Duluth MN Restaurants: News and Information from Perfect Duluth Day

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Restaurants Posts

Sunshine Cafe gets new life as training space for entrepreneurs

Apr 15, 2025 No Comments

Family Rise Together Executive Director ChaQuana McEntyre stands outside the Sunshine Cafe, 5719 Grand Ave. The social service organization purchased the diner and will remodel it to serve as a food-service industry small-business incubator. (Photo by Lissa Maki)

A shuttered building that once housed a landmark West Duluth cafe won’t reopen with breakfast specials and counter seating but new owners will use the space for a program to train ambitious food entrepreneurs and deliver meals.

St. Louis County records show the former Sunshine Cafe, 5719 Grand Ave., was purchased in December by the Duluth social service organization Family Rise Together for $230,000. The nonprofit started renovations on the historic building this winter and has launched a fundraising campaign to install a state-of-the-art, commercial-grade kitchen inside the space.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants West Duluth

PDD Geoguessr becomes Duluth Deep Dive (with a Geoguessr)

Feb 02, 2025 No Comments

PDD Geoguessr is getting a rebranding for 2025. Last year’s analytics showed that a lot more people were reading the context around the games than playing the games themselves. In recognition of this, the new monthly format will put more focus on the topic rather than just providing a link for the game. To keep the posts connected to cultural geography — and to show some appreciation to the dedicated PDD Geoguessr players — the posts will still conclude with a Geoguessr challenge. This announcement marks the transition with a Geoguessr challenge that fits the old format better than the new one.

Restaurants Geoguessr Challenges

Postcards from Shorewood Terrace

Dec 30, 2024 6 Comments

Sherwood Terrace operated as a seasonal restaurant during the middle of the 20th century. Arthur and Ada Neeb were the proprietors. The location was either “on London Road” or “near Knife River,” depending on which old newspaper article is referenced.

History, Restaurants Gallagher's Studio of Photography, Postcards

New restaurants brought a fresh wave of flavors in 2024

Dec 23, 2024 No Comments

Colorful dish from Falastin

The Pali Platter from Falastin

If 2024 has a Twin Ports restaurant trend, it’s cultural cuisine. Two of the restaurants most anticipated by area foodies, Alto Pino and Falastin, brought unparalleled culinary options to Duluth this year.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants

Black Water Lounge, Chalet among 2024 restaurant closures

Dec 23, 2024 1 Comment

The Black Water Lounge featured live music in a classy atmosphere. The restaurant closed in July after a 15-year run in Greysolon Plaza. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)

Downtown Duluth suffered blows to its dining scene over the past year with two restaurants leaving prominent, historic buildings while Hermantown will lose a landmark establishment at the end of the month.

News and Current Affairs, R.I.P., Restaurants

El Jefe Bar & Grill brings back flavors of Bucktales

Oct 22, 2024 No Comments

Dee Morales is back in the restaurant business. He opened El Jefe Bar & Grill in early October.

There’s a familiar face in the kitchen of a new eatery in the Town of Superior. Dee Morales quietly opened El Jefe Bar & Grill in early October after closing Bucktales Cantina & Grill in the city of Superior, 12 miles north. El Jefe operates out of the same building that served as the original Bucktales.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Town of Superior

Duluth Grill expands into West Duluth with new chicken eatery

Oct 21, 2024 2 Comments

Mural artists Kevin Ballecer, left, and Mela Nguyen are painting the exterior of Chicken n’ Whaaat?! on Central Avenue in West Duluth. The pair also painted murals for Burger Paradox on Superior Street. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).

A family-owned restaurant group that helped revitalize Lincoln Park will expand outside the neighborhood for the first time with a new fast-casual chicken eatery attached to a West Duluth gas station.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants, West Duluth

Ichiro Sushi & Ramen wows guests on Miller Hill

Sep 24, 2024 No Comments

plates of food line shelves of a black robot server with cat ears

Bella, the robot server at Ichiro Sushi & Ramen, glides through the Duluth restaurant. (Photos by Melinda Lavine)

A cat-eared robot buzzed around Ichiro Sushi & Ramen. “Bella” sported white digital whiskers up top, and in its fur-less belly sat plates of fried rice and sushi.

After a series of silent maneuvers, Bella stopped at a table of two, where Cody Tesser served fellow humans their orders from the robot’s racks.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Asian Food, Miller Hill

Duluth lands new food truck with Bowlz n’ Thangz

Jul 23, 2024 No Comments

Rachel Nielsen of Duluth gets served a mac bowl and Southwest eggrolls from Bowlz n’ Thangz food truck owner Sarah Hovis. (Photos by Melinda Lavine)

Bowlz n’ Thangz’s black food truck sat outside Wild State Cider in the Lincoln Park Craft District. Every seat in the cidery’s patio and tap room were filled with trivia players and spectators, sipping and snacking.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Food Trucks

Wisconsin dairy set to open specialty cheese shop at RiverWest

Jun 21, 2024 No Comments

New Duluth store manager Jessy Peterson, left, and Vice President of Retail Operations Jamie Swan stand in front of the cheese cases at the Burnett Dairy Cooperative store in Alpha, Wisconsin. The new Duluth store will feature a similar layout. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)

Duluth cheese lovers will have an extraordinary place to shop for their provolone, cheddar and curds next month when an award-winning Wisconsin dairy opens a large specialty store in a newly developed section of the Riverside neighborhood below Spirit Mountain.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Riverside

A & Dubs won’t open in summer 2024

Apr 08, 2024 No Comments

A & Dubs owners Syl and Sandy Hantz posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page that they will not reopen their drive-in Lincoln Park burger joint this summer. It was founded as an A & W in 1948 and parted with the chain to become A & Dubs in 1973.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Lincoln Park Neighborhood / The Friendly West End

Ritual Salad planning mid-March opening

Mar 06, 2024 No Comments

Cori Zastera, left, and her husband Jason, stand in front of the Ritual Salad location at 1802 W. Superior St. in Lincoln Park last summer before a remodel of the building began. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske).

New Lincoln Park restaurant Ritual Salad is slated to open to the public March 17. It will serve salads and soups, and feature a gift shop with crystals, books, jewelry and more.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Lincoln Park Craft District

Falastin will take over former New London Café

Jan 31, 2024 1 Comment

Fox 21 reports a Palestinian café and market will replace the New London Café at 4721 E. Superior St. in Duluth’s Lakeside neighborhood.

Lyla Abukhodair and her mother Ann have operated a Palentinian pop-up restaurant called Falastin for more than a year. They plan to open their brick-and-mortar location later this year.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Lakeside

Trifecta of restaurants opened in Duluth’s Lincoln Park in 2023

Dec 22, 2023 No Comments

Dan Lefebvre standing in the colorful bar setting at Burger Paradox

Dan Lefebvre at Burger Paradox

Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood has burgeoned with new businesses of late. Three new restaurants opened there in 2023, including Bali Asian Cuisine, Burger Paradox and Oasis del Norte. A fourth, Ritual Salad, is slated to open in early 2024.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants Bali Asian Cuisine, Burger Paradox, Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants, Lincoln Park Craft District, Oasis del Norte

Sunshine Café leads the list of 2023 restaurant casualties

Dec 22, 2023 1 Comment

The Sunshine Café in West Duluth closed at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020. Owners announced this year it will not reopen. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

One of Duluth’s most significant restaurant closures of 2023 technically happened in 2020. The Sunshine Café closed more than three years ago as COVID-19 swept the country. What was considered a temporary closure at the time was finally announced as permanent in September 2023.

The Twin Ports restaurant scene has stabilized and grown as the pandemic has wound down, but the closure of the beloved diner at 5719 Grand Ave. in West Duluth can be seen as evidence the coronavirus fallout lingers. The Sunshine Café had been a neighborhood gathering place for more than three decades.

News and Current Affairs, Restaurants R.I.P.