With the seemingly 100 percent positive press that the Duluth Grill gets, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned their high prices. I went there with my family last week. Three of us ordered Diet Pepsis. We got three cans of Diet Pepsi and three cups. No refills. Price per can--$2.50!

One of my kids ordered a Sliders Kid's Meal. He got a small bowl of fruit and two really tiny hamburgers for $8. Fries not included! And drink not included! Whoever heard of a kid's meal that didn't include fries and a drink? Is that even a meal? How can you charge $8 for it and still keep your self-respect?

I normally spend $50-60 on a family restaurant tab. At the Duluth Grill it was $80, and we were still hungry.

Parking lot vegetables are cute, but I'm a frugal West Ender. I can't afford them. The giant framed poster of Guy Fieri in the entryway irritates me, too. So do all the tables jammed in the place. You're constantly bumping into strangers' chairs when you try to walk anywhere.

All right, that's all. Thank you.

And, not to nitpick, but the table and wall behind us were sticky.

If I made two identical dishes, one using mass-produced, industrial food and one using locally-grown, organic food, I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference, taste-wise. But no matter. If people want to go to the Duluth Grill, that's fine with me. I just wanted to point out an obvious fact about the place--their high prices--that never seems to get mentioned.

On the plus side, just think how much sales tax and tourism tax the Duluth Grill generates. My $80 tab had $8 tacked onto it for the DECC, Spirit Mountain, the Aquarium, and the city's general fund, among other things. You can't beat that!

Excuse me, Paul. Here are the tourism taxes in effect today, along with the year they were enacted.

3% hotel-motel tax (1969): funds Visit Duluth and DECC operations.

1% hotel-motel tax (1977): funds "recreational, cultural, or civic projects."

1% food and beverage tax (enacted in 1977, permanently extended in 1991): funds "activities...which promote tourism in the City of Duluth.

1% hotel-motel tax (1980): funds "tourist-related public improvements."

1% hotel-motel tax (1990): funds "tourist-related public improvements."

0.75% food and beverage tax (2008): funds DECC expansion.

Under consideration today (and guaranteed to pass by a cheering city council) are an additional 0.5% hotel-motel tax and an additional 0.5% food and beverage tax, which are intended to fund projects at Spirit Mountain, Wade Stadium, the zoo and still-unspecific river and parks projects in West Duluth.

Citations available upon request.

I don't get it. They're all special food and beverage or visitor-lodging taxes. There's never been one tax that affected all three things at once. When we talk about the tourism taxes, these are what we're talking about. 

The half-and-half taxes under consideration today did "expire" in 2012. Five years ago, I predicted that city leaders would never allow them to expire, so I was wrong there. They expired for a year and a half. Now they're back.

Well, there are lines of people wrong about lots of things in this town, so you're in good company.