Glamourous Duluth
Duluth’s Ashley Sullivan, sporting a Duluth Cider hat, is part of a feature in the online women’s magazine Glamour titled “Insanely cold polar vortex temperatures are literally freezing people’s eyelashes.” The article refers to a social media trend of people “posting commentary and photos of themselves turning into Elsa from Frozen simply by going about their lives in a polar vortex.”
“Depending on how cold it is, you can feel them freeze right away,” Sullivan told Glamour reporter Abby Gardner. “It doesn’t hurt and doesn’t affect your eyesight, but by the end of a hike, you get the pretty frost. The aftermath isn’t so pretty as the ice melts and mascara runs down your face. But it’s like Mother Nature’s art on while you’re outside, if you think about it. It’s like you’re your own snowflake with the frost vibrating to your own energy.” (more…)
Entangled lives: Poles and Jews; Europe and Africa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iha3OS8ShYs
University lectures showed me quite a bit about the entangled lives of the past that shape our present. Last Thursday, Dr. Deborah Petersen-Perlman gave a historical tour of Poland. She opened with a video that shows the borders of European nations, beginning hundreds of years before the invention, even, of the nation-state. (more…)
Selective Focus: Yarrow Mead
Yarrow Mead is a metal smith who works with Northern Minnesota “gems” including local stones, agates and seaglass. The pieces she creates proudly show tool marks and uneven, organic shapes that reflect the North Shore.
YM: I am a silver and gold smith working with primarily local stones, beach glass, and American sourced metal. I was trained in jewelry by Stephen Hoglund, who is a very talented smith out of Grand Marais, as well as through my time working as a Props Master at the Hamline University Theater Department, under Theater Director Bill Wallace. My personal style has been influenced by both of these men, as well as my childhood on the North Shore of Minnesota. I am greatly inspired by the shapes and textures along the shores of Lake Superior, as well as my personal Nordic heritage.
(more…)
The Hopper Shuttle: Catering to Craft Beverage Fans
A new complimentary shuttle service will provide a link between Duluth’s craft beverage purveyors. Starting Feb. 8 the Hopper, a 15-passenger van, will run between Canal Park, Lincoln Park and Downtown every Friday and Saturday night. (more…)
Shinobi – “Risk Zone”
Duluth rapper Shinobi shouts out to his city in this video shot and edited by Daniel Weiser.
Duluth Blogs: How to Collect Baseball Cards
Today, I point to another blog by a Duluthian, this time John Boucha. You can tell because his name is the URL. (more…)
Duluth Reference on The Passage
The latest Duluth mention on a national television show is in season 1, episode 3 of the new Fox series The Passage, which aired on Monday night. (more…)
Video: Duluth Sea Smoke
Video by Twin Cities-based Sky Candy Studios.
Ten Years of Perfect Duluth Day on WordPress
Hunkered down at PDD World Headquarters, problem solving the switch to WordPress in 2009: Cory Fechner, Scott Lunt, Paul Lundgren and Barrett Chase.
Ten years ago — Jan. 30, 2009 — Perfect Duluth Day made the big leap to the WordPress publishing platform. Specifically, the upgrade was from Movable Type version 3.2 to WordPress version 2.8. These days PDD is on WordPress version 4.9.9. But enough nerdspeak. (more…)
Duluth Blogs: Sister Scotland
I’ve been discovering blogs by Duluthians lately. Sister Scotland collects the observations of a Superior student as she studies abroad. Some observations, about the taste of haggis … well, I will never be okay with food cooked in a stomach. It feels like duplication of effort; we only need one stomach in this process. But others, they are just playful thoughts on life. (more…)
Share a joke for a chance to win Duluth Comedy Fest tickets
Duluth’s biggest weekend of comedy since the freighter Socrates ran aground at Park Point is coming up Feb. 15 and 16. Tig Notaro, Brian Posehn, Gary Gulman and Alex Edelman are all performing at the NorShor Theatre as part of Duluth Comedy Fest.
Perfect Duluth Day is giving away a pair of two-day passes — $158 value — to a randomly selected person who comments on this post. Make it interesting and share a joke. (more…)
Hoops Brewing’s Dave Hoops profiled in The Growler
Craft-beer pioneer Dave Hoops, owner of Hoops Brewing in Duluth, shares his views on finding a niche, avoiding trends and “promoting the Minnesota brand” in the latest issue of craft-beer lifestyle magazine The Growler.
Reference to Duluth on American Crime Story
Season two of American Crime Story, which dramatizes the five murders committed by Andrew Cunanan and is subtitled The Assassination of Gianni Versace, features a quick Duluth mention. The character David Madson is portrayed as an award-winning student at the University of Minnesota Duluth, which is sort of true. (more…)
PDD Quiz: January 2019 in Review
The first month of 2019 is nearly in the books; how much of it do you remember? Take this week’s PDD quiz and find out!
The next PDD quiz, on local sports teams and athletes, will be published on Feb. 10. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Feb. 7. (more…)
Ripped During Swamping Hours in 2009
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Ten years ago the Sultan of Sot visited a trio of West Duluth bars and published this report for Duluth’s weekly Transistor.]
To borrow a term from the card game blackjack, I’ve decided to “double down” on my drinking today. What that means is, I’m at the Rustic Bar in West Duluth at 8 a.m. My goal is to get drunk by midday, go home and pass out, then wake up and go to the bars again. If I manage to get drunk twice, well, I’ve doubled my winnings.
On top of that, drinking while the buses are still running means there’s no need to spend valuable beer money on a taxi. In tough economic times, we all need to get thrifty, right?
For some reason it’s boiling hot inside the Rustic, which I didn’t expect on a January morning. There are four other guys at the bar, and two of them have stripped down to their T-shirts. Eventually, one of them asks the bartender why it’s so hot. She looks at the thermostat and tells us it’s set for 80 degrees. (more…)