Lincoln Park Neighborhood / The Friendly West End
Duluth MakerSpace in full swing
Duluth’s 10,000+ sq. ft. cooperative member workshop is in full swing this month. Duluth MakerSpace offers a different class or event every night in February — everything from welding to electronics to soap making. Wednesday nights are also free demo nights with a different demonstration each week.
Paid membership is not necessary to take classes or attend demo nights. (more…)
Early Lincoln Park Postcards
A couple cards I’ve not seen before. Both are postally unused.
Mystery Photo: Women and Children First
The back of this postcard credits Gustaf Landin, a photographer who operated out of 24 N. 21st. Ave. W. in Duluth’s friendly West End neighborhood, with shooting this image.
The main question here is, what’s going on in this century-old photo? Why have a bunch of ladies in dresses lined up with a row of children in front of them at what we can assume is some Duluth location? Who are they? We’ll probably never know for sure. (more…)
The busy, prosperous, West End: E. C. Peterson
This clip from the Feb. 1, 1912 Duluth Herald, highlights that “get together” spirit of the friendly West End. Profiled at right is E. C. Peterson, one of the proprietors of Minnesota Tea Co. (more…)
Duluth’s Best Bread celebrates one year
Robert and Michael Lillegard
The majority of corner bakeries have been casualties of the modern demands of life, which prioritize convenience over quality. A pair of Duluth entrepreneurs is turning the corner bakery model on its head with a limited menu of artisan products, a mix of wholesale, retail and subscription sales and just the right amount of wit. (more…)
Entrepreneur eyes West End for distillery
Kevin Evans, CEO of Duluth Whiskey Project LLC, is interested in opening a distillery at the former Franklin Foods facility on the 1900 block of West First St. in Duluth’s West End. The Duluth News Tribune reports the Duluth City Council could vote tonight on a resolution authorizing up to $50,000 for Barr Engineering Co. to conduct an environmental investigation of the former Arrowhead-Kemps dairy operation, which closed in 2013. The property is listed by Holappa Commercial Real Estate at $450,000. (more…)
Duluth 1200 Fund Advance West Loan Program
A new loan program designed to spur the revitalization of older stock commercial buildings and create jobs in West Duluth and West End business districts is detailed in a brochure released by the city of Duluth and the Duluth 1200 Fund Board. The program is intended to help with commercial building acquisition or improvements in the form of a loan up to $50,000 with opportunity to have up to one half of the balance forgiven, assuming program requirements are met.
The maximum amount of the loans will range between $10,000 and $20,000 per job created, up to the $50,000 limit. The loans are only available for commercial buildings in the 55806 and 55807 zip codes. The buildings must be owner occupied (not leased) by a small business committed to creating two or more full-time equivalent jobs within two years. Further details are available in the brochure below. (more…)
Western Duluth by Air
Duluth aerial footage by Charlie Dinges, featuring Wade Stadium, the ore docks, grungy industrial stuff and pretty trees.
Going to build buildings?
Ad from the Nov. 30, 1944 issue of Engineering News-Record. (more…)
OMC Smokehouse anticipates November opening
Duluth Grill owner Tom Hanson stands in the gutted 1886 structure that will house his next restaurant venture.
If all goes as planned, the nascent commercial stretch of the Lincoln Park neighborhood — home to Bent Paddle Brewing, Damage Boardshop and Frost River Trading — will gain a distinctive new restaurant before the end of 2016.
OMC Smokehouse is Duluth Grill owner Tom Hanson’s latest project. OMC stands for oink, moo, cluck. The aptly named eatery will cater to carnivores with its smoked meats and cured sausages, but Hanson promises there will be menu items aimed at vegetarians, too. (more…)
Summer of ’65: Car Crashes into Hank’s Grocery
The Duluth News Tribune’s Aug. 13, 1965 edition reports three persons sustained minor injuries when a 71-year-old Duluth woman crashed into the front of Hank’s Grocery at 2332 W. Third St. in the friendly West End neighborhood. The location is the present-day site of Bark Avenue Pet Grooming. (more…)
Banner Photo Info: Where’s the Party?
I found the graphic of all the banner photos, which was great fun to look at. But I want to know: what’s going on in this photo? Obviously a somber gathering, but what are the details? Of course, apologies if I just didn’t search well enough.
Perfect Brewery: Bent Paddle Brewing
Since launching in May 2013, Bent Paddle Brewing has quickly become a dominant force in the region. The company seems to have everything right, from perfect beer to perfect packaging to perfect branding and distribution. From a 10,600-square-foot warehouse in Duluth’s Friendly West End, Bent Paddle already produces twice as many barrels of beer as any other local company — making it the most macro of the area’s microbreweries and brewpubs.
In the final round of Perfect Duluth Day’s poll, Bent Paddle went head-to-head with Fitger’s Brewhouse, a 19-year-old jauggernaut brewpub that supplies beer to five restaurants and a beer store owned by parent company Just Take Action. While the two companies have quite different operations and histories, both are well-known beyond Duluth for producing an array of outstanding craft brews. The nod to Bent Paddle, which amassed 60 percent of the vote, is perhaps due to its reach. Though the company is still fairly new, it’s beer is available in a majority of bar, restaurant and liquor stores in the Duluth market — and the territory has already begun to expand into the Twin Cities metro area.
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After 20 years …
Go see my friends at Lake Superior Brewing this weekend. As part of their 20th anniversary celebration, they have finally opened up a Tap Room at their West End location (corner of Superior Street and 27th Avenue West, behind Subway).
The streak is over! A level III predatory offender has been released to a Duluth neighborhood that isn’t the West End
The Duluth Police Dept. announced on Tuesday a level III predatory offender has been released and is living on the 700 block of Boundary Avenue in Duluth’s Bayview Heights neighborhood, on the Duluth/Proctor border. It marks the end of a streak in which eight consecutive sex offenders released in Duluth chose to live in the West End neighborhood. This was over a span of exactly one year, going by the dates of DPD news releases — April 8, 2013 to April 8, 2014.
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Duluth Mystery Photo #11: 1891 Couple
This photo is dated 1891 and is from the studio of Lars N. Liden, 1619 W. Superior St. in Duluth’s West End, a location that is presently a parking lot. That’s all we’ve got to go on. It’s a long shot, but can anyone name these two 19th Century Duluthians? Or at least write some good fan fiction about them?
Duluth Mystery Photo #7: Mr. Green
Is Green the photographer’s name or the dude in the photo? Who is this dapper West Ender?
Yoshikas Sauna Revisited
On the Bumper to Bumper show on KFAN Radio, broadcast out of the Twin Cities and on the air in Duluth on KQDS AM 1490, host Dan Barreiro and his crew took on the subject of a new “cuddle business” opening near Sacramento, Calif. The subject turned to a “health club” called Yoshiko’s Sauna in Minneapolis that was in business during the 1990s. Later in the show they discovered an old post about Duluth’s Yoshikas Sauna on Perfect Duluth Day and … well … that’s the clip above.
Duluth Grill on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
Duluth Grill was featured on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives program on Nov. 26, 2010. The segment can be viewed at foodnetwork.com. Host Guy Fieri samples the grass-fed bison pot roast that made the West End famous.
Mitch’s & Grill
Is there a more slapped together billboard in Duluth?
Video Archive: KBJR Topline News and the Cheers party at the Western Tavern in 1993
This is the complete Topline News broadcast from May 20, 1993. You’ll notice it’s pretty short; that’s because from 1992 to 1998 KBJR experimented with an abbreviated 10 p.m. news program that ran about six minutes, not counting commercials, followed by a re-run of Roseanne with sports scores at bottom screen.
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Perfect Breakfast Restaurant: Duluth Grill
What’s not to like about Duluth Grill? It’s a truck-stop style diner in the friendly West End neighborhood that buys from local farmers and grows some of its vegetables around its parking lot in raised-bed gardens. Owner Tom Hanson and his family have plans to build an urban orchard on the lot as well, with plum trees, black-cap raspberries, lingonberries, choke cherries and other deliciousness. They even get their honey from hives on the roof of the building. Duluth Grill is much more than a simple breakfast joint, but readers of Perfect Duluth Day strongly agreed in a recent poll that it is indeed the best breakfast restaurant in the area.
Is it the Scotch eggs? The breakfast stir fry? The curried polenta skillet? The smoked salmon omelet? The caramel apple French toast? Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes. It’s all that and more.
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Duluth’s 1937 West End Baseball Team
Brian Bécotte of Edgartown, Mass., shared this 1937 photo with PDD on Facebook. His father, John Bécotte is standing, second from the left.
If anyone knows additional names of players on the team or anything about the team in general, well, that’s what blog comments are for.