DULUTH, THE AIR CONDITIONED CITY

reveal your secrets!

guys i have lived in MN for twenty of my twenty-nine years and i think i've been to duluth like four times, the last being at least fifteen years ago

it's right there! how is that possible???

because you get there and realize you are in Duluth, so then you turn around and go back home

Explains why Dylan left.

Doesn't explain why Low are still there.

<3 Duluth

car can't get up the hill

aw guys, it can't be THAT bad!

i've lived in BOZEMAN, MONTANA.

(I don't really have anything against Duluth and enjoyed the two times I visited as a kid but really don't have any desire to go back)

srsly it's a great town, just enough city-type aspects but some nice small-townyness too

gbx do you need suggestions? I have been going there like monthly for the past year while waiting for my gf to move here.

it's been like 20 years, all i remember is burgers and shakes at grandma's sorry

oh for real?

fuck yeah, gimme something to do for a weekend.

Fitger's for local beer
Uncle Loui's Cafe for breakfast
Whole Foods Co-op for food (note: not an actual Whole Foods, but an actual co-op)
The Scenic Cafe for fancy dinners
Zeitgeist for cocktails

yeah I kind of reflexively and unfairly dislike small-town feel anything

go out to the end of Canal Park for sweet sandy beaches, water on 2 sides, straddle the border of MN/WI

xp maybe you should go read another thread?

that sounds like a good day

xxp

drive up MN61 for north shore goodness, also there is an awesome bike path for miles and miles

duluth is kinda magickal

it's a weird place

drive over the BONG BRIDGE to Superior, WI and giggle

yeah mostly in it for the north shore. like, i basically have never been there??!?!?! we have a mini-maine 3 hours from the city and i'm all "oh i'm bored there's nothing fun to do outside yah yah yah"

why is MN the best place ever for bike riding. it really is.

it feels kind of ancient, the north shore makes you feel small

check out some of the city's awesome hiking/biking trails, they're f'n everywhere

i need to do more "real" road biking in mn

the path up the shore basically follows the path of 61

oh shit for real?

*googles*

I think it's a rails-to-trails thing, it goes a looong way. Also the path of the Grandma's marathon iirc.

is fitzgers the super old restaurant, like 100 yrs old, that has the mural/border around the tops of the walls that has the cool fox hunting painting all around?

I think that might be the Pickwick, but I am not sure. Fitger's is a hotel/brewery/restaurant/store complex.

We went on a family vacation to Duluth and all we did was sit in our hotel watching Reagan getting shot, etc.

School friend had cabin by Two Harbors, totally gorgeous.

if there was better economic opportunity in Duluth I would srsly consider moving there

great place to watch a president get shot IMO

they have their own branch of Pizza Luce too

hmmm

i thought about doing a rotation up there, just to check it out.

i'm thinking about residency already, and while part of me wants to peace out from MN again and move to either NM or the PacNW, another part is like "fuck it, stay here," and is considering duluth as a possible target

Fitgers is in fact totally awesome! Never would have remembered the name, but its in kind of a biggish complex on the main drag, right? kinda reminded me of a factory tall ceilings etc maybe?

there are a surprising number of hospitals for a town of 80k

welcome to minnesota

oh man so many bizarro awesome things in the vicinity too. Devils cauldron! Magnetic Rock! Eagle Mountain!

it (Fitger's) was originally a brewery, now houses a brewpub + other stuff

full disclosure: my gf works there, for another month or so at least

oh duh, devils kettle, not cauldron

get smoked fishes here

I was thinking of the Pickwick, not Fitzgers...the Pickwick is the super old restaurant...pretty midwest "supper club" food but still it's reaaally cool inside...here's a detail of the stuff around the ceiling I was talking about:

http://countrymouse.blogharbor.com/_photos/Duluth%20Horns%20Pickwick%20Pub.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_C._R._Magney_State_Park#The_Devil.27s_Kettle

more info about devils kettle. hooray for bizarre outdoorsy crap!

magnetic rock:

The trail goes through a burn area over exposed bedrock, then to deep woods and a strange looking monolithic rock with magnetic properties. Under normal circumstances, a glacial erratic (a boulder dropped from a glacial ice sheet) wouldn’t get much attention in Minnesota. They are, after all, just big rocks that you can find almost everywhere, including in people’s front yards. But this one is special, not just for its magnetic properties, but also for its appearance. The rock’s dimensions are 10 by 20 by 30 feet and it is shaped like a big monument that seems to have dropped out of the sky. Multi-colored lichens cover the rock’s surface giving it various shades of yellow and orange. Its magnetism comes from the mineral magnetite, common to the underlying bedrock of the Gunflint Iron Formation. Special attractions: The rock (bring a compass to test out its magnetic properties) and wildlife.

I was going to go to a minor-league baseball game last time I was there (Duluth Huskies, iirc?) but it was rained out. 'Sposed to be a really fun, cheap, drunk (if you want) time.

Also the 2-3 universities in the area lead to a lot of good house shows/small-venue music.

^^^see that's what i assumed? like, city of 85k that is a college town has to be sorta fun, right? though tbh what is there other than UMD?

concordia?

St. Scholastica, I think? and UW-Superior (OK, not actually in Duluth, but cmon)

It wasn't all that noticeable last week. There are some parts south of town, especially near the river, that got pretty messed up and a couple roads still closed, but overall I don't think most of the city was too flooded.

Air conditioned my ass. It was like 95 when I passed through last week and ate at a rather elaborate rest area with a crazy up on the hill.

i will totes be looking for jobs in duluth when the time comes

Forgot to update: Gonna be gettin' married in Duluth next year. :)

congratulations man! totally amazing place to get hitched in i would imagine.

nice one

Went to a Duluth wedding and, yes, it was a fantastic city to do it in.

The view, the wind, the groom's dinner in the rotating restaurant.

Hi from the Hammond in Superior.

Go to the thirsty pagan immediately, and if they have the anise saison, drink all of it for me

I didn't make it to Thirsty Pagan unfortch. But I did sample some awesome wedding eats at Midi in the Fitger's complex and drink a lot of Surly at Luce, where we're having the groom's dinner. I fucking love the Twin Ports.

Also while wandering the streets of Superior I stumbled across the former headquarters of the Finnish Marxist newspaper Tyomies, something I had researched a little for a paper in college. My girl said that she had only ever known the building as a bar of the same name, which has since closed. There was a faded sign painted on the side of the building that said "DRINKING GETS DONE HERE" that initially caught my attention.

Loving these fast-motion videos of boats arriving/departing the Twin Ports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsN4ydT_Ql4

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1530309_10201128037034751_1806748996_n.jpg

I am in Cloquet, like 15 miles away. This was the first gig I've ever done where my boss emailed me beforehand to let me know the customer was fully ready to come pick me up from the hotel in case my rental didn't start.

The temp this morning was -20'F with a windchill of 20+ deg below that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PofmKxIwArk

Really weird, 'cause that must have been filmed not too long after the Glensheen murders!

Going to Duluth today :)

:)

http://i.imgur.com/c0vNwf3.jpg

Lift Bridge Operator job opening

http://www.oldpoliticals.com/ItemImages/000018/25877_lg.jpeg

love this thread title, sounds like a lost jules verne novel

http://www.startribune.com/duluth-bear-enjoys-an-afternoon-snack-a-dip-in-the-pool/388328241/

bear conditioned city

Haven't been to Duluth in too long. :(

Welp, solved that, currently eating Pizza Luce and drinking Bent Paddle. This town never fails.

Nice

love me some duluth

http://www.citypages.com/news/watch-this-gnarly-1000-ft-freighter-whip-a-sick-360-in-duluth-video/461837323

excellent

Nice digs for only $1.2 mil

http://www.startribune.com/ultra-modern-1-2m-home-by-minnesota-s-most-renowned-architect-overlooks-lake-superior/475287433/#8

Second fire, larger than first, now raging at Superior refinery: https://t.co/FFWfm1sT7G

— John Myers (@newsduluth) April 26, 2018

holy shit

holy shit

"Now that working from home is widely accepted, more and more people are choosing where that home should be. For some people, that means places they feel are safer from the impacts of climate change, including Duluth."

https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/28/how-much-is-climate-a-factor-in-where-people-are-moving/

don't have much to add about duluth but want to chime in that i did the MS150 once, which starts in cloquet. the night prior to the ride i found an attempt at a tourism brochure for cloquet, and the front featured a picture of the lift bridge, and read 'close to duluth... yet far enough away!'

apologies, it was not cloquet. it was proctor

i guess i do have duluth related insights, my dad grew up there, and his father worked on the railroad in proctor, which sounds like basically an alien existence to me. i never knew my grandpa particularly well and most of the memories i have of him were being scared of him. anyway, when he retired, with no musical background he ended up buying some kind of electric organ. after he passed and they were cleaning out his belongings, someone found a cassette tape he'd made. it opened with his creaky old voice announcing 'this... is my music...'. followed by ten to fifteen minutes of straight up drone music. i know i've heard this tape once, i know someone has it somewhere. i really really need to find and acquire this recording of grandfather folk-drone

xxp
Doesn't matter how hot it gets in Duluth, it's air-conditioned!

It's hard for me to equate 'climate refugees' with current tech workers who probably make their own keffir

lol

Awesome Final Jeopardy answer today. All 3 contestants got it WRONG. 2 guessed Green Bay, and the other Minneapolis. Not bad guesses, but no. pic.twitter.com/GxtC7zk6Nv

— Bruce McGuire (@dunord) February 15, 2022

I disagree btw, Minneapolis is a bad guess

yeah who the hell thinks minneapolis is on the great lakes?

that said i don't think i would have gotten it right.

I got my first vaccine shot last March in Duluth (no MN residency required) and explored the city for the first time in 15-20 years. Had no idea about the cool distillery/BBQ/taproom district that had sprung up since then.

Yeah the west side of town is on the come up for sure.

anyone know what the deal is with the Cargills buying up property on park point

they are billionaires and terrible people who are going to build some ugly shit hole compound is the sense I get

like are they buying the whole thing, it's nuts

Similar to the Monaco real estate guy buying up more than 13 properties in Carmel, CA.

I think I've only driven around Park Point, usually just to the end and then turning around, maybe gone to the beach there once.

My wife is running the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth in June. We've never been. We're staying in the Lincoln Park area. Any current recommendations for dining? Looking for something casual and comfortable for Saturday night after the marathon. Breweries/Brewpubs with good food would work for this or at other times as well.

I'm also going back through the thread. I am way more excited than I was originally seeing all the enthusiasm for the city. Thanks in advance.

Fellow Brit I bumped into here in Rochester MN sent me some recommendations he'd given some friends, if we were ever up Duluth way too. Dunno if it's any use but it's what I have.

https://www.vabenecaffe.com/
https://northernwaterssmokehaus.com
https://www.bettyspies.com/
https://fitgers.com/restaurants-nightlife/

Va Bene is great, and hanging right over the lake. New Scenic Cafe is fantastic, but a little ways north up Highway 61. Duluth Grill is just south of town and nearly a mandatory stop for our family when we're heading that way. Love Fitgers for the old school vibe.

Thanks for the recommendations. Looks like some fun places. For Fitgers, which restaurant do you recommend?