Superior will have a new fine-dining establishment with the opening of Epic Restaurant & Lounge, tentatively planned for sometime in May.
The restaurant, lounge and event venue will be located in the old Joe’s Pagoda Chinese Restaurant location at 3223 Tower Ave., between Campbell Lumber & Supply and Grizzly’s Food-Fired Grill. Joe’s Pagoda owners, Joe and Sue Hear, retired in 2015 after 16 years in business.
I have always loved these buildings, but I never knew so much about them before.
Twohy and Osborn Blocks: Superior’s (Almost) Lost Mercantile Blocks
The Cedar Lounge is located just off Tower Avenue at Third Street in Superior’s North End. The new owner has not announced plans for the property.
The wife of former Fitger’s Brewhouse co-owner Tim Nelson has her name on the recently transferred liquor license of a decades-old Superior tavern.
The Superior City Council granted Cedar Forest LLC a Class B liquor and beer license for the Cedar Lounge, 1715 N. Third St., at its Dec. 15 meeting. The license application lists the sole member of Cedar Forest as Naomi C. Nelson, wife of Duluth micro-brew trailblazer Tim Nelson.
Business North reports an economic development group called Better City Superior intends to seek state permission to create an “exposition district” to attract new developments, such as a 150-room hotel, 20,000-square-foot convention center, 50,000-square-foot water park, a sports field house, a movie theater and a corporate campus.
Business North: “Better City Superior announces growth vision“
See the video on foodnetwork.com.
Guy Fieri buzzed through Duluth and Superior in July 2014 to shoot four segments for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. In this clip — from season 21, episode 3, “Cross-Country Classics” — he visits Shorty’s Pizza & Smoked Meat in Superior.
What’s the deal with Curious Goods in Superior?
If you’ve driven by 1717-1/2 Winter St. and wondered if the store ever opens, well, it doesn’t … but in a way it’s always open, on the Internet. For the past decade or so Curious Goods has basically been a warehouse for eBay items from the seller Curious-g.
This past summer a new marketing effort was launched in Superior to attract people back to the downtown area, which struggled through a long Tower Avenue reconstruction project in 2013. The strip has seen a number of new businesses spring up on the fancy new avenue, but also still has numerous vacant buildings. It’s a work in progress. The joint effort of “collected businesses promoting each other” to “highlight the diamonds in the proverbial rough” is called Visit Uptown Superior.
Why is the downtown now the uptown? Isn’t “uptown” a word to describe a residential area? Well, this part of Superior is the North End, and people tend to think of north as up … and maybe these businesses intend to “Uptown funk you up.” Let’s not overthink it. Below is the back of a promotional postcard highlighting the collective businesses in said Uptown.
A few notes on Superior bars:
Norm’s Beer & Brats held a “Final Bash” over the weekend. According to its Facebook page, the bar will be moving early next week. “The old building will still be open for business tomorrow for tacos (since last week got all kinds of messed up with the power outage), and all week including Friday and Saturday,” reads a post published today. “Our new home is currently known as the Cedar Lounge. Be sure to check it out!”
Update: It seems the Norm’s / Cedar Lounge deal fell through.
I was going to write about the Goin’ Postal show in Superior. (Goin’ Postal is one of the major hubs of the art community in Superior.) But Ed Newman does it better, with pictures.
We will be having a Water Film Fest – films about water, life in water, importance of water, etc. Any season (winter through summer topics) would be fine. There will be local films, national, and international. We’d like the films to be under 10 minutes. The event will run from 6-8:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 at Swenson Hall Room 1012 (next to Yellowjacket Union). It’s free. If you’d like to submit an entry email grethenw @ ci.superior.wi.us. The film fest is sponsored by the City of Superior Environmental Services and the Lake Superior Research Institute. We love clean and healthy water.
Natasha Lancour was arrested in the parking lot of the Keyport Lounge on Jan. 5 for allegedly striking Superior Police Officer George Gothner. Above is the unedited dashboard-cam video; below is a report from WDIO-TV.
A splash of Coyote Ugly is in the city of Superior, just minutes off of the Bong Bridge on Belknap Street, in the former dining area of the Shack.
City’s 58th Street Diner is bringing the 1950s back to South Superior. With its classic malt-shop feel and reasonable prices, it’s like taking a step back in time.
