Credit card found in Chester Park
Found a credit card in the parking lot at Chester Park on October 4. If it’s yours, post a comment here to contact me (your return email is sent to me automatically when you comment).
Perfect Restaurant: New Scenic Café
You have to leave Duluth to get to its best restaurant. The New Scenic Café is located about three miles beyond the city’s northeastern border, in Duluth Township — roughly a 20-minute drive from the center of the Zenith City. It’s a drive Duluthians and tourists alike have been happy to take repeatedly during the 14 years since chef Scott Graden and his aunt Rita Bergstedt opened their contemporary American restaurant.
Above: New Scenic Owner Scott Graden
The location on the scenic North Shore Drive is a big part of the allure, but what’s so new about this 14-year-old café? The menu, that’s what. It’s always new, changing with the seasons. Today one might try the seared duck breast or ratatouille lasagna, while six months ago the lamb meatloaf was the temptation of the moment.
Sure, it’s the kind of place ham-and-eggers will make fun of, scoffing at the prices and snickering at the notion of an “heirloom” tomato, but it’s hard to be the best restaurant in the area without a hint of snootiness. At least it’s a North Shore brand of foodie snootiness, where your flannel shirt and/or socks with sandals will fit in just fine.
Props must go out to the runners up in this poll, because the voting was close. New Scenic edged out Zeitgeist Arts Café by two percentage points, and Zeitgeist edged out Duluth Grill by three percentage points. A bit behind the top three, but still pulling nearly 15 percent of the vote, was Lake Avenue Restaurant & Bar.
Duluth Demon
Just in time for Halloween the Duluth Demon emerges and has been seen lurking around UMD. It seems he was last seen terrorizing people in Bagley Park and has not broken character yet. An article from the UMD Statesman explains his presence. The demon can also be found on Facebook.
Jerry Polinsky tries his luck in Atlantic City
Related to Minnesota Woolen Mills posts on Perfect Duluth Day is this December 1978 Corporate Report article.
Jerry Polinsky Tries His Luck in Atlantic City
Considered ‘insolvent’ in Duluth, the former Minnesota Woolens executive is laying heavy bets along the Boardwalk …
By Charles I. Mundale
In early summer 1977, a new hotel corporation was formed in Atlantic City, N.J.
In late summer 1977, an old retailing company bellied up in Duluth, Minn. (more…)
Outside Duluth
PDD local hero Brian Barber designed the cover of my new book. I think he did a good job. It makes me look like I know what I’m doing. You can buy a copy of Outside Duluth online via most major book retailers at my webpage.
Best Twin Ports Dining Deal Rooms
Can the PDD faithful help me find some private dining “deal room” options in the Twin Ports?
I’m tapped out on my short list of places to broker deals with customers and vendors. I often need to have a quiet area for two to six people to conduct business over a working lunch.
Some deals are very casual and low key, some not as much. Some are software demos and require a screen and projector — these are not very high-brow affairs, so …
Serve me up some critiques on food, atmosphere, memorable experience and privacy please.
Fashion Wagon – Minnesota Woolen
A vintage flannel caught my eye this afternoon while taking a break from work and strolling into the Wise Buys thrift store in Bellingham, Wash. I was shocked to see “Duluth, Minnesota” on the tag. Does anyone know where this was located? I have never heard of it before.
A quick Google search shows the trademark was registered around 1960 and expired in 1987.
My arms are still itching from trying the shirt on.
A Case of Kid Cussedness from 1901
A Letter to the Editor at the Duluth News-Tribune on November 11, 1901:
I would respectively [sic] call the attention of the chief of police to an example of “Hoodlumism” on a street car in your city as I have never witnessed anywhere.
Surely the “kids” are under the surveillance of the police authorities, if the bums cannot be controlled.
Business relative to a burned building called me to Duluth Heights. When I returned to the city, just getting dark, half a dozen passengers came on the car; while passing a store, seven “kids” climbed aboard, and clear down to the incline gave such a specimen of cussedness that would never be tolerated on the Bowery.
Wrestling, scrapping, kicking and yelling, annoying all the passengers, even to insulting two women passengers by throwing one another’s dirty cans into the faces of the women!
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Seven Great Minnesota Fall Color Drives
Bob Berg wrote a great article in Lake Superior Magazine about “7 Great Fall Drives” to check out the changing colors. Let’s add to the list. What are some of your favorite Minnesota fall color drives in Duluth and along the South and North shores of Lake Superior? You can see the current fall color reports here.
I’ll start with the Temperance River road. The over-hanging canopy acts as a colorful tunnel as you make your way from Highway 61 north. You migth as well hit the Trestle Inn for a beer while your up in that area.
Perfect Duluth Soda?
So, I make Fizzy Waters a regular stop while I am in Canal Park, but it’s not the only place I get tasty sodas. (more…)
Duluth Playhouse Centennial Season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7G8i6dVbxs
The Duluth Playhouse is celebrating its 100th season in 2013-’14.
Closing Graffiti Graveyard?
The Minnesota Dept. of Transportation is posting no trespassing signs up at the entrance of graffiti graveyard.
The Nonchalant Jaunt and other 2003 stuff
The Perfect Duluth Day Archives for September 2003 feature a number of posts about the Nonchalant Jaunt, an event in which seven hearty PDDers walked the length of Duluth, from the Wabegon Supper Club in the Superior Township to the Lakeview Castle in the Duluth Township.
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Where in Duluth?
This is probably a gimmie this time of year, but it was so gorgeous I wanted to share it.
A “Noteworthy” call for poetry submissions
The Duluth Poet Laureate Committee is seeking submissions of poetry for a collaborative project entitled Noteworthy. Twelve area composers/songwriters will each select a poem to serve as the inspiration for an original piece of music. There will be a performance of the readings and the music in May 2014.
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This week: north shore artists, south shore apples
Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.
Crossing Borders is a tour of North Shore artist’s studios that runs through Sunday. Print off a map and go visit local artists in their studios. You can also wander the South Shore by heading over to the 52nd annual Bayfield Apple Festival Friday through Sunday.
Lyric Opera of the North (LOON) presents two “bite-sized” operas at the Underground. The Face on the Barroom Floor and Bon Appetit! run Thursday through Saturday.
Chefs compete. You win. At the Lake Superior Fish Classic 10 chefs from Wisconsin and Minnesota are cooking up fish in a judged competition at the Depot on Friday.
Bradtober Fest on Saturday celebrates running, music, beer… it’s like a fest with attention deficit disorder. And if you wander downstairs from the Bradtober Fest Afterparty at Tycoons, you can have a bawdy time in the Rathskeller with Duluth’s only burlesque troupe, the Duluth Dolls.
So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.
Three reminders of Duluth along the Delmar Loop in Missouri
Playing at the Tivoli Theatre: In a World…, based on Duluth native Don LaFontaine.
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Shoddy construction
Before I begin my condemnation of BlueStone Lofts and the Park Point Marina Inn, I just want to preface my position with this. I don’t mean to vilify anyone personally. I do not begrudge anyone for trying his level best to make an honest living. I just feel there has to be a voice of reason where there is none and that happens to be me on this occasion.
I’m far from perfect and I’m not a know-it-all. I simply hate this throw-away practice of our modern, disposable society. And for some reason, I still want the very best for Duluth even though I haven’t lived there for decades.
There are some good people there doing great things. In architecture and house building, it’s David Salmela and the Bruckelmyers. Builders’ Commonwealth is up with the best, too.
It is the armchair urban planner, the aesthete, the eco-warrior, the idealist and the public advocate that is writing this. That said, here is my tirade.
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Lake Superior Aquaman Highlight Reel
Summer 2013 at various Lake Superior beaches and Lester River swimming holes.
Here’s a link to all the original videos if you missed any.
Traps, again
Via Wildwoods Founders:
Yesterday evening, friends called about a red squirrel caught in a leghold trap set on the edge of a city park. We don’t know how long the squirrel had been trapped there. See the brown discoloration on the fur by his mouth? He’d been trying to chew his way out of the trap.
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Bonding Bill
Best Duluth Restaurant Poll
In a previous poll, PDD readers made it clear there are four restaurants in the Duluth area worthy of consideration for the distinction of “Best Restaurant.” They are: Duluth Grill, Lake Avenue Restaurant and Bar, New Scenic Café and Zeitgeist Arts Café. So now it’s time to pick a winner.
[poll id=”45″]
This poll is now closed. The results were:
New Scenic Café — 30.7 percent
Zeitgeist Arts Café — 28.7 percent
Duluth Grill — 25.7 percent
Lake Avenue Restaurant — 14.9 percent