Mural artists Kevin Ballecer, left, and Mela Nguyen are painting the exterior of Chicken n’ Whaaat?! on Central Avenue in West Duluth. The pair also painted murals for Burger Paradox on Superior Street. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).
A family-owned restaurant group that helped revitalize Lincoln Park will expand outside the neighborhood for the first time with a new fast-casual chicken eatery attached to a West Duluth gas station.
Dan Lefebvre at Burger Paradox
Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood has burgeoned with new businesses of late. Three new restaurants opened there in 2023, including Bali Asian Cuisine, Burger Paradox and Oasis del Norte. A fourth, Ritual Salad, is slated to open in early 2024.
Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants co-owner Louis Hanson looks over a newspaper from 1893. The business is renovating the former Duluth Press building and discovered dozens of newspapers in the floorboards. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
Buffalo Bill Cody has been buried under the floorboards of a historic Duluth building for 130 years.
Owners of a Lincoln Park business recently discovered a variety of 19th century newspapers inside a building financed by the legendary wild west star and used by his sister to operate a weekly news publication. The treasure trove turned up during major building renovations this winter.
Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants co-owner Tom Hanson stands atop OMC Smokehouse. The former Kemps Dairy property and new parking lot are in the background. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
A popular Duluth restaurant group has acquired the largest piece of open land in the Lincoln Park business district and plans to build apartments, a parking garage and new street-level business space on the property — similar to plans announced by its previous owner.
The purchase is part of several big land moves revolving around the Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants.
Fox 21 reports that Corktown Deli and Brews will change its location in early 2023. The business opened in 2018 at 1906 W. Superior St. Co-owner Jeff Petcoff told Fox 21 more space is needed, so Corktown will move about three quarters of a mile southwest to 102 S. 27th Ave. W.
Parent company Arrowstar Hospitality Partners purchased the former Duluth Stove and Fireplace building in May. It is adjacent to the Duluth Grill, another restaurant under Arrowstar’s umbrella.
Duluth Grill is highlighted in the October 2018 issue of People magazine as part of a feature on Top Breakfast Restaurants in each state. The grill’s recipe for Smoked Salmon Hash Skillet, featuring salmon smoked at OMC, the Duluth Grill’s sister restaurant, is spotlighted.
Two new eateries, next door to each other at 1906 and 1908 W. Superior St. in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, will officially open full hours on Wednesday, June 13.
Jeff Petcoff and Conor Maki – Photo by Lissa Maki
Corktown Deli and Brews is busy prepping for an early June opening. The fast-casual eatery in Duluth’s Lincoln Park Craft District is inspired by the iconic sandwich traditions of New York City.
Two new businesses are setting up in Lincoln Park’s burgeoning craft district. Love Creamery and Corktown Deli and Brews will occupy 1908 and 1906 W. Superior St., respectively.
The building, which now features an adjoining space, is undergoing renovations to separate the businesses. Tom Hanson hopes to open Corktown Deli and Brews by January, while Love Creamery owner Nicole Wilde anticipates a May opening.
OMC Smokehouse is the winner of Perfect Duluth Day’s best new restaurant poll. The popular barbecue joint smoked the competition, garnering 82 percent of the vote among the two finalists. The Boat Club Restaurant and Bar was runner up with 18 percent; 14 other nominees were eliminated in early voting.
OMC (which stands for oink, moo, cluck) opened in February. For more than two years, area residents eagerly anticipated the restaurant’s arrival.
For more than two years, Duluth carnivores have been salivating at the prospect of OMC Smokehouse, Tom Hanson’s new restaurant venture. The wait will be over when OMC opens Wednesday, Feb. 15.
The opening date of a new eating or drinking establishment is often a moving target. A majority of enterprises planning to launch in the coming months required significant gutting and reconstruction of old buildings, a common recipe for delays. Here’s the scoop on four soon-to-launch food and beverage joints.
7 West Taphouse
Owner Rick Lampton has pushed back the anticipated opening date for Superior’s 7 West Taphouse to Oct. 3. The burger bar at 1319 N. Tower Ave. is modeled after the original Duluth location. It will feature burgers, tacos and 40 rotating taps of craft beer. Click here to read the full-length story from July.
Once upon a time we stopped caring about where our food came from, and had no knowledge of the people who grew it. We stopped cooking, ate out of boxes, and tore cellophane wrappers off microwaved “TV dinners.” We even ate fast food meals in our cars without stepping foot outside. Sounds crazy, but it’s actually true! Americans across the socioeconomic spectrum came to rely solely upon international corporations to feed us, even though they’ve proven time and again that their only care is for profits.
Slowly, surely, relentlessly, we are waking up. There is another way. The Duluth Grill Cook Book II is the latest contribution toward our community’s drive to create a sustainable local food system. I lingered over a scratch-made pie and perused the book for a couple hours while taking in the atmosphere. Read my thoughts on Ed’s Big Adventure.
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.
Recently I was treated to a 90-minute interview with Tom Hanson in his office just off the kitchen of Duluth Grill, beyond the secret sauces and fresh ingredients. What I learned continues to blow my mind. The resulting column, accessible through the Duluth Budgeteer, barely scratches the surface in observing how he continues to utterly defy conventional wisdom. I quickly came to the conclusion that if he were the CEO of any large corporation he would have been given his walking papers years ago. Happily, it ain’t so, and we’re left with one of the Duluthiest establishments in town.
You can view an expanded version with numerous photos on Ed’s Big Adventure.
