On tap at Bayfront: a plethora of craft beer
Duluth’s beeriest festival, All Pints North, is coming up on Saturday. Organized by the Minnesota Craft Brewer’s Guild, the tasting extravaganza at Bayfront Festival Park will include more than 120 breweries.
All Pints North began in 2012 and has mushroomed each successive year. In 2015, an estimated 3,500 people attended. The beer fest primarily highlights the guild’s roughly 100 members, but some national breweries participate as well. (more…)
Selective Focus: Tami LaPole Edmunds
Tami LaPole Edmunds has taken her art — repurposing clothing, jewelry and accessories — and made a successful career out of it. Art in the Alley now has two locations in Duluth.
TLE: I have been upcycling jewelry and clothing since we opened Art in the Alley 8 years ago. I love taking apart an existing garment and using it to create a totally different piece. It is like putting together a puzzle…without knowing what the final outcome will look like.
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Bud Grant and the Superior Central Basketball Team
Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bud Grant grew up in Superior and played football, basketball and baseball at Superior Central High School. This photo recently showed up Reddit, posted by user “drunkinwisconsin.”
“A bartender’s dad in my hometown of Superior, WI went to school with Bud Grant,” the post reads. “Here is his senior basketball picture, #13.”
Duluth Wind Storm Damage Recap
Crumbled chimney bricks on the roof of the Board of Trade Building.
A severe storm ripped through the Duluth area around 3:30 a.m., knocking down trees and leaving many without power and running water. (more…)
Itasca Conversations: Tall Timber Days Festival
Dr. Lee Jess cuts a promo for Tall Timber Days, the 35-year-old festival he helped start in Grand Rapids. Video produced by A Plus B Productions.
Bumper crop
The wild blueberries are crazy this year. I picked six quarts today and didn’t even make a dent in the patch.
Duluth Alligator Stew
200 c. flour
100 c. bacon drippings
200 lg. onions
500 lbs. alligator
Season to taste
400 pods garlic
600 beef bouillon cubes
500 qts. Lake Superior water
Fresh parsley
Wild mushrooms
Combine flour and bacon drippings; brown until dark. Add water, onions, garlic, bouillon, and seasoning. Cook for 1 hour. Clean fat from alligator. Cut in bite size pieces. Put in gravy and cook in another hour. Add mushrooms and cook, uncovered, in another 30 minutes. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve over rice. Feeds approx. 85,000.
[Adapted from cooks.com.]
Perfect North Shore Restaurant: Gunflint Tavern
One conclusion can be easily drawn from the results of Perfect Duluth Day’s poll to name the best restaurant on Lake Superior’s North Shore: Grand Marais is the place to be. The top three restaurants are located there, including the perfect one, Gunflint Tavern.
Owner Jeff Gecas says it hasn’t always been easy. He and his wife Susan are “Deadheads” who decided to create the business “almost selfishly” in 1998 because there wasn’t anywhere to watch live music and drink microbrews on draft in Grand Marais. “We never had Bud or Miller Lite. We didn’t allow smoking. People said ‘They’ll never make it,'” Gecas remembers. “We’re now in our 19th year.”
Upending convention, the Tavern now offers music 260 nights a year and brews its own beer. With its eclectic menu, craft beer and live music several nights of the week, it has become a North Shore institution and a favorite among locals and tourists alike.
In an outpost like Grand Marais, one might be surprised to find bangers and mash, chicken mole and an Asian noodle bowl under the same roof. Casual fare like burgers and pizzas are available at the Gunflint Tavern too, as are finer dining options such as walleye, steak and mushroom ravioli. (more…)
Not So Cool
On Saturday, July 16, our custom-made Cool Stuff Sale signs were stolen from Woodland Avenue and Oxford Street as our nearby garage sale was ending. We would like them back. They are cool signs and do not belong in the possession of un-cool people.
If you see them, please post the location. Beware of doing business with anyone else who is using them … they are dishonest! Thanks.
Duluthian paints France
Duluth artist Kenneth Marunowski is in France, painting, and sends his regards to friends left behind, like me. (more…)
Kristy Marie – “Bernie Forever”
New video by Duluth’s Kristy Marie, in support of Bernie Sanders for President. Featuring instrumentation by Marc Gartman and Rich Mattson.
Video premiere July 20 at the Red Herring with Useful Jenkins, Devil’s Flying Machine and Adam Faucett.
Union Made in the District of Duluth
Some time around the year 1980, my parents acquired two giant four-drawer cabinets. Several decades went by before it was time to clean out the house and get rid of them. When one of them sold last month I pulled out a drawer and for the first time noticed the cabinets appear to have been built in Duluth. “United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, organized 1881, registered June 30, 1903,” reads the text on the ink stamp. “Union Made” in the “District of Duluth.”
I’m curious if anyone has seen anything like this or has any back story on who might have built them and when.
A Ride Through a Field of Daisies
On the North Shore of Lake Superior near Knife River, Frank Sander rides through a field of daisies with his new bike. Slightly promotional, mostly delightful.
Official Map of the City of Duluth, 1889
From the days when Enger Park was Zenith Park, and Chester Park was Glenwood Park (or is it Lenwood?).
Western Duluth by Air
Duluth aerial footage by Charlie Dinges, featuring Wade Stadium, the ore docks, grungy industrial stuff and pretty trees.
This Week: Bonar, BBQ, baseball and more
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find in this week’s PDD Calendar:
There’s a seminar about voter engagement taking place at the Ordean Building, folks can get a hand in uncovering the roots of their family trees at the Duluth Public Library, veterans can receive assistance with looking for employment at the Minnesota Work Force Center, Haley Bonar comes to town to play the pier at Glensheen, rapper P.O.S. plays a micro show, PAVSA is selling BBQ and cupcakes to support their services and Anthony Bush talks baseball at the Depot.
A contemporary take on the original spoiled rich girl plays at Teatro Zuccone, famed comic Jerry Seinfeld stops at the DECC, The All Pints Eve Hootenanny is transpiring at Bent Paddle Brewing, Dem Atlas and Reflectivore play Pizza Luce, the Lake Superior Classic & Custom Boat Show lands at Barker’s Island, the 2016 All Pints North Summer Brew Fest is at Bayfront Park and the Rolling Thunder Reunion brings together musicians with Bob Dylan ties at Weber Music Hall.
Where in Superior?
Time for another installment of Perfect Duluth Day’s ultra-thrilling photo-trivia sensation. This time the photo was shot somewhere in Superior. Where specifically?
PDD Quiz: Pokémon Duluth Day
[This post originally contained an embedded quiz created on the platform Qzzr. It is no longer available at its source.]
Pokémon Go has invaded everywhere, including Duluth, as anyone who is somewhat conscious can tell you. Our social media feeds have been flooded with familiar people in familiar places with weird creatures. Your job in this quiz: identify the person, place, and Pokémon pictured. Gotta catch ’em all.
Thanks to members of the Pokemon Go: Duluth MN Facebook group for their photo contributions.
The next quiz will be a review of the events of July 2016 and will be published on July 31. Send submissions to lawrence @ perfectduluthday.com by Wednesday, July 27 to get your question in the quiz!
Two Harbors Chalk.a.Lot
Amongst these magnificent works of sidewalk art from the Two Harbors Chalk.a.Lot this weekend is a tribute to Cloud Cult. Visit Sunday if you can. The art will still be awesome. (more…)
Word Jerk
I used to think I could be a writer. It was adorable.
I’m 45. From 20 until almost 40, I harbored delusional aspirations of someday publishing in prominent venues such as Spin, Sports Illustrated, Outside, and the New Yorker. In my 20s I neither enjoyed nor did well in a few full-time print and online journalism jobs. Throughout my 30s I taught writing (which I still do); I also spent a lot of time pitching Minnesota magazine and website pieces and a little time actually getting to write them; I took a short break from teaching in Duluth to see if I could hang with music journalists in Minneapolis (spoiler: nope); I made some stupid decisions I still cringe-blush about (I think I’ve now sent Alan Sparhawk five or six apology emails about a 2005 Minnesota Monthly piece about him I wrote and the magazine’s editors kind of ruined); I got fired from a few freelance jobs and submitted some work that sucked; I did some OK stuff and some pretty good stuff; I realized being able to arrange words well does not make me a writer and even if I ever become what I believe a writer is I’ll never refer to myself as one.
I grew up in a word incubator. Mom reads constantly, Dad taught English then worked as a library director, and they have big, agile vocabularies. They started reading to and conversing with me when I was in the womb. Before I was out of kindergarten, the words and images in The Magic Carousel, Cranberry Christmas and Cranberry Thanksgiving, I Wonder if Herbie’s Home Yet, Diggy Takes his Pick, Never Tease a Weasel, Old Witch and the Polka Dot Ribbon, I Wonder What’s Under, The Ice-Cream Cone Coot and other Rare Birds, and a bunch other Parents’ Magazine Press books, Arch books, Little Golden books, and Dr. Seuss books (especially I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Solew) were forming my lifetime perspective at least as powerfully (and for just as much bad and good) as Sesame Street, Zoom, Captain Kangaroo, and the Electric Company were. (more…)
Pizzaghost – “Someone Died”
Noise rockers Pizzaghost performed in KUMD’s Studio A on June 9, just before the band went on hiatus.
Found pink Next bike in Cloquet
Found a Next Pretty in Pink girls bike by Aspen Arms Assisted Living. It has to be missed by the kid who lost it or had it stolen. If anyone knows of a child in Cloquet who this bike belongs to please spread the word. I moved the bike onto my property and it will be here safe to be claimed.
New 7 West Taphouse on Tower Avenue could open in September
A delay in financing stalled interior design work several months, but owners of the 7 West Taphouse in Superior say they plan to open their burger and beer business in mid-September. (more…)
Selective Focus: Moheb Soliman
This week we stretch the boundaries of Selective Focus — both geographically and conceptually. Moheb Soliman is a poet who will be installing his writing in the form of very official looking signs throughout Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and the four other major Great Lakes national parks at trails, vistas, and beaches as part of the National Park Service centennial celebration. Some of the installations are already done and this month he will be finishing up at Isle Royale National Park. (more…)
Duluth Gate and Wayfinding Master Plan
Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division is in the planning stages of a Gate, Wayfinding and Trail head/Orientation Plan. A public meeting took place in June where the city’s consultants provided five concept designs to be used for park entries, trail heads, information kiosks and historical markers. The city is seeking additional input from the public until July 20 using an online survey, after which a summary of the survey will be provided to the Duluth Parks Commission.
The five concept designs and additional background are online at duluthmn.gov.
Direct link to design options PDF | Direct link to survey tool