Visit Lake Street Blog
Your Weekend Entertainment, Halloween edition
October 30, 2009
The Peace Coffee pumpkin
Quick version of weekend entertainment today. We’ll have a look at what to do for Halloween. In just a little bit, Midtown Global Market will have their Halloween Family Night. 5:00 – 8:00 PM on Friday, kids in costumes are invited to venture throughout the Market and load up their trick-or-treat bags with candy from participating MGM stores and restaurants. Everyone is welcome to enjoy the free, family-friendly live entertainment from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Market’s Central Plaza.
On October 31st itself, head over to Midtown Farmers’ Market for the last regularly scheduled market of the year. Pick up your last minute pumpkins, along with a wide variety of other vegetables like peppers, cabbage, winter squash, garlic, beets, turnips, potatoes, and celery root.
And for evening entertainment, how about heading over to Bryant Lake Bowl, for Tonight We Abide: The 2nd Annual Big Lebowski Party. “We’re celebrating Halloween the best way we know how… Our 2nd Annual party paying tribute to the Worlds best bowling movie, The Big Lebowski. So join us for a masquerade-bowling tournament, free movie screenings, DJ Christian Fritz spinning tunes from the Coen Brothers film catalog, karaoke, a costume contest, and loads of prizes. Come dressed as your favorite character from the movie and drink some Dude-a-reenos as we pay tribute to the Dude, Walter, Donny, and of course Jesus. No cover.”
Happy Halloween!
Lake Street: the place to get inked
October 23, 2009
Last week, vita.mn had a great cover story profiling five of the Twin Cities’ top tattoo artists. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that three of those five are right here on Lake Street! Kurt Melancon of Leviticus Tattoo, Shane Wallin of Twilight Tattoo, and Kore Grate of Tatus by Kore are interviewed. Combine that with The Ink Lab, City Pages’ 2009 winner for Best Tattoo Parlor, and it’s obvious that you just can’t go wrong looking for a tattoo on Lake Street, whether you’re in the east, west, or middle!
Your Weekend Entertainment, October 23-25
October 23, 2009
One play closes, another play opens. This is the last weekend for Mary’s Wedding at Jungle Theater. Meanwhile, a few blocks north of Lake Street, Open Eye Figure Theatre’s newest show, Elijah’s Wake, is just getting started. “A visual poem by Michael Sommers. First created in 2003, Michael Sommers revisits this groundbreaking work to be staged in the Open Eye Theatre. ‘…a piece of art the stimulates through visual action, this is an extraordinary work.’ Star Tribune”
As always, Bryant Lake Bowl has multiple shows to see this weekend. This time around, it’s two doses of Vampires Suck: The Vilification Tennis Halloween Show (Friday and Saturday), and the last chance to see Master Works: The Goya Plays (Friday), In the Weeds (Saturday), and The Importance of Being Earnest (Sunday).
And there’s plenty more happening to satisfy your artistic cravings. Friday and Saturday, Intermedia Arts hosts Singing the Legacy of Sekou Sundiata: The America Project Twin Cities, a series of community events including Brown Bag Dialogues, Citizenship Dinners, a Film Screening, Potluck Dinner and Community Sing, all designed to inspire and ignite our passionate ideals around citizenry, civic work, and active engagement in civic life. Friday night, Pangea World Theater hosts Hyphe-NATIONS Performances/Art Installation & Community Dialog, which deals with immigration migration and displacement in our diverse Twin Cities communities, nationally and globally. And Saturdays at In the Heart of the Beast Theatre, it’s puppet shows for kids! This Saturday is Tiddalick the Frog, an Australian Aboriginal story of a grumpy frog who drinks all the water and a little eel who makes a difference.
There are now just a few Midtown Farmers’ Market days left this year, and this Saturday it features an Energy Fair. October 24th is Day 350: the International Day of Action on Climate Change. This Saturday, market hosts Metro Clean Energy Resource Team, Do It Green! Minnesota, and the MN Energy Challenge will give you ideas on ways to save money on your utilities bill while saving energy in your home!
Sunday brunch? Midtown Global Market has you covered. This week it’s Cafe Finspang serving up Swedish meatballs, sausage, pancakes, lingonberry jam, Danish rye bread, and other Nordic treats.
And for the readers out there, Magers & Quinn has three weekend author events. Friday night, Karen Casey reads from Cultivating Hope : Weekly Readings to Open Your Heart and Mind, Saturday night Rachel Coyne reads from her novel Whiskey Heart, and on Sunday Miles Proctor and his vampire posse present The New Vampire’s Handbook: a Guide for the Recently Turned Creature of the Night.
Lake Street on Twitter
October 20, 2009
I’ve noticed lately that some people really like to discover and follow all the different Lake Street places on Twitter. So I thought I’d try to create a definitive directory of them. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. If you see any missing, please speak up! (And of course, be sure to follow us on Twitter as well, @VisitLakeStreet.
Barbette @BarbetteMpls
The Beauty Room @beautyroommpls
Bryant Lake Bowl @BryantLakeBowl
Gandhi Mahal @gandhimahal
Glaciers Cafe @glacierscafe
Hair By Morgan @hairbymorgan
Hirshfields @hirshfields
Il Gatto @ilgattouptown
In the Heart of the Beast @HOBT
Jungle Theater @JungleTheater
Juut Salon Spa @JuutSalonspa
Longfellow Grill @longfellowgrill
Magers & Quinn @magersandquinn
Manny’s Tortas @MannysTortas
Midtown Global Market @MidtownGlobal
moto-i @motoi2go
Northern Sun @NorthernSun1
Pangea World Theater @Pangea_PanLab
Peace Coffee @Peace_Coffee
Midtown Produce Exchange @ProduceExchange
Resource Center of the Americas @RCTA
Salty Tart @TheSaltyTart
Sauce Spirits & Soundbar @SauceMPLS
Smitten Kitten @SmittenKittenMN
Stella’s Fish Cafe @Stellasfishcafe
Town Talk Diner @towntalkdiner
Uptown Theatre @UptownTheatre
William’s Uptown Pub and Peanut Bar @WilliamsUptown
Your Weekend Entertainment, October 16-18
October 16, 2009
We have a couple high-profile events happening on Lake Street for only this one weekend. First is In the Heart of the Beast Theatre, which is hosting a double feature of two nationally recognized puppeteers. Janaki Ranpura performs Lovesick Sea Play, an innovative story of love in the world of 18th century Atlantic piracy. Bart Buch presents Ode to Walt Whitman, a multi-media puppetry performance that uncovers an unspoken dialogue between Whitman’s Leaves of Grass poems and Federico Garcia Lorca’s Ode to Walt Whitman. The shows are at 7:30 PM Friday & Saturday, 2:00 PM on Sunday. Tickets available online.
And at Midtown Global Market, it’s the 2nd Annual Cheese & Apple Festival on Saturday. The theme will center around locally grown products with about a dozen different local apple and cheese varieties, cooking demonstrations and kids’ activities. Come for lunch, get ideas for your holiday get togethers, learn something new at a cooking demo and listen to some great live music! It will be a day of fun for the whole family as MGM brings the fun of a fall apple orchard tour to the urban environment.
Elsewhere, Magers & Quinn has a full weekend of events. Friday night, Thomas Larson discusses the “Age of Memoir†and his book, The Memoir and the Memoirist. On Saturday, Richard Ojakangas presents Roadside Geology of Minnesota, Beatrice Ojakangas discusses The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever, and Vermont educator Tal Birdsey discusses his book A Room for Learning: The Making of a School in Vermont. And Sunday, Paul Tough discusses his book Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America.
Bryant Lake Bowl has a busy weekend too, with Master Works: The Goya Plays and “inspire” A Tribute to Michael Jackson on Friday Night, In the Weeds and Dragmanity on Saturday, and The Importance of Being Earnest on Sunday. And don’t forget Jungle Theater continuing their run of Mary’s Wedding and another fun Saturday morning at the Midtown Farmers’ Market!
Longfellow Nokomis Messenger visits Glaciers Cafe
October 14, 2009
The Messenger has a great look at Glaciers Cafe in its October issue. Glaciers is a fairly recent addition to the 27th & Lake area, having started in the suburbs and moved into the Resource Center building in November. In the article you can read about how Glaciers has adapted its menu to fit their new home (one way: more vegetarian offerings), and about how they make their delicious custard. I also have it on good authority that the slider mini-burgers are fantastic! You can find the story on page 8 of the October 2009 issue.
Craftsman gets national attention
October 12, 2009
It’s not every day that the Washington Post writes about Minneapolis, so it’s worth sitting up and taking notice when the food critic pays a visit. Tom Sietsema recently paid a visit to The Craftsman, one of Lake Street’s fine dining restaurants. He admits to being a bit skeptical at first, but The Craftsman quickly won him over with its charcuterie dish, which is a mix of different sausages. “While charcuterie has become the molten chocolate cake of dinner introductions from coast to coast — ubiquitous, in other words — the arrangement at Craftsman reveals surprising personality and a sense of place. Rabbit terrine finds chopped rabbit bundled in house-cured pancetta. Duck liver mousse, whipped up from fowl from northern Minnesota, is sweetened with local apples and pears rather than booze. There’s dry-cured ham, too, aged by the restaurant, and salami, one of the trickiest specialty preserved meats to do well.” Sounds like a must-have on the next visit!
Your Weekend Entertainment, Oct. 9-11
October 09, 2009
TGIF! We may get a little snow on Saturday, but that’s no reason to avoid the Midtown Farmers’ Market. It’s open 8 – 1 on Saturday. “Come to get your carving pumpkin and bobbing apples and your last stores of market produce before the winter!” Live music and storytime with East Lake Library is in the cards.
Looking indoors, at the Midtown Global Market, the Twin Cities Birth & Baby Expo is on Saturday from 10 – 5. There will be over 50 confirmed exhibitors, goodie bags for the first 350 visitors, door prizes, and a “Meet the Doulas & Midwives” event at 11:00 AM.
The next day, it’s time for Sunday brunch! Each Sunday, a chef from a Midtown Global Market restaurant will prepare and sell brunch in the Market’s Central Plaza. This week’s brunch comes from Pham’s Deli, serving Vietnamese pho and traditional beef noodle soup.
Live music? We’ve got that too. At Old Arizona, at 28th & Nicollet, The Wreck performs, with guess Scott Moses Murray, at Saturday starting at 8:00 PM. The Wreck. is an eclectic cover band, ranging from Blues, R&B, and straight up Rock and Roll, both older and newer. Very focused on Fun. $5 cover.
Bryant Lake Bowl is musically inclined too, with a CD release celebration show for Vicki Emerson & the All Man Band on Saturday at 10:00 PM. Says the Twin Cities Daily Planet: “You want be at the Bryant-Lake Bowl on Saturday for Vicky Emerson if you appreciate gifted singing and songwriting in the genre you could call country soft-rock. Emerson’s talent transcends category: strong artistry, plain and simple.”
Also at the BLB this weekend: Master Works: The Goya Plays and Last Laugh on Friday, Clementown and In the Weeds on Saturday, and The Importance of Being Earnest on Sunday.
Some author readings at Magers & Quinn this weekend. Saturday at 7:00 PM, Erinn Batykefer reads poetry from Allegheny, Monongahela, and Greg Sanders reads from his collection of interrelated stories Motel Girl. And Sunday at 7:00 PM, Matvei Yankelevich and William Waltz read from their new poetry.
And last for this entry, but not least, Saturday from 11 – 3, Ingebretsen’s hosts Dog Day! A Benefit for the Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota. It includes a Dog Sweater Fashion Show. Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota (HSDM) dogs and their owner will model their matching Norwegian sweaters, designed and knit by Paul Robinson. Paul’s dog sweater knitting pattern will be on sale and Paul himself will be there to advise knitters on how to fit and knit a Norwegian sweater for their dog.
Lyndale Tap House opens to good reviews
October 05, 2009
The already thriving dining & nightlife scene in the Lyn-Lake area just got another strong entry, with the Lyndale Tap House opening last week. It’s at 2937 Lyndale Ave. S., the former home of jP’s American Bistro.
The Star Tribune’s Rick Nelson attended opening night, and by the looks of things had a good time. “Value prices, big smiles, tons of beer choices and a knockout roast beef sandwich. Yeah, the Lyndale could definitely grow on me.”
Metromix’s Chris Kallal was there too, and was similarly impressed. “My verdict? If you’re looking for a new bar, a new hangout, the Taphouse is the place. If you’re looking for a great sandwich and good beer selection, ditto. If you’re looking for an adventerous culinary experience, this may not be the place for you. But try the beef. Really. You won’t be disappointed.”
Sounds good to me!
Your Weekend Entertainment, October 2-4
October 02, 2009
Let’s start with the big one, the Taste of Lake Street, this year being held inside the Global Market, on Sunday from 1 – 5 PM. Featuring food tastings from 40 Lake Street area restaurants plus wine & beer tastes. Local musicians and raffle and door prizes will also be part of the event, and all the proceeds go to Minneapolis food shelves. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door so buy yours now!
Elsewhere, there are plenty of theater options to choose from. The Jungle Theater play Mary’s Wedding is still running strong into its third weekend. Patrick’s Cabaret has Kinetic Kitchen on Friday and Saturday, a dance-filled piece. A few blocks north of Lake Street, Open Eye Figure Theatre hosts Mark The Encounter, a new one-man show that explores the positions of power in one on one communications. Bryant Lake Bowl, as usual, has a lot going on, with Master Works: The Goya Plays and The Underpants Show on Friday, In the Weeds and musicians Timber Timbre + Ghostband on Saturday, and The Rockstar Storytellers: Horror & Mystery on Sunday.
And there are only a few weeks left now until the Midtown Farmers’ Market closes for the year, so enjoy it while you can! This Saturday will have storytime with the East Lake Library at 10:30, and live music at 9:00 and 11:00. And after the Market, go south a few blocks for the annual Corcoran Neighborhood Book Sale, from 9:00 – 4:00 on Saturday at 3451 Cedar Ave. S. The sale will offer thousands of quality, low-price books as well as baked goods and raffle drawings. Don’t miss it!
And speaking of books, at Magers & Quinn this weekend, Bill Voedisch reads from his new book about his cat, Citizen Mitten Friday at 7:30, and on Saturday at 7:00, J. P. White reads from his novel Every Boat Turns South.
