NE, sunday

I've been known to jump to conclusions at times when it comes to changes in my neighborhood. As I've stated before, I HATE the 331, The Bulldog, and the Red Stag. Its not only that they're shit, its that they're newcomers. I understand that this is stupid. I understand that I sound like a curmudgeonly, cantankerous old fuck. I don't apply this stupidity to everything, though. Restaurants get a free pass in my idiotic book. Bars do not.

Anyone who has been in this neighborhood long enough probably has a certain amount of nostalgia for Mac's sports bar. No, it wasn't in the mold of the sports bar of today, the mold which has effectively made certain that I will never enter another again. It had true class, real character. So when they knocked the fucker down and put up condos, you can probably imagine my angst.

Then, when a bar opened up across the street and named itself Mac's Industrial Sports Bar(?), I pretty much wrote that one off as well. Fortunately, I'm not quite as inflexible as I come across as being. Its a good place with good beer and good people. I'm not a fan of a bunch of windows in bars, though. Mac's is ALL fucking windows. This works fine in the summer. Come winter, I don't want to see that shit, I want to pretend I'm in Acapulco or something.



I'm even starting to warm up to the goddamn condos across the street. I still think the architects were arrogant pricks to design a building on the cheap that didn't resemble a fucking thing surrounding it, but whatever...

More random NE

I didn't really plan on doing shots like this one for the NE project, but I'm throwing it out there to see how it feels.



Also, I know I said no people, but I had to stick this dude in here somewhere. I figure if I piggyback it onto a church shot for now, somehow that is more acceptable.



Thats impressive huh? The hair, not the church.

100th post!

This is post #100. I can't believe that I stuck with this for as long as I have. As anyone who has been unlucky enough to be peer pressured by myself into following this shit could tell you, it has been strange. I never had any ideas about where it was going and I still don't. Here, though, is a brief chronology of where it has been.

1. A place for friends to view drunk Bay to Breakers photos from San Fran.
2. Random crap.
3. A documentary of the War with the Squirrels.
4. Random crap.
5. Burningman photos.
6. More from the front line of the Squirrel War.
7. Random crap.
8. The food project starts(still going)
9. Random crap.
10. The Northeast project starts



So, thank you to anyone durable enough to have read a bunch of my posts. As you now know, I utilize this blog more as a diary than anything else. And I'm sorry if I have offended anyone with my corse language or crude ideas.

Here is a smattering of some of my favorite entries from the past year

Squirrel War Begins!
The Native American Squirrel Significance Bullshit
Mr. America
Pyka!
Food project starts
The Beer Stick
The Kramarchek's fuck-story
Jimmy's
Modern pot roast
This billboard SUCKS

WATCH YER SHIT!

So I saw a guy on a scooter just get CREAMED the other day by an older woman in a car. Apparently, she saw it fit to take a left out of the right lane of a 3 lane one-way. The poor dude in front of me is proudly putting along at about 30 mpg on his brand new Stella scooter(dealer plates, man, dealer plates...). All of a sudden he has a beige sedan(of course) directly in front of him and WHAP! You can bet your sweet ass that I called the cops and stayed with the dude until the cop got there so I could make sure there was zero misunderstanding as to which party should shoulder the responsibility for this fuck-story.

Then, this morning as I was driving around, and I see this...



I don't know if this guy died via vehicle, or cancer, or raptors or what. I DO know that, weather motorbike or bicycle, this scenario of car vs non-car unfolds far too often in these parts.

So, that having been stated... WATCH YER SHIT!

Excellent effort!

OK, I understand that houses get foreclosed on. They get condemned. Buildings become vacant. All that shit happens as the natural ebb and flow of a community. With that acknowledged, can't people display a little creativity sometimes? Do we always have to perpetuate the same goddamn stereotype of the down and out?



Kudos to whoever blocked this place up. Yeah, it has nothing to do with northeast or food or squirrels or any of the other happy horseshit that usually occupies my posts... but it a damn nice piece of condemnation, no less!

Pairings

This is probably as far as I'm going to drive for the whole food project thing. Pairings is off Hwy. 62 in Minnetonka... and its in exactly the type of development that I have engineered my life to avoid. My friend, Kate, is involved in launching this restaurant, and she invited me to the pre-opening so of course I went.

It was REALLY GOOD! And it doesn't feel like, well, like the rest of the area that it is imbedded in. It has attractive lighting(natural and lamp), an easy layout, and I ate on a 700 lb. wood table... beautiful!



I had a few things, but the one above was a Duck Confit pizza that also has goat cheese, squash, cherries, and arugula. It was absolutely fantastic. I also had one of the best dressings that I can remember. It was a buttermilk of some variety, and it was on a grilled chicken spinach salad. Also bitchin'.



The area that Parings is located in should be indebted to the people behind said restaurant. Here's a fun fact... there are two Starbucks within 150 yards of the Pairings. TWO! Is that necessary? What in the fuck is that about? Well, at least when you're eating at Pairings, you can face West and all you see is road and trees...

Today is the first day of the annual Art-a-Whirl festival in NE Minneapolis. I love the fact that since I've lived here, my neighborhood has gone from moderately 'seedy' to the undisputed artistic hub of the state. My favorite part about the transformation isn't the art, though. My favorite part is the way that the new, young artistic demographic has moved in but has done little to harm the staples that truly anchor the neighborhood.

On any given night, people on opposite sides of, well, everything mingle without friction with one and other. Make no mistake, though, there are exceptions... and the neighborhood would be an even better place if they would just go away. I can think of 3 places off hand that can fuck off. The Bulldog NE, The Red Stag, and the dreaded 331 Club. Really, just go back to Uptown where you belong... there is no shame in that. You're like really fashionably dressed vultures... parasites, even.





These photos are a metaphor which encapsulates my love for this neighborhood. Some people succeed in making art for art's sake. Some people make art on accident.

They both succeed. Only one cares.

The Dark Side

Contrary to popular belief, NE Minneapolis is not ONLY sun-drenched beaches, romantic bay-side cafes, and exotic women frolicking through the streets throwing beads. Actually, its quite drab looking... almost creepy in areas.

This house, while officially in SE(I think), has always been one of my favorites. I know of no other house like it where I live. I know of no other house anywhere that looks like this, actually. Someday, I need to get inside...



This is an intersection 3 blocks from this vampire bomb shelter. Good things come in pairs, I guess.

WWWOOOOOO-WWWWWWOOOOOOO!!!!!

i dun ben drivin' round norfeast fer a cuple days now when i trip 'n fell 'n seent dis here. wwwooooo!!!! check out dem der rubbers!

Mother's Day

After I got done tearing it up with my mom and grandma, it was off to Sean's house in suburb X. I didn't know quite what to expect, because Sean seemed to be buying some of the food... but Aaron was going to be doing the heavy lifting.

Aaron is a friend of mine who did the culinary school/restaurant thing for years. Therefore, I set upon the event with an open mind. I knew as soon as I got there that I was in for the goods.



He was experimenting with frying red bananas. They were then to be skewered and grilled with a bunch of other goodies(see below).





I told you, Aaron doesn't fuck around. He also did a tequila/lime/curry marinade for the marlin steaks and the chicken.



Needless to say, I ate well. The marlin was particularly great. As was the beer. And the company.



Thanks goes to Aaron for the cooking, no doubt. That won't stop a dude from posting a pic of him being run over in chess by the L-train! WWOOOO-WWWOOOOOOOO!!

P.S. This is a late addition to this post, but I can't let this entry go without a pic of Jenny when she is schwasted...

The Favor Cafe

I never went to the Restaurant Miami or Club Miami or Miami or whatever the fuck it was called before it closed. If you know me and know the places I get my drinkin' done, you know that just having the word 'Miami' in your name pretty much eliminates you from getting my liquor money.

It was on Colfax and Lake St., and now its gone. Judging by the decor still left over in what is now The Favor Cafe(a soul restaurant!), it died a deserved death. Really, the whole thing is lit with pink and teal florescent lights. And the translucent stools! So midwestern-Miami. In other words... really, really, super fucking lame.

And, as anyone who has spent 30+ years in Minnesota would rightfully deduce, I didn't expect much from a southern/soul/caribbean restaurant in Minneapolis. I should know better than to think that I know stuff.



OK, the photo sucks. I already explained the lighting, though. I'm not kidding, it could not have been worse. Fortunately, when you spend a shit-ton of money on a camera these days, you can still record what you ate under crap conditions.

Seriously, I'm not a diehard fan of chicken. Its cool, but it never knocks me out because, well, its boring. I had a Jamaican chicken dish here with collard greens, yams, cornbread, etc... I wasn't even hungry when I ordered. It was amazing. I ate EVERYTHING. I had plans to go sing some karaoke that night when I was done. They were derailed by my fat fucking ass. I could barely move. Oh my god it was good. I'm so glad I found this place because I can see myself having yet another craving for this kind of food which can ONLY be satisfied by this kind of food.



This is the view from the bar. Wierd.

NE Project

I started a new project yesterday. It's quite simple. I'm going to drive up and down every block in NE Minneapolis and photograph any and all places that remind me of the area that I've called home for many years. Its going to have a heavy architectural emphasis, but certainly won't be opposed to including the... whatever. The only thing I plan on avoiding is people(at least portraiture). That would just open it up more than I care to think about, and I would risk the whole thing fizzling out.



If you can tell me what bar this is, I'll buy you a beer there.

So, yeah. I'm definitely not planning on blogging the entire project... there will just be too many photos. I'm 2 trips into this and I already have about 15 keepers for the archive... and thats from parts of the Marshall Terrace and Holland neighborhoods. It should be fun.

Risotto

I know someone who recently opened this restaurant. Obviously, thats all the reason I need to get me out of my culinary, dine-out slumber. So off to Lyn-Lake I went.

Now, I'm by no means an Italian food connoisseur. I mean, I make a pretty bitchin' marinara sauce after 10 years of refinement, but thats about as far as it goes. Also, I think my sauce is a bit less Italian, and a bit more... whatever I am.

Anyway, they obviously specialize in real Risotto here. Thats not what I had(due to time constraints)... so I had this instead. Insalata all'astice. If you don't know what that means, you need to brush up on your Italian. With a little patience, you could work your vocab up to 8 words... just like me.



I had a great time here. Patrice and the chef, Gabriele, couldn't have been more hospitable. I look forward to going back for dinner. That may not mean much to you, but if you knew how much I hated that neighborhood at night, it might.