PDD Shop Talk: Closing Out 2024
Perfect Duluth Day could not continue to be Duluth’s Duluthiest website without the support of its readers, donors and advertisers. So as another year comes to a close, we again say thanks for the love!
Perfect Duluth Day could not continue to be Duluth’s Duluthiest website without the support of its readers, donors and advertisers. So as another year comes to a close, we again say thanks for the love!
The Christmas-themed Elf on the Shelf doll is the protagonist character of a 2005 children’s book with the same name. Since its emergence to mainstream popularity, the decorative figurine has inspired parody photographs in which the Elf is staged in a wide range of holiday scenes causing chaos, or referenced in memes.
Below are some elves spotted and submitted by Duluthians, as well as some local art inspired by this internet trend.
This undated postcard, published by Gallagher’s Studio, shows the Good Shephard Church and School at 5901 Raleigh St. in West Duluth. The building was completed in 1959 and the first mass was celebrated on Christmas Eve, 65 years ago.
The Pali Platter from Falastin
If 2024 has a Twin Ports restaurant trend, it’s cultural cuisine. Two of the restaurants most anticipated by area foodies, Alto Pino and Falastin, brought unparalleled culinary options to Duluth this year.
The Black Water Lounge featured live music in a classy atmosphere. The restaurant closed in July after a 15-year run in Greysolon Plaza. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
Downtown Duluth suffered blows to its dining scene over the past year with two restaurants leaving prominent, historic buildings while Hermantown will lose a landmark establishment at the end of the month.
The 1984 Duluth City Directory (Photo by Matthew James)
As 2024 comes to a close, this post takes a look at Duluth 40 years ago using the 1984 Polk Directory of Duluth as an example for examining the history and use of city directories. This post includes ads from the directory for five businesses that have since left Duluth and five that still remain. It then concludes with two Geogeussr challenges featuring the historical locations of these ten businesses.
In this recent installment of “Jessie’s Drone Adventures,” Arizona-based video storyteller Jessie Nino dips into a little Duluth harbor history before heading up the shore to Palisade Head.
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Twenty years ago the Sultan of Sot paid a visit to Lost in the ’50s, 1809 N. Third St. in Superior, and composed this article for the December 2004 edition of the Ripsaw, which was the last issue of the publication in its monthly magazine format.]
Of the five bars located at the receptacle end of Tower Avenue, Lost in the ’50s is the shyest and most understated. Other bars in the neighborhood are known for their horseshoes or their burgers or for being a place to quietly drink yourself to death. Lost in the ’50s offers cheap drinks, a decent juke, bad karaoke and, as the name would suggest, a smattering of velvet Elvis art. For some reason, few people bother to take them up on the offer.
Location has as much to do with it as anything else. The layout of the Tower Avenue/North Third Street intersection tends to lead the drunken eye to the east, away from Lost in the ’50s and toward more dubious places, like Jo D’s Corner Oasis, JT’s or the deathly Tom’s Cedar Lounge. Besides, most people, once they get as far as the Anchor or maybe Molly’s, don’t even think of venturing any farther, because they assume they have all they need. They’re wrong, and I’m going to tell you why.
The Spirit Mountain Recreation Area opened for skiing 50 years ago today — Dec. 20, 1974. To mark the occasion, Perfect Duluth Day dusts off a relic from the video archive featuring Duluth businessman Manley “Monnie” Goldfine presenting the concept for developing Spirit Mountain to the Twin Ports Press Club. The date of the presentation is not known, but the year is most likely 1972.
JP Olsen of WDSE 103.3 FM “The North” interviews James Mangold, director of A Complete Unknown, a biographical drama exploring the early life of Bob Dylan. Mangold delves into the creative process, revealing how Timothée Chalamet embodied the spirit of Dylan, and discusses the enduring power of Dylan’s music and its affect on a new generation.
This undated postcard, published by Kreiman’s Lyceum News & Bookstore, shows a portion of Duluth’s waterfront warehouse district at some point in the first half of the 20th century. The large building with “Fireproof Storage” on the side in large letters is the Northern Cold Storage & Warehouse Company.
A few families in the Hunters Park neighborhood created Dunedinville during the pandemic when the only way to roam Bentleyville was by car. This past weekend, they gathered for the fifth year in a row, celebrating the holiday season in multiple yards. The gathering has grown since its first iteration and now includes its own website, podcast, origin story, board game, theme songs, live music and a comic book. The celebration is “famous for its killer sled tracks, fueled by in-house ice and snow-making capabilities.” Check out some of their slick slopes, light fixtures and moments from this year.
‘Tis the season for cheesy holiday movies! This week’s quiz tests your knowledge of filming locations for Merry Kiss Cam, which was shot in Duluth during the summer of 2022.
A year-in-review PDD quiz comes your way on Dec. 29. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Dec. 26.
Art by Nelle Rhicard at reframeideas.com.
A group of University of Minnesota Duluth faculty, students, and community artists came together to explore strategies to communicate the stories of frontline workers in housing and food insecurity.
Boubville — not at all to be confused with Bentlyville; that would never happen — is a winter celebration that takes place on a property in Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood. In addition to the musicians performing, some of the artistic experiences this year include an interactive phonebooth called “Bent-to-Boub InterOpterative Phones” by Swertyman, “Ghosts of Dinners Past” by Annmarie Genuisz, “Silent Crude” projections by Allen Killian-Moore, a gift shop to peruse, a blacklight forest, an interactive electronic instrument made by Digetic and Ginger Juel, and more. Collected here are some snapshots captured by Jess Morgan at the first two nights of the 2025 spectacle.
