Lincoln Park Neighborhood / The Friendly West End Posts

Perfect Brewery: Bent Paddle Brewing

PDDPerfectBreweryAwardLogoSince 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.

Bent Paddle Brewing - Perfect Brewery

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.

After 20 years …

Lake Superior Brewing Tap Room Grand Opening

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.

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.

Duluth Grill - Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

Mitch’s & Grill

mitchs-and-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.

R.I.P. Horseshoe Billards and Burns Bar

To toss out some random bar gossip, I heard last night that Horseshoe Billiards in the West End closed a while back, and that Burns Bar in Rice Lake Township closed several months ago.

Which reminds me that I don’t think it was ever mentioned on PDD that La Belle in Superior closed earlier this summer. And I heard the roof caved in at the Palace Bar. Is that true? Is it still open?

What will we do without all these classy joints?

Gettin’ Ripped at Burns Bar
Gettin’ Ripped at Horseshoe Billiards
Gettin’ Ripped at the Palace Bar
Gettin’ Ripped at La Belle

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.

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.

Repurposed Duluth Day: Sellers Auction

Col. Brent Loberg accepts items for the upcoming Sellers Auction.

Col. Brent Loberg accepts items for the upcoming Sellers Auction.

[This five-part series profiles local dealers of used goods, in all their rich variety. Others in the series: North Shore Architectural AntiquesRetro AntiquesCentral Sales and Art in the Alley.]

Col. Brent Loberg stands at the front of a huge warehouse-like room, auctioning off bottles of barbecue sauce, jars of olives and boxes of candy.

R.I.P. Jim’s Hamburgers

Jims-Hamburgers-West-End

The paper over the windows at this classic restaurant on the ground floor of the Seaway Hotel, 2005 W. Superior St. in Duluth’s friendly West End, reveals it is out of business. (Jim’s Hamburgers was included in the “Breakfast in Duluth” post just 10 months ago.)

This was the last of four Jim’s Hamburger locations in Duluth. Jim Overlie was the founder, opening the first one in 1937. I think the West End location opened in the 1940s. Overlie sold in 1985 to Dick and Mary Christensen. Dick died in 2000 and Mary died in 2006. Their son Denny took over ownership.

Other Jim’s Hamburger locations were at:
502 E. Fourth St. (closed in 2005)
414 W. Superior (closed in 1995)
502 E. First St. (closed in 1982)

Video: Early Days of Duluth’s Friendly West End

Learn more about the West End / Lincoln Park neighborhood in this 38-minute video.