City Girl Coffee in Forbes
Duluth’s City Girl Coffee was featured yesterday in the online version of nationally circulated business magazine Forbes. In the Q-and-A article, City Girl founder Alyza Bohbot shares how her coffee business aims to source from women-owned and managed farms while working to raise consumer awareness of gender inequality in the world’s coffee-producing communities. She also details how she approaches the challenges of small business ownership and explains why social missions should be more than just a marketing tool.
Article link: Small Company, Mighty Mission
Poll: Best New Restaurant in Duluth Area
It’s time for the 2017 edition of Perfect Duluth Day’s “Perfect New Restaurant” poll. In 2016, Northern Waters Restaurant won by a landslide. Since then, a variety of new eating establishments have emerged. Which one is perfect? That will be determined by the good ol’ democratic process. Now is the chance to give your stomach a voice, whether your tastes are frugal or fancy.
It’s a runoff ballot, so if your favorite drops out of the running you can vote again from the remaining pool of contenders. At this stage in the voting, it’s down to the final two: Boat Club Restaurant and Bar and OMC Smokehouse.
[poll id=”91″]
This poll is now closed. The results were:
OMC Smokehouse: 82 percent
Boat Club Restaurant and Bar: 18 percent
PDD Quiz: Breakfast Diners of the Twin Ports
Inspired by a now six-year-old PDD post, we’re serving up a heaping platter of breakfast diner trivia. How well do you know your Twin Ports breakfast diners? Can you identify them using only a photograph of the counter and a unique menu item? Dig in and find out!
Our next quiz, reviewing July happenings, will be published on July 30. E-mail question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by July 27.
I Wonder
Long it’s been known the galaxy is a big place, but until 1922 it was thought the Milky Way was all there was. Then Edwin Hubble climbed Mount Wilson and had a look-see through the Hooker Telescope and realized those cloudy objects in the sky called “nebulae” were actually galaxies unto themselves. Later, a telescope named for Edwin himself beamed back the Deep Field images of a polkadot infinity. Ten thousand galaxies in a patch of sky one tenth the size of a full moon. Why weren’t people jumping up and down when we went from a hundred billion stars (no paltry sum) to a hundred billion visible galaxies, as far as the Hubble can see? From a distance you could mistake the Deep Field photos for a sky full of stars, but squint and see galaxy after galaxy shimmering in the void. When I notice one swirling down the drain of time, just like ours, I think, “hey — spiral galaxy — my people!”
Aldous Huxley considered the brain and nervous system a necessary reducing valve providing a “measly trickle of consciousness” shunted from “Mind at Large.” Necessary because you can’t go around immersed in Mind at Large while trying to pay the bills. So we float like croutons on the bottomless deeps, and notice what we can. (more…)
Merganser Cam
Video Archive: KDLH-TV News Promo from 1997
in this 30-second news promo from July 14, 1997, KDLH-TV anchor Liz Brummond reports the Duluth City Council is set to vote on a living-wage ordinance requiring employers that receive taxpayer assistance to pay 90 percent of workers a minimum of $7.25 per hour or $6.50 per hour with benefits.
Councilors voted 5-4 in favor of the measure, putting Minnesota’s first living-wage ordinance into Duluth’s City Code.
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Head of the Lakes Fair 1987
With the Head of the Lakes Fair underway this week in Superior, it’s fitting to take a look back 30 years ago when Joan Jett and Blackhearts graced the fairgrounds stage. Fortunately, a bootleg recording exists of the Aug. 15, 1987 show. (more…)
Selective Focus: Linda Naughton
Linda Naughton just opened a show of her intensely bright and beautiful watercolors at Lakeside Gallery. The show will be up through July, and Linda talks about the work.
L.N.: For painting, I start out with transparent watercolors. But I want my work ultimately to express the joy of exuberant color. If I’m happy with the initial result, then I don’t add anything else. But if the painting isn’t as dynamic as I want, then I might add India ink or alcohol ink or both. If I still think it needs more oomph, I will add acrylic ink, colored pencil and/ or oil pastels. Finally, if all else fails to thrill, I have a large supply of hand painted collage papers, handcut stamps, and stencil designs!
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Nominees for Best New Restaurant Poll – 2017
It’s been more than a year since Perfect Duluth Day’s most recent “Perfect New Restaurant” poll. Northern Waters Restaurant was the overwhelming victor in 2016, with 67 percent of the vote.
Since then, a fresh crop of contenders has sprouted up to feed hungry Twin Ports residents. What makes a restaurant great? That’s totally subjective and will be determined by popular vote. Whether it’s a greasy spoon or an upscale eatery, each nominee is on equal footing.
We’ve compiled a list of new restaurants below. To qualify, a nominee simply has to serve food, have opened since February 2016 and be located within 10 miles of Duluth. This means eateries in Superior, Hermantown, Proctor or other area townships are eligible but those farther away (Two Harbors, Cloquet, etc.) don’t meet the criteria. (more…)
Three Downtown Duluth avenues will switch to two-way traffic
Three avenues in Downtown Duluth will convert from one-way to two-way traffic as part of the city’s plans to improve transit and access to businesses. The changes will be made to First, Second and Third avenues west from Superior Street to Fourth Street and intersections between Lake Avenue and Fourth Avenue West. (more…)
Fish Cam
I saw a family of mergansers diving in shallow water (~18 inches deep) by these rocks where I’d seen little fish before. After the birds had gone, I set my camera down there for an hour and 40 minutes in three different locations. Here I have condensed all the fish that swam by = three minutes of footage. If you wonder what mergansers eat, this is like a drive-thru restaurant for them. I would appreciate any help with identifications, there are at least 4-5 species represented.
Responding to a comment about how some of the fish seem curious about the camera, part of the reason may be it is simply blocking their way. This area of interspersed boulders is a maze-like bunch of trails for them to zoom around in all day. To keep my camera from floating, I had to pile rocks on top of it, essentially blocking one of their thoroughfares. Several fish come up to it in transit and squeeze over top of it or around, others turn back and go the way they came, adjusting their regular routes.
Lastly I will add that several times, pairs of fish (I don’t know what kind they are) seem to be playing. I think these may be the same pairs each time they appear. I have named the most prominent ones Herbert and Gerbert.
Found: FitBit on 13th Avenue East leaving Movies in the Park
I found a FitBit on 13th Avenue East on the night of Friday, July 7. I was leaving Movies in the Park at Leif Erikson Park, and since someone had been parked there earlier, I suspect you were as well.
If you think it’s yours, post your email address in the comments here and I’ll send you an email. Tell me about it – model, color, band style, band size, etc. and its yours.
Trophy Café open on Commonwealth Avenue
Fox 21 News reports a new café has opened in the former Vietnamese Lotus Inn location at 1314 Commonwealth Ave. in Duluth’s Gary neighborhood. The Trophy Café is owned by Mont du Lac Resort and managed by Mike Ohara.
St. Louis County records show Matt Gregg is the owner of the building. He purchased it from Steven D. and Cuc T. Allen one year ago for $40,000. The Allens were proprietors of the Lotus Inn, which they operated from 2003 to 2013, and briefly reopened in 2015 under the name VN Coffeehouse. (more…)
Dead Chipmunk Floats By
Spent all day setting up the underwater camera to get the mergansers diving in the area, but they were pretty uncooperative. Then this dead chipmunk floated by, so the day wasn’t a total waste haha. Anyway you can see what I’d wager is a talon wound on its side. Chipmunks live (and die I guess) all along the water’s edge, I frequently hear their signature chirping. Lots of vegetal flotsam in the water today too.
Guide to Duluth-area Podcasts in 2017
Duluth and its surrounding communities are not necessarily known for their famous podcasts, but in recent years about a dozen productions have been pushed out to the internet and smartphones with the notion that people across the planet might be interested in Duluth’s take on birds, professional wrestling or whatever. (more…)
Two Boulders
Shortly after my daughter was born I watched the movie 127 Hours and had a totally revelatory experience. I’m probably not the only person to have a 127 Hours revelation — the movie is pretty impactful. In it, Aron Ralston, a lone-wolf mountaineer, is forced to cut off his own arm to save his life. It’s memorable, even if you’re not nursing a newborn.
At the time, I was profoundly sleep deprived in the way only new parents and cannery workers can be. I was probably legally crazy. Plus, it was before James Franco got busted attempting to hook up with high school girls. It actually was a time-delayed revelation — a kind of revelation landmine that I stepped on much later, when I reread an essay written by Albert Camus about Sisyphus — a Saturday Essay of sorts, I guess. (“Camus on Sisyphus” sounds like either the awesomest or absolute worst pro-wrestling matchup of all time.)
We all know the Sisyphus story, in part or in parcel, right? Sisyphus angers the Gods (he’s Greek) and they punish him by condemning him to an eternity spent laboriously pushing a gigantic boulder up a mountain. (more…)
Selective Focus: Midnight Oil
The work from Allison & Jonathan Metzger – aka Midnight Oil Studio – has been popping up around the area at galleries and art fairs. They even do live screen printing demos. Here they talk about how they got into screen printing and where they hope to take the medium and their business.
M. O.: We make fine art, original silk-screen prints on paper; our imagery is based on Midwestern landscapes, Nature, retro-and contemporary Pop-Culture, and American Inventions. We have a lot of fun with our pieces and enjoy making work that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
We both earned our Master’s degrees in Fine Art from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS – Jonathan in Printmaking and Allison in Textiles – so the silk-screen technique is a fantastic crossover between the two disciplines. Also, creating silk-screen prints does not require much more than a spare room, a darkroom, and a little know-how, whereas other printmaking techniques often require large, expensive and HEAVY equipment. The silk-screen process took a little getting use to, but we really enjoy the challenges it brings.
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Missing Person: Leah Buehring
The Duluth Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a missing person. Leah Buehring was last seen July 1 in the area of 4000 W. Ninth St. in West Duluth. She is a 17-year-old light-skinned white female, 5’7″ tall, 180 lbs., with brown hair and hazel/brown eyes. She is possibly wearing a knee brace on her right knee. Buehring may also use the name “Angel Faith James.”
Anyone with information pertaining to Buehring’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Duluth Police Department by calling 911, or Duluth Police Department Investigations at 218-730-5560 during business hours or 218-625-3581 at any time.
A Lazy Sunday Afternoon
Back in May, Clare Kolars was “yearning for the sea,” so she traveled from River Falls to Duluth with a friend to spend time by the closest thing — Lake Superior.
Caribou Lake Boat Parade 2017
In this drone video Dennis O’Hara captures the annual tradition of the July 4 boat parade on Caribou Lake near Duluth, where decorated boats of all kinds line up and cruise around the lake.