RJ’s Coffee Den in West Duluth

RJ's Coffee Den

RJ’s Coffee Den reopened at a new location, 330 N. 57th Ave. W., just shy of a month ago. The Den was formerly located in Proctor, and closed in October 2011. The new owner, Renea Johnson, has hopes to keep the business alive having remodeled the former Erbert & Gerbert’s sandwich shop next to the Kom-on-Inn Bar.
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RestaurantsCoffee ShopsWest Duluth

Video Archive: David Lee Roth 1987 Duluth Concert Promo

There’s already a post on PDD about the two Van Halen shows in Duluth, so here’s some love for ol’ Diamond Dave … or as the TV spot says “Dynamite.”

HistoryMusicVideosVideo Archive
Dubh Linn Irish Pub: Pro Comedy Tour
Bayfront Reggae and World Music Festival

Mr. Nice in: We Have to Roll Together

NSFW weekly episode. Mr. Nice gives back to the community.

PoliticsVideosMr. NiceWeird

How are you liking the Lakewalk extension?

It’s not a long extension, but it’s a vital one, connecting Lakeside to Brighton Beach. It officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony today at noon at the 61st Avenue East and bridge section.

News and Current Affairs
Downtown Duluth: Movies in the Park
Pizza Luce: The Bulgogi

Here is a Duluth group doing jujutsu and judo since the 1980s

VideosWeird

Grant Dollars Available

The Duluth Legacy Endowment Fund has thousands of dollars to give away this year. Last year, there were more dollars than requests. If you’re part of a group or know of a project that meets the criteria below, please click the link above for details. Application deadline is Oct. 1.

We fund volunteer and civic organizations working with the city of Duluth.  Grants are awarded to projects in areas of:

  • Arts & Culture
  • Beautification
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Human Service
  • Parks & Recreation
ArtDLEFGrant applicationGrants
Bayfront Reggae and World Music Festival
Weis Eye Center

Looking for our next great project!

My fiancé and I just moved to town, and we’d love to get connected with a community of folks working to do good things.  Helping people breath life into their dreams is what we do, and we’ve got a whole arsenal of skills at your disposal.  We just finished starting a distillery up in Leadville, Colorado, and we’re looking for our next project!
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Random

Arts Funds in and to Duluth: Minnesota State Arts Board I

The Minnesota State Arts Board has released the names of the funded programs for 2013. Over the next few days, I’ll post the programs which name Duluth as a site or location. Most of this funding comes from the Legacy Amendment, the sales tax that supports environment, arts and cultural heritage activities.
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Art
FDLTCC: Hot Summer Nights with Corey Medina
Downtown Duluth: Movies in the Park

Shorty’s Pizza & Smoked Meat

A new restaurant on Tower Avenue in Superior has been generating some new energy along a strip that is struggling through major road reconstruction.
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RestaurantsShorty's Pizza & Smoked Meats

Labyrinthine boulder field

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNMRi-qlNhk

So much fun to swim here. Go to Perkins on London Road, cut down to lake, go 50 yards to the right.

OutdoorsRecommendationsVideos
Fond-du-:Luth Casino: Thursday
Weis Eye Center

Perfect New Restaurant: Pak’s Green Corner

West Duluth had never seen the likes of schnitzel or poutine, much less a pad thai burrito, until Pak Williams converted the former China Station restaurant into Pak’s Green Corner in summer 2012. The friendly and funky little Asian-fusion joint — located across the avenue from a long-shuttered auto lube — was the clear-cut winner of Perfect Duluth Day’s Best New Restaurant poll.

paks-green-corner-new-restaurant

Above: Pak Williams with the fancy Perfect New Restaurant plaque, flanked by cook Hieng Wilaiphan (left) and waitress Vicki Boynton (right).

Pak’s got off to a rocky start following its opening day, when word of the new restaurant leaked out and a positive recommendation on PDD led to a full-house showing up for lunch on day two. With one server out sick and no one around with a strong command of how the cash register or credit-card machine worked, it was a rough day to say the least.

Now, with a full year of working out the kinks behind it, Pak’s Green Corner can claim the title of Duluth’s Perfect New Restaurant, having captured 51.9 percent of the vote. Honorable mentions go out to Tycoons Alehouse and Eatery (second place, 32.5 percent) and 7 West Tap House (third place, 15.6 percent).

PDD Awards Index

PollsRestaurantsPak's Green CornerPDD Awards

Cult Trailer – A Feature Film Shot in Duluth

[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]

Over the summer, I shot my first feature-length film. I made sure to feature some shots of the city in the trailer. I hope you enjoy it!

Videos
Ashwabay Alliance / Big Top Chautauqua
Vision Pro: Clear Vision

Decades before GTFO skateboarders …

The Ramp Riders vs. The Thrashers.

HistorySkateboardingTwo Harbors

Venus DeMars and Lynette Reini-Grendall at Prøve Gallery

https://youtu.be/293BGty9tK8

On Saturday evening at the Prøve Gallery, Duluth was treated to a special acoustic performance by Duluth native Venus DeMars along with wife Lynette Reini-Grandell, who read from her poetry as part of the Duluth-Superior Pride Festival.

ArtMusic
Pier B Resort: Courtside Concerts

A not-so-perfect Duluth day in 1869

Because it’s fun to write about crime if it’s more than a hundred years old, I submit for your reading pleasure an article on Duluth’s first murder.

Writing it made me think of this a lot:

Gangs of New York

HistoryHomicide

Lost Childs Merrell Shoe on Lakewalk

I lost one childs Merrell shoe on Saturday when walking on the Lakewalk. It is about a size 3 and is blue and orange with a Velcro strap. I would really like to get this shoe back, please let me know if you happen to have picked it up or have seen it. Thanks!

Lost and Found
FDLTCC: Hot Summer Nights with Corey Medina
Barrel Room Smokehouse

This week: farewell lifeguards and hello football

  

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

Happy Labor Day! Celebrate work by taking a day off of work. Today may be the unofficial end of summer, but it’s the official end of beach house season. No more lifeguards on duty on Park Point until next year.

Buzzed Up Spelling Bee is a new Tuesday night event at Red Star hosted by a variety of local celebs, because watching drunk people spell is funny.

Two new shows open on Thursday. Collected Stories, a two woman show starring Julie Ahasay and Sarah Ruth Diener, is at The UndergroundThom Pain (Based on Nothing), a one man show featuring John Pokrzywinski, is at the Teatro Zuccone and runs through Sunday

Friday marks the beginning of high school football with the Denfeld Hunters taking on the Chisago Lakes Wildcats at the Public Schools Stadium and the East Greyhounds hosting the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets at Ordean Stadium.

The Lake Superior Harvest Festival is a celebration of locally produced food. It’s at Bayfront this Saturday.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Events

Aquaman Saves the City

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-1vPhSfJJo

I saw broken bottles underwater at a popular Lake Superior swimming spot in Duluth. A few days later I was able to return and used my powers for good to clean up after the bad guys. You can either wade in at the shallow end of this spot, or rock-jump in at the deep end, either way there was broken glass within reach of innocent bare feet. It was the remains of at least five separate beer bottles, probably from one douchebag at a party of cowards.

I spent about three hours collecting all the glass I could in dives lasting 30-45 seconds each with rests to catch my breath in between. I couldn’t get it all, there were many shards too small to pick up, but they will wash away most easily into the deep. All of it would have turned into smooth beach glass sooner or later, or been sucked out to sea by the next storm, but in the meantime this mess sat there for several days and could have easily lacerated someone. I was very careful picking it up, but obviously it was a little risky and the wave action was moving me around quite a bit (good thing my Atlantean physiology is adapted to the pressure at great depths, so my skin can even resist machine gun fire).

Be warned: I protect this lake, and those who come here. If I catch anyone breaking glass at the beach I will not hesitate to call the police. Either that or I will telepathically summon a giant catfish to eat you.

Local news spot here.

OutdoorsVideosBitching
Pier B Resort: Courtside Concerts
Ashwabay Alliance / Big Top Chautauqua

Mr. Nice in: Real Good Deal

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1AYOgFEoWs

NSFW weekly episode.

VideosWeird

Pigeons, Poisons and Wildwoods

Wildwoods received what we believe to be a poisoned pigeon (this post is a downer; read at your own risk).  From the staff at Wildwoods:
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Random
Fond-du-:Luth Casino: Thursday
Glensheen

Amy & Freddy

Amy & Freddy performed at the Duluth-Superior GLBTAQI Pride Festival Saturday, and they were hilarious. An Ethel Merman-style showtunes lounge act interrupted with crowd observations and gags – and once Amy engaged with the ASL interpreter on stage, the vaudeville was on:

“Wait a minute – you sign whatever I say??”
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Random

City’s 58th Street Diner in South Superior

City’s 58th Street Diner is bringing the 1950s back to South Superior. With its classic malt-shop feel and reasonable prices, it’s like taking a step back in time. (more…)

RestaurantsSuperior
Dubh Linn Irish Pub: Pro Comedy Tour

Rooms for Northshore Inline Marathon Weekend

There are still about a dozen hotel rooms available on Canal Park for the weekend of the NorthShore Inline Marathon, Sept. 13-14, so call soon.

Inn on Lake Superior
Comfort Suites
Canal Park Lodge
Suites Hotel

Still plenty of time to register for all the events.

EventsInline Skating / Roller Skating / Wheeled Sneakers

The new lower-level of the Duluth Flame Nightclub is now open

What happens on the white couch, stains on the white couch.

Recommendations
Weis Eye Center
Ashwabay Alliance / Big Top Chautauqua

Electrician Recommendation?

At the risk of incurring Herzog’s ire regarding boring posts (as recently and memorably recorded in ‘The Current’ recent posting), can anyone recommend a good electrician, or steer me away from a bad one?

P.S. Herzog, I will try harder next time to not be boring, I promise. I just don’t want my house to burn down with faulty wiring, etc.

Recommendations