Duluth’s Ingeborg von Agassiz has a new single with a Thanksgiving theme. The full version of “Over the River and Through the Wood” is available for listening and downloading on Bandcamp. The song is based on a poem written in 1844 by Lydia Maria Child.
OMC Smokehouse turkey – Photo by Rolf Hagberg
The pandemic will quash many extended family and group gatherings this Thanksgiving. Opting out of cooking entirely and ordering takeout is a totally reasonable option for the smoldering dumpster fire that’s left of 2020.
A bevy of Twin Ports restaurants are offering Thanksgiving meals to go, so no one has to miss out on a full turkey dinner with all the traditional trimmings. Below is Perfect Duluth Day’s list of options to soothe the cumulative stress induced by the past nine months with some savory comfort food.
Try to muster up some gratitude. Whatever you do, leave room for pie.
Thanksgiving is arguably the best holiday. It’s an opportunity to be grateful for what you have, eat delicious food and spend time with family (either blood or chosen). There’s no need to buy presents, go to church or decorate the house. The most stressful aspect of the day is the cooking.
Shopping for the annual thankfulness feast can involve a whole gamut of traditional offerings — mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce — but the age-old staple is turkey. What will that bird cost ya? Well, we’ve chased down prices at a variety of Duluth-area grocery stores for this report.
Listed first are three variations of brand-name mass-marketed turkey: frozen Jennie-O Grade A, premium fresh Jennie-O and premium frozen Butterball. Our fourth comparison is of turkeys purported to be a bit more naturally produced.
Here lies the eleventh feature for PDD’s Price Check series where we compare the cost of goods and services in Duluth and Superior. The amounts below reflect the per-pound price each establishment charges. Minnesota and Wisconsin classify unprepared foods and food ingredients as exempt from tax.
My Thanksgiving started Wednesday, and I want to point a few things out.
It’s an annual tradition at PDD to take a moment and reflect on what we are thankful for. How unique, right?
For starters, we’re thankful for the new old Nordic ski trails at Spirit Mountain, Sax-Zim Bog, wicked North Shore icicles, artisan bread at the Red Mug, lift-accessed mountain biking at Spirit Mountain, animated music videos, Boreal owl irruptions, Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe and a lot of other things I’m thankful I don’t have time to link to because it’s time to make the Thanksgiving glogg.
Not that we aren’t generally grateful at Perfect Duluth Day, but, well … there is a category of posts called “Bitching” and not one called “Jubilant Praise” (although maybe “Recommendations” covers that). Anyway, at least once a year we do throw things open for folks to comment about what they are thankful for in this world (or Duluth specifically).
To start things off, on behalf of the PDD staff, I’d like to thank the nearly 2,000 people who have blogging accounts on PDD and keep the online Duluthist banter going day after day — not to mention the thousands more who lurk on the site, read it regularly, but keep their thoughts to themselves.
We should all be thankful for zero losses of human life during the Historic Summer Solstice Flood Disaster of 2012, although quite a few homes and possessions were wrecked and a few critters met their unpleasant demise. And we should all be thankful the Leap Day 2012 Snowmageddon happened or it pretty much would have been a snowless winter.
But it’s good to be thankful for the little things, too, so I’m going to focus on Goo Goo Cluster pie.
(Here’s what folks on PDD were thankful for in 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003.)
Based on grabbing information from previous posts on this subject rather than actually performing due diligence and calling the restaurants to confirm, here’s this year’s list:
Buffalo House (Midway Township)
Captain Barker’s Restaurant & Lounge (Superior)
Black Woods (Duluth, Proctor, Two Harbors)
Dreamland Supper Club (South Range)
Dry Dock Bar & Restaurant (Midway Township)
Foster’s Sports Bar & Grill (Hermantown)
JJ Astor (Duluth)
Ledge Rock Grille (Larsmont)
Midi Restaurant (Duluth)
Old Town Bar & Restaurant in Superior
Pickwick (Duluth)
The Shack Smokehouse & Grille (Superior)
Upper Deck Restaurant (Superior)
And, of course, there’s always a free Thanksgiving dinner at the DECC.
Anyone with further information, additions or corrections to this list may, as always, comment on this post or e-mail factcheck @ perfectduluthday.com.
I’m thankful the server that hosts the PDD Calendar is back up and running, after a day of problems. (Ironically, in setting up the links below I noticed that last year my personal Internet service was down just before Thanksgiving, and I was thankful for it being restored. Ah, the joy of technical issues around the holidays!)
Anyway, what are you all thankful for this year, fellow Duluthians?
(Here’s what PDDers were thankful for in 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003.)
I’ll lead this year’s PDD Thanksgiving prayer by declaring I’m thankful my Internet is finally back up and running, just in time for giving thanks (and after $100 and hours of anguish.)
I’m also thankful for the batch of glogg I need to start making right this minute!
… and friends and family and yada yada.
What are you thankful for?
(Here’s what PDDers were thankful for in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003.)
What is open in Duluth on Thanksgiving? We used to travel to the TC to go to Dunn Bros. for coffee (they were open until noon), reading the Black Friday ads, then down to a casino for a magnificent dinner buffet.
Where can I snag some coffee and dinner in Duluth on this most Thankful of Days?
Just wondering if anyone else remembers the big snowstorm of ’83? It actually hit the night before Thanksgiving. I was working at what was called the Duluth Arena then and we got snowed in. I got to pull my car inside and sleep in the auditorium mezzanine. It was pretty sweet. We took an Arena ice truck and tried to get to Superior for some beer, but had to turn back. We did manage to walk down in the middle of the blizzard and eat at Godfather’s on London Road, right before they closed up shop. I remember we even managed to throw a snowball or two at Jack McKenna’s weather window on Michigan Street.
Good times.
The coolest thing about this monster blizzard was the thunder and lighting. That was the first time I had ever seen that, and I don’t think it’s happened since.
Allow me to once again lead the PDD Thanksgiving prayer. I’ll go ahead and take friends, family and food for granted as usual.
This year I’m most thankful for dentists, particularly the one who is finally going to fix my cavity next week.
I’m also thankful for Minnesota Care and Delta Dental, which aren’t necessarily the best friends of dentists, but are a big help to me.
I’m also thankful for people who won’t turn the comments to this post into a bitter debate about health care, even though I kind of provoked them.
There. Now what are you thankful for?
(Here’s what we were thankful for in 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003.)
What’s a good place to eat dinner on Thanksgiving day in Duluth?
(Looking for a restaurant recommendation, not the suggestion to go to your grandmother’s house!)
