Dancing Ganesha: New Indian Restaurant Downtown

According to the Downtown Journal, a new Indian restaurant called Dancing Ganesha will be going into the space formerly occupied by Willy's Wine Bar at 11th and Harmon Place. The small blurb says the owner of the new restaurant also owns a vegan restaurant in Columbia Heights, which I assume means that the owner of Udupi, a well-regarded vegetarian South Indian restaurant at 4920 Central Ave. NE., will be behind Dancing Ganesha.

I was sad to see Willy's go, but every time we were in there it was empty. They had a small but good selection of wines by the glass and a nice menu to accompany the wines, but the location is just a bit too out-of-the-way for that particular crowd. Better luck to Dancing Ganesha!

Another Downtown Condo Project Canceled

Downtown Journal reports that David Bernard Builders, a division of Rottlund, has terminated its development agreement with the City of Minneapolis and given up rights to a parcel of land along the riverfront, near the Guthrie Theatre. Here's the meat:

David Bernard Builders, a division of Rottlund Co., needed to sell 40 percent of the proposed 107 units to secure construction financing. The five-story project netted 16 sales and four reservations, and the sales center closed in the spring of 2007 after a little more than a year on the market.

The developer held on to the land rights for nearly four years before dropping redevelopment plans in January.

Michael Noonan, division president of Rottlund Homes, said one factor in the decision to cancel the project was city officials’ desire to designate about 30 feet along Chicago Avenue for open space that would preserve a view corridor to the Guthrie. He said they parted ways when the city refused to allow Rottlund to extend the development contract at no additional cost.

Crowther said the city does not have any immediate plans for the site other than to keep it clean and maintain the grass the developer has planted. She said city officials might offer the property back to the market in the future, but they have no plans at the moment.

This is the third lot on the riverfront that a condo developer has returned to the city. Brighton Development suspended plans last fall for the Portland, a five-story condo building at South 2nd Street and Portland Avenue, as well as Washington Live-Work at the corner of Portland & Washington, a site initially slated for condos and then commercial space. City staff have said they plan to eventually bring those sites back to the market for redevelopment.

Man, this condo shakeout was easy to predict. I think I read somewhere (but can't find the link now) that more than 4,000 new units were planned to be built between 2005 and 2010 in Minneapolis. No way that kind of condo development could be supported even in boom times -- this is a single-family housing kind of town. But for those of us who would enjoy the urban appeal of a downtown condo, it might be good news a couple years down the road, as it appears the condo market has already reached saturation.

Another Bad Aspect of the Farm Bill

The institutionalized mendacity of the farm bill has been documented many places, but a Minnesota farmer has gotten another swipe in, in the New York Times, no less. Jack Hedin, a small fruit and vegetable farmer in Rushton, MN, has an op ed in Saturday's NYT decrying the influence of the large national fruit and vegetable growers, who have built into the new farm bill significant legal barriers to entry for smaller farmers.

For more on the farm bill, here's a link to a blog by Phil Fraas, a Washington agricultural attorney and veteran of six previous Farm Bills.

331 Drunken Spelling Bee Now Monthly

The Drunken Spelling Bee at 331 Club in Nordeast has gone legit (sort of). It now has a sponsor (Pabst), a monthly slot (seems likely to be the last Friday of each month) and a permanent location (331). The Myspace "press release" has more details:

The next Minneapolis Drunken Spelling Bee will be taking place on Friday, March 28th, from 7:30 pm until the last speller stands. The cost is $7 and walk-in spellers will be accepted. Registration is at 7:00 pm sharp for all spellers.

Reigning champ, Stephanie Nett will be the guest judge, along side the witty Mizz Nicole and coffee shop Diva, Library Mary. Host Jess "The Spellbinder" will be on hand to keep spellers in line and drinks flowing.

This round's spellers will be relieved to find this round's words easier and prizes better. The audience will also have more of a chance to interact and play along.

Back by popular demand, the "Underwear Round" will be making reappearing, as well as burlesque hoopster, Honey the Hot Hooper. New additions to the event include the Northeast Hula Hoop Troop, guest DJ Danny Sigelman and more.

Go, spellers! Let's hope you get eleemosynary, antidisestablishmentarianism, and otorhinolaryngological.

Acadia Cafe Relocates

One of my favorite places, Acadia Cafe, has relocated from Nicollet and Franklin to Cedar and Riverside. Justin Flower has a nice write-up in the TC Daily Planet. I saw some great small theatre at the old Acadia spot, including a Fringe Festival performance by Ben San Del (aka Ben Sandell) (myspace) called "Mittens for Fat Kids" that was terrific.

Longfellow Crime and Safety Forum

From the trusty Minneapolis Police Department Crime Alerts comes this info:

LONGFELLOW CRIME AND SAFETY FORUM

This Tuesday the LCC and the 3rd Precinct will be sponsoring an open forum on crime and safety in Longfellow.

The Longfellow Community Connections Committee and the 3rd precinct will be holding an open forum on Crime and Safety in Greater Longfellow. Bring any questions or concerns to Shun Tilman, our local crime and safety expert. Learn about what steps you can take and how you can get involved in making Longfellow a safer community.

Community Connections
Crime and Safety Community Forum
March 4th, 2008
6:30 pm
Longfellow Park
3435 36th Ave. S

For More Information Call Joanna at 612-722-4529

Porter & Frye Face-Off: Rick Nelson Approves, Kathie Jenkins Does Not

No surprise, but Rick Nelson gives thumbs up (after one dine) to Porter & Frye, the new restaurant in the Ivy Hotel + Residences downtown. He raves about, among other dishes, the main course lamb and the cured meat appetizer. Amazingly, Kathie Jenkins rips into both of those dishes specifically, saying the lamb was so rare that "each bite took about five minutes to chew" and comparing the "sausage platter" to "a plate of nachos, a half pound of thin-sliced meat layered with just a few crackers and a little bit of parmesan."

Are these reactions unexpected? Probably not. I'll be interested to see what they have to say in full reviews, but I suspect it'll be more of the same. Nelson strikes me as a solid reviewer with just a bit of rah-rah for the glitzy new kids, while Jenkins seems to enjoy being a contrarian and somewhat more lowbrow.

Two Recent Mentions of Chipotle

Fans of mongo burritos know Chipotle, that healthier, ethnic ex-cousin of McDonald's. Recently, they've been mentioned twice locally that I've seen:

1) Nancy Ngo mentions in this week's PiPress Restaurant News that Chipotle has "switched to using 100 percent naturally raised meats in all of its Minnesota restaurants. The company has been using naturally raised pork and chicken. Now, even the steak fajitas are made with meat from animals fed vegetarian diets and are free of antibiotics or added hormones." Bravo!

2) Two "middle aged skeazy dudes" on the 16 bus on Washington Avenue apparently have come up with what Overhead in Minneapolis feels should be Chipotle's new slogan. I actually think Chipotle burritos are bigger than the object in question, but having never seen said object, it's merely a guess.

Mini-Golf for a Good Cause: 2008 Skyway Open

Never heard of this until today, but what a great idea: set up a mini-golf course in the downtown Minneapolis skyways, charge people to play, and donate the proceeds to a worthy charity. That's exactly what the 2008 US Bank Skyway Open is all about. The profits from the event go directly to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities’ REBOUND program.

Gotta Get Your Krispy Kremes on Vacation Now

Turns out the Krispy Kreme phenomenon was pretty short-lived in Minnesota. Remember the lines around the block in Maple Grove? (No, I wouldn't set foot in Maple Grove for a doughnut or almost anything else, but I do recall seeing the footage on local news.) Remember the lines at the MOA for them? (Again, news footage.) Anyway, THEY'RE GONE. Outta here. Vamoosed. No Krispy Kremes for you.

Frankly, the whole thing was a lot of hype anyway. We have way, way better local bakery goods here in the Twin Cities than anything those hot glazed folks could sling. How about Mel-O-Glaze, home of the best damn doughnuts in South Mpls.? Or P J Murphy's, which has great baked goods and a completely useless website? Or Scandia Bake Shop, "Minneapolis's Oldest Scandinavian Bakery? Or the world famous (well, not quite, but they make darn good pastries) Palm's Bakery in St. Louis Park? Those are but four of the bakery wonders here in the Twin Cities, all of them producing culinary gems that far outshine anything a franchise bakery operation could make.

Good riddance, Krispy Kreme, and don't let the door hit your keister on the way out!

Rake Stops Print Publication, Will Remain Online

The Rake announced today that it will cease print publication, lay off 15 of its 16 employees (keeping Cristina Cordova to run the web op) and presumably continue as a sort of local Huffington Post (assuming they can keep some of the blogging names on board -- Britt Robson, Jeremy Iggers, Anne Bauer, et al.).

Just prior to the announcement, there was a small dustup in the comments at Brad Zellar's Rake blog (Yo, Ivanhoe!) about David Brauer's MinnPost coverage of The Rake being for sale. MNspeak also has lots of comments on the news.

This is sad news for the Twin Cities media community, although having one less outlet probably won't make much difference (and The Rake was known to be near the bottom of the pay scale for writers). And it's sad news for a friend of mine, a (now former) Rake employee who received a whopping four days of severance pay.

Ultimately, though, quality will out. My friend is talented and will find new and better work. The better writers at the Rake will find lots of opportunities to have their unique voices heard. And maybe Melinda Jacobs can buy what's left of the Rake and turn it into her own vanity publishing mini-empire. Now if only she could find an editor ...

Secret Show at Dakota Tonight?

I just heard through the grapevine that there may be a few celebrity guests at the Dakota tonight for its "Late Night at the Dakota" at 11:30pm.

There is a $5 cover for "Late Night at the Dakota," and they usually feature a local group (and they often have some pretty decent food specials for the late-night crowd, too).

Tonight, Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra is playing at Orchestra Hall.

Mayfield and some of his band members may be heading over to the Dakota after their gig to provide this evening's late night entertainment. You didn't hear it here.

Stuff For Winos: Tastings this Week

Highlight of this week's tastings list from the Strib is a freebie:

Executive chef and sommelier Vincent Negret of the Cannon River Winery will discuss different wines. Free. 6-7 p.m. Feb. 23. Guests can buy wine by the glass or bottle. Reservations required. St. Paul Hotel, 350 Market St., St. Paul. 651-292-9292. www.saintpaulhotel.com.

Some others are listed, mostly on Feb. 29. Also mentioned is $10 wine tasting sponsored by McDonald's Liquors that will take place on March 6 (the Strib article omits the date, mysteriously). Sounds pretty good for the price, and those McDonald's folks are great and deserve to be supported.

I'm Already Over the Naked Sushi Thing

Everyone has an opinion about the "new" thing at Temple -- Nyotaimori/Nantaimori (eating sushi and sashimi off the naked body of a woman/man, respectively). Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about it, it ain't worth $75 to me, and it definitely won't be worth $150 to me in the future. And as a non-drinker and person who has no interest in getting a stranger's pubic hair in his teeth, I'm not really up for the wakame sake experience, either.

Lenny Russo Comments on Andrew Zimmern's Blog

Wow! A well-written, informative blog post from Andrew Zimmern on USDA/AMS attempt to co-opt the phrase "naturally raised" in connection with beef production, followed by a foie gras dustup, a rant on restaurant ownership and a long, thoughtful comment from the one and only Lenny Russo, chef-owner of Heartland and champion of sustainable food production. That's a lot of action in one blog post (with comments)!

At the end of the day, though, please read Zimmern's post and comment at the AMS website, if you feel as he does (and I do) that the proposed labeling is just corporate whitewash. This article from Michael Pollan, on the "rectification of names" is on a slightly different word, but the idea is the same.

Mpls Wi-Fi to Finally Be Completed?

Steve Alexander of the Strib reports that the Minneapolis citywide wi-fi network buildout should be complete by March 11. Seems like there are a lot of dead zones, though, and the provider, USIWireless, a subsidiary of USInternet, has a history of missed deadlines.

So, there's a three-tier pricing structure for each of two download speeds. If you want 3Mbps download speed, you can either prepay a year for $18.95 per month ($227.40 for the year), or sign a 2-year contract and pay $24.95 per month, or pay as you go for $29.95 per month.

If you want only 1Mbps download speed, you can prepay for a year for $14.95 per month ($179.40 for the year), or sign a 2 year contract and pay $17.95 per month, or pay as you go for $19.95 per month.

Frankly, signing a 2-year contract doesn't seem compelling to me. It's way cheaper to buy a year's worth of service up front, and if you're undecided, spend the pay-as-you-go amount for a month or two to decide if you like the service.

Anecdotally, I have heard 2 things about the service: (1) it isn't necessarily the most reliable -- all kinds of service calls may be required in the first couple of months because repositioning of the wireless relays may be required to get you a decent connection; and (2) USIWireless generally credits you for the month if your service is down for any unreasonable amount of time. Again, these are anecdotal; your mileage may vary.

NWA Adds PerkChoice for Award Travel

From the Northwest Airlines website, a new way to buy seats with cash and miles combined:

Now there's more flexibility, affordability and choice when booking travel with Cash and Miles.

• PerkChoice lets you use your WorldPerks miles for one half of your roundtrip and cash for the other.
• This all-new exclusive offer will provide options for WorldPerks members to book travel if a PerkSaver award seat is available on only one way of a roundtrip.
• WorldPerks members can use as few as 12,500 miles and there are no time or date restrictions on any Northwest flights.

I don't know whether this will be a good thing or a non-event. I do know that everyone I speak to about traveling on FF miles on NWA tells me they can never find seats. One couple I know has loads of miles, but they wind up either donating them or using them for hotel points, because they can never find WorldPerks seats for the flights they want.

Kathie Jenkins Has a List of Friday Fish Fries

The PiPress's Kathie Jenkins has assembled a good list of Friday fish fries for Lent. I'm not a person who feels they can't or shouldn't eat meat on Fridays, but I'm happy to take advantage of the Friday fish fries just the same. Glad to see one of my favorites, St. Clair Broiler, made the list.

Steve Perry: So Long, Daily Mole. Hello, MNMon!

Steve Perry, as rumored, has shut down the Daily Mole and will be joining the MN Monitor. Sounds like a good move for him, and a nice addition to MNMon. Also, Dude Weather has moved to The Rake.

Viking Udeze Has Leukemia

The Minnesota Vikings have confirmed that defensive end Kenechi Udeze has been diagnosed with leukemia. An earlier report mentioned that he is being treated at Fairview Southdale and also was at the Mayo Clinic. The original story was reported on KSTP Channel 5.

I'm not a religious person, but my thoughts go out to Udeze and his family. He has an infant daughter, who deserves to have her daddy around for a long, long time.