Archaeologists have all the fun. Mere historians spend their summers sweating over hot computers while those on expeditions get fresh air and exercise, often in agreeable places. I have just heard from a student who is spending great swaths of his summer making a new map of the Boundary Waters. There are less pleasant ways … Read more
The more traditional Somali cafés, with their sex-segregated seating and all-Somali clientele, can feel a bit uninviting to outsiders, but owner Sade Hashi makes everybody feel welcome at Safari Restaurant, just south of downtown Minneapolis. The original location, a few doors away, was friendly but frumpy; the new space is downright stylish, with an espresso … Read more
It’s a lesson that generations of Twin Cities restaurateurs have learned the hard way: The number of haute-cuisine restaurants that locals are willing to support at any given time is extremely small. Like, around two. When the number gets much higher, you have too much foie gras chasing too few gullets, and the population crashes … Read more
The old curmudgeon is at it again. Michael Morse, crusty former owner of the late, lamented Café Un Deux Trois and a schmoozer extraordinaire, now presides over the Landmarc Grill in the Normandy Inn and Suites in downtown Minneapolis. It’s the kind of comfort-food joint that Morse has talked about opening for years, serving roast … Read more
Café Maude is just the kind of restaurant a lot of neighborhoods need: prices low enough that the folks within walking distance can afford to be regulars, and food interesting enough to draw diners from a wider area. Proprietor Kevin Sheehy, who also owns a couple of Dunn Brothers coffeehouses nearby, worked closely with the … Read more
Orin Rutchick, Kristine Heykants, Angela Strassheim, and Mickey Smith now show the fruits of the past year’s labors as winners of the McKnight Foundation’s annual photography fellowships. These are fairly approachable artists, standing in relation to average folks’ uses of the medium: Orin Rutchick’s project is all about tourist snapshots; Kristine Heykants’s theatrical studio work … Read more
Segrelicious is described as a “multi-media, poly-racial-gender exquisite corpse of poetry, performance, and artistic experimentation.” That tall order is maybe even possible to fill, given Shoebox proprietor Sean Smuda’s polymorphous involvement with dance, poetry, photography, iron sculpture, and even improvisational music. Each artist was directed to make work in response to a piece from another … Read more
Cynde Randall has been in touch with just about every artist in the five-state area, thanks to her work as a longtime associate with the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and as the founder of the annual Bird x Bird exhibition, a benefit for avian well-being. Now, fittingly, she has … Read more
You know what printmaking is: creating multiple copies of an image, by any means possible. Print is a parallel art-world with its own histories and propensities. Some techniques are ancient, like woodcuts; some are former industrial processes, like stone lithography or screenprint; some are intimately allied with books and illustrations, like intaglio. Print is a … Read more
“This is city girl meets country boy,” quipped Cheri Peterson, pointing a finger between herself and her husband, Kevin. However, such a coupling can work swimmingly when the pair gets to share a sophisticated yet bucolic life as owners and operators of the WineHaven Winery and Vineyard, outside Chisago City. The Peterson partnership, which manages … Read more