Duluth MN Restaurants: News and Information from Perfect Duluth Day

Hacienda del Sol building eyed by Lake Avenue Restaurant group

Oct 25, 2016 3 Comments

The Hacienda del Sol restaurant on East Superior Street closed in 2011. Lake Avenue Restaurant and Bar owners are in the process of buying the property.

Owners of a popular Canal Park restaurant have been working for more than a year to secure the former Hacienda del Sol building in the newly rebranded Downtown Duluth Historic Arts and Theatre Distict.

Lake Avenue Restaurant and Bar owner Mark Swenson said last week his partnership group is working to purchase the long vacant Mexican restaurant at 319 E. Superior St. The group would like to remodel and reopen the building with a kitchen serving Central American inspired cuisine.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Hacienda del Sol, Lake Avenue Restaurant and Bar

Open Tues. Thru Sun. Closed Tue.

Oct 16, 2016 No Comments

Similar to the Green Door Lounge, ay?

Restaurants Mr. Roberts Resort, Penguilly, Weird

Duluth-area happy hour food and drink deals to last the week

Oct 12, 2016 No Comments

After a busy day, it’s tough to muster up the energy to cook a meal. But going out to eat and drink regularly is expensive. The good news? If you plan it right, you can drink and dine at plenty of local places any day of the week for 10 bucks or less. Here’s a daily planner for sampling of some of the best happy hour specials in Duluth and Superior.

Restaurants Black Water Lounge, Black Woods, Burrito Union, Northern Waters, Pizza Luce, The Spirit Room, Wussow's Concert Cafe

Twin Ports Best Kept Dining Secret

Oct 10, 2016 2 Comments

One of the best kept secrets of the Twin Ports is Sclavi’s Italian Restaurant at 1106 Tower Ave. in Superior. I am amazed that more people do not know about it. We live in Minneapolis and it is better Italian food than anything we can think of in the Twin Cities. But as the best things in Suptown are, it is quirky.

Recommendations, Restaurants Sclavi’s Italian Restaurant

New Duluth-area Restaurants: Fall 2016 Update

Sep 26, 2016 No Comments

The opening date of a new eating or drinking establishment is often a moving target. A majority of enterprises planning to launch in the coming months required significant gutting and reconstruction of old buildings, a common recipe for delays. Here’s the scoop on four soon-to-launch food and beverage joints.

7 West Taphouse

Owner Rick Lampton has pushed back the anticipated opening date for Superior’s 7 West Taphouse to Oct. 3. The burger bar at 1319 N. Tower Ave. is modeled after the original Duluth location. It will feature burgers, tacos and 40 rotating taps of craft beer. Click here to read the full-length story from July.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants 7 West Taphouse, Blind Pig, Boreal, Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants, Fitger's Brewhouse, OMC Smokehouse

Out with the Tycoons, in with the Blind Pig

Sep 16, 2016 2 Comments

The Duluth News Tribune reports Tycoons Zenith Alehouse will close Oct. 17 and reopen Oct. 22 as the Blind Pig.

“The Blind Pig is going to be a gastropub and alehouse — higher quality but more casual,” Marissa Saurer told the DNT. She’s the marketing manager for Just Take Action, the company that owns the soon-to-be former Tycoons and future Blind Pig, along with Fitger’s Brewhouse and its Barrel Room, Endion Station and Burrito Union.

The Rathskeller, a second bar on the Michigan Street level of Tycoons, will not be affected by the change.

Duluth News Tribune: Blind Pig to replace Tycoons Alehouse

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Tycoons Alehouse

Small Business

Sep 03, 2016 No Comments

Scrolling through files on my computer at work, I can pretty much trace the progression of the business through spreadsheets, price labels and photographs (candid and professional) of events, company parties, and breaks in the action behind the counter. Families have grown, ex-staffers have gone to rehab, become police officers, found god, and earned master’s degrees, prices have more than quintupled, and previously experimental recipes have been honed into lexicon. When I say “progression,” I mean pile: an amorphous mass of guesswork, troubleshooting and triage that has taken shape and could be temporarily (like for the purposes of this essay) deemed linear.

I work for Northern Waters Smokehaus, a small business gone large. The retail side of the enterprise started out 15 years ago with the idea that we were going to offer a small, specialized service (smoked fish and imported cheese) to a specialized audience (those with the monetary means coupled with the proper palettes). We had five employees counting the owner himself, who took care of pretty much everything besides front-line sales (though he did that as well from time to time, and was utterly expert at it — I think a dozen bored housewives fell in love with him that first year we were open, charmed irresistibly by his earnest and passionate obsession for good food).

Art, Restaurants Northern Waters Smokehaus, Saturday Essay

Perfect Drinking Establishment: Sir Benedict’s Tavern

Aug 29, 2016 No Comments

Area boozers and barflies have reached a general consensus: Sir Benedict’s Tavern on the Lake is the perfect Duluth drinking establishment. The English-themed pub located at 805 E. Superior St. netted 34.5 percent of the vote in Perfect Duluth Day’s poll.

Sir Ben’s is a bit of an institution. It opened as a pub in 1978 (before that the building was a service station) with a focus on sandwiches and beer. The favored watering hole has long attracted a range of fans, from college students to musicians and business people.

Owners Josh and Kaila Stotts took over the tavern in April 2015. Josh was surprised to learn about the PDD poll. When asked what patrons appreciate about the bar, he said. “We try to offer a welcoming ambiance — a place where people can relax and feel really comfortable.”

Josh Stotts

Restaurants Bars / Drinking Establishments, Beer and Breweries, PDD Awards

Is Bottoms Up the beer pouring device of the future?

Aug 28, 2016 No Comments

Mike Mohr in front of one of his Bottoms Up beer dispensers

Gronk’s Bar and Grill in Superior has long been known for serving burgers upside down. In February, the bar was the first in the area to install a remarkable tap-beer delivery system that fills glasses from the bottom up. Since then another Superior drinking establishment, Jack’s Place, has also added a Bottoms Up system in its beer garden.

Gronk’s owner Mike Mohr first saw the Bottoms Up system at the Wisconsin State Fair. He was impressed with its technology and speed. Later, when his daughter was advocating for more craft beer taps at Gronk’s, he thought the novelty might be a good way to draw beer fans in.

Restaurants Bars / Drinking Establishments, Beer and Breweries, Gronk's, Superior

Cast Iron Bar and Grill fills Le Grand Supper Club void

Aug 15, 2016 No Comments

Duluthians don’t typically venture north of Hermantown to eat dinner, but now there’s a reason for the ride. The Cast Iron Bar and Grill opened three months ago in the old Le Grand Supper Club space in the Pike Lake area.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Cast Iron Bar and Grill

Morgan Park’s only coffee shop and eatery turns two

Jul 28, 2016 1 Comment

Felisha Johnson and her father-in-law, Paul Johnson

When Morgan Park School closed in 2012, the neighborhood seemed to be in decline. Two prominent businesses, Advantage Emblem and Park State Bank, had already moved out. The grocery store and post office were long gone. Nothing new seemed on the horizon.

Paul Johnson and his son Brandon, owners of the Lakeview Store Building, felt the area needed a gathering place. In 2014 they opened Iron Mug Coffee House in the building’s southern end at 1096 88th Ave W. July marks the two-year anniversary of Iron Mug’s opening, while the historic building that served as one of the first indoor shopping malls in the United States recently celebrated its 100-year anniversary.

Restaurants Coffee Shops, Iron Mug Coffee House, Morgan Park

Perfect North Shore Restaurant: Gunflint Tavern

Jul 20, 2016 No Comments

PDD-North-Shore-Restaurant-AwardLogo 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.

Polls, Restaurants Gunflint Tavern, North Shore of Lake Superior, PDD Awards

New 7 West Taphouse on Tower Avenue could open in September

Jul 15, 2016 1 Comment

7WestSuperior

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.

Restaurants 7 West Taphouse, Bars / Drinking Establishments, Beer and Breweries, Superior

Poll: Best Restaurant on the North Shore

Jul 11, 2016 No Comments

Last week we compiled a list of nominees for the best restaurant on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The specific territory: Knife River to Grand Portage — basically anything in Lake or Cook counties was eligible for nomination.

Obviously several Duluth-area restaurants are technically “on the North Shore” — in particular the winner of PDD’s Perfect Restaurant Poll: New Scenic Café. For this poll we’re looking at places that are, at the very least, a serious bike ride from the Zenith City.

What’s the Perfect North Shore Restaurant? Vote now and have a say. Keep in mind that this is a runoff poll, so as time goes by the number of options will reduce. If the restaurant you initially voted for is eliminated, you may vote again among the remaining options.

We started with 27 nominees, then whittled it down to the Final Four: Angry Trout Café, the Crooked Spoon, Gunflint Tavern and Vanilla Bean.

This poll is now closed. The results were:

Gunflint Tavern – 35 percent
Angry Trout – 26 percent
Crooked Spoon – 22 percent
Vanilla Bean – 17 percent

Polls, Restaurants North Shore of Lake Superior

Nominees for Perfect North Shore Restaurant Poll

Jul 07, 2016 13 Comments

Warm weather and wanderlust have Duluthians dreaming of a North Shore vacation. In this spirit, we’ve decided to conduct a poll to determine the best place to eat up the shore.

Before voting, we have to establish a list of nominees. What are the criteria for determining a North Shore Restaurant? After some debate, we’ve decided to include eateries on the shore located in Lake and Cook counties, from Knife River in the south to Grand Portage in the north.

While it might seem counterintuitive to some, this means the New Scenic Café is not included in the poll, since it is located in Duluth Township. It’s abundantly clear the Scenic is a favored restaurant; the café won PDD’s Perfect Restaurant Poll and has drawn accolades from foodies farther afield. For the purposes of this poll, we’re looking for restaurants that require a little more of an excursion from Duluth.

What’s the perfect North Shore restaurant (besides the New Scenic Café)? You tell us. We’ll round up the nominees and produce a poll in the coming days.