Late in 1960, University of Minnesota Duluth student Bert Frink opened a beatnik coffee shop in Duluth called Bert’s Bit. It didn’t last long.
The location was 421 W. Superior St., where the Maurices headquarters is today. The shop opened on Dec. 2 and was closed by Dec. 8 “pending a decision from the State Liquor Control Commissioner on whether coffee flavored with rum and brandy extracts violate state liquor laws,” according to an article in the Duluth Herald newspaper.
The historical trail runs cold there, with no evidence the shop ever reopened.
