Minneapolis, MN

Thanks to my sister, I now know of a great new sandwich and deli place in the Minneapolis warehouse district.  Located at 800 Washington Ave. N. downtown, the new deli offers gourmet sandwiches, soups and salads.

Taking a natural foods approach with locally sourced ingredients to create healthy foods from scratch.  With several specialty cured and smoked meats, delectable bakery items, and an old-fashioned dedication to customer service & satisfaction, Be’Wiched should be on your list of places to go for lunch.

In addition to great eat-in options, there are take-out and catering as well, so spice up that next working lunch meeting!  Or stop by after work for a relaxing bite before heading home.  Be’Wiched is the brainchild of founding chefs Matthew Bickford and Mike Ryan, and you can read more about them here.

Be’Wiched Deli | 800 Washington Ave. N. Minneapolis, MN

612-767-4330 | www.bewicheddeli.com

Bewiched Deli, Minneapolis Deli, Bewiched Sandwiches

Well, according to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak anyway - and that day will be September 28th, 2007.  Celebrating the launch of the new television network offering a wide range of women’s and men’s college sporting coverage.

Rybak said, “The Big Ten Network provides national exposure to the excellent programs at the University of Minnesota”.

The official announcement will be at the McNamara Alumni Center prior to the Goal Line Club luncheon at 11:50am today, Friday September 28th, 2007.

Via: GopherSports.com - Mayor declares Saturday “Minnesota Big Ten Network Day”

Big Ten Network, Minnesota Gophers

Well it could be.  Hang on to your hat folks, because auditions will be in town on October 9th in Minneapolis.  The show “The Next Food Network Star” will be looking for contestants for next season’s series.

Winners of the show would get their own Food Network series, so if this sound like you make sure to keep 10am to 4pm on Oct. 9th open and head on down to the Chambers Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.  An application, photo, and resume/bio should be brought with to work with the casting crew.  Good luck.

BAM! (heh, I couldn’t help myself)

Via: StarTribune.com - What’s cooking: So you wanna be a Food Network star

Food Network, The Next Food Network Star, Minneapolis

It seems our ‘great’ city is caught in a legal pickle of sorts. Minneapolis instituted a red light camera ticketing program about two years ago without approval from the state legislature. Basically there was not a law on the books for the city to be able to perform this little action.

The bigger problem is that the state Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that this violated state law. Where this becomes a large issue is the money and the individuals license points.

The city raised $2.8 million in fines for these tickets - some 4200 of them at $142 a pop! The city will clear the points for these tickets off your license, but will not (currently) return the collected fines. This failure to return the fines is pending in a lawsuit in front of the district court at this time.

Just in case you at least want those points cleared, you’ll need to fill out this form and submit it for that to happen. How convenient.

Jerks.

Photo credit, Joslyn Layne

Via: thenewspaper.com - Minneapolis, Minnesota Refuses to Refund Illegal Red Light Camera Tickets

Minneapolis Stop Light Camera, Minneapolis Stop Light Tickets

There is some new news circulating about a new steakhouse opening on 7th Street & Hennepin. Sometime in mid-November, David Koch will be opening r. Norman, named for his business partner at Bellanotte

The new multi-level nightclub will feature with r. Norman’s on the first level, a new sushi lounge called Seven will be on the second and a rooftop lounge above that. The rooftop lounge may be the largest in the Minneapolis downtown area.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

Photo credit, dronepop

Via: StarTribune.com - Nightwatch: New nightlife coming to Hennepin

Minneapolis Nightlife, Bellanotte Minneapolis, r. Norman Minneapolis

The Minnesota History Center in St. Paul is opening a new exhibit on September 18th.  Called Right on Lake Street the exhibit is a collaboration of Macalester College and In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre.

The exhibit celebrates the history of Lake Street, a 6 mile stretch between St. Paul and Minneapolis that is a part of 14 neighborhoods and is itself an important commercial district.

Designed and presented as miniatures, the gallery’s model of Lake Street includes many landmark locations and unforgettable intersections such as Hennepin, Chicago and Cedar.  Also included in the gallery are interactive mapping programs highlighting gardens and bicycling and art.

Minnesota History Center | Right On Lake Street

Minnesota History Center, Minneapolis Lake Street, Macalester College, In the Heart of the Beast

Hang onto your pocketbook again fellow citizens, more taxes are heading your way.  The city of Minneapolis is capping the current property tax levy at 8% though one board member dissented, wanting more money allotted for park use.

While the city counsel won’t address how to spend the additional tax revenue for 2008, the levy does conform to the counsel’s 2002 policy to raise tax collection by 8% year over year.  The increases are designed to offset cuts in state aid.

Individual homes rather than commercial property generates the bulk of the property taxes in Minneapolis.  Because of the housing values change quickly, the current drop in the housing market in some areas will not show in property taxes until 2009.

Via: Star Tribune.com - Minneapolis City Council caps tax levy at 8%

Minneapolis Taxes, Property Taxes

When was the last time you were at a concert?  Yeah, same here - too long as a matter of fact.  Well, there’s about 9 shows coming to the Twin Cities in the coming months and the range from kids shows to *yeah* aging rockers (I’m admitting to this phase ).

So here’s what’s coming to town:

• Arcade Fire on Sept. 30th
• Maroon 5 on Oct. 1st
• Sugarland on Oct. 13th
• Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) on Oct. 21st
• Van Halen on Oct. 24th (w00t!)
• Rascal Flats on Oct. 27th
• Ozzy Ozborne and Rob Zombie on Oct. 31st
• Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on Nov. 2nd (w00t!)
• Keith Urban on Nov. 17th

There is *tons* more information at the link below, including locations and ticket prices.  Have fun kids!  (Hope I can make it to VH!)

Via: TwinCities.com - 9 really large arena shows

Twin Cities Concerts, Twin Cities Entertainment

If you’ve been following the Minnesota Renaissance Festival you probably already know that this weekend is the Irish Heritage Celebration weekend.

Well for the rest of us that hadn’t know this, there are great times to be found at the rennfest’s theme weekends.  There are many Irish themed events this weekend, in addition to the usual fun.  Personally I think the free Guinness tasting is where I’d spend the majority of my time.

Don’t forget that the Renaissance Festival will be running every weekend through September 28th, so make sure to get out at least once.

Minnesota Renaissance Festival, Rennfest

Wednesday, Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak sat in front of congress and recommended “temporarily” raising the federal gas tax.  Suggesting that this ”temporary” tax hike should be used to repair 6,175 bridges that have been found to be structurally deficient.

WTF!?

Here’s my question.  Why were they allowed to become structurally deficient?  What were the federal and state gas taxes and transportation budgets used on?  Obviously not bridge maintenance to the level required.

So here it comes again, we all get to pay extra because our governmental agencies are incapable of providing the basic necessities of modern transportation.  Go figure.  So, on top of rising fuel costs that are highly manipulated by the futures market, we get to anticipate ANOTHER tax increase that simply shouldn’t have to take on.

Ok, end of rant now.

Via: St. Cloud Times - Minneapolis mayor tells Congress he supports Oberstar?s gas tax plan

Sorry, the past several days have gotten the better of me.  I hadn’t gotten a chance to update the blog here - and I didn’t even loose track of time at the fair.  We’ll be back shortly with more!

Welcome to Labor Day Weekend folks, the traditional “last weekend of summer”.  I hope you’ve all had fun for the summer and gotten out to at least one of the many summer events in Minneapolis.

Of course, this weekend is great because there are two very fun and distinctly different events going on.  One is the Minnesota State Fair and the other is the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

 While the Renaissance Festival continues every weekend through September 30th, the fair ends on Labor Day - so get out there and have fun.  You can find information and purchase tickets at the fair’s website.

The Renaissance Festival has a great site too where you can get discount tickets and learn more about what’s available for food & fun.  This weekend for example is the “Royal Ale Festival”, so named because of the focus on Ale and it’s part in society.  It looks to be quite fun so check out the site and head on over to the “rennfest” as it’s sometimes called around town.

Have a happy, fun, and safe Labor Day weekend everyone!

Minnesota Renaissance Festival, Minnesota State Fair

One wonders what’s happening here.  CenterPoint Energy is reporting a significant increase in unpaid gas bills.  Some 20,000 customers have had their gas service discontinued, though about 40% have agreed to a payment arrangement where the service is then reconnected.

It’s a big enough issue that CenterPoint now has commercials on broadcast radio urging customers in arrears to call and make a payment arrangement rather than have their service disrupted.  Mike Meyers (no not the SNL funnyman) at the Star Tribune has a full article on the matter.

Via: StarTribune.com - Unpaid bills for natural gas are up sharply

CenterPoint Energy, Unpaid Bills, Natural Gas

That storm early this morning?  Was it pretty nasty around your place?  Not surprising, since the heavy rain, hail, and winds took out power for about 56,000 Xcel Energy customers.

With approximately 32,000 customers on the west metro and another 24,000 estimated in the east metro, the storm had a pretty big affect on the entire metro area.  Outside the cities, there was baseball sized hail to the north in Aitkin County and flash flooding in the southeast portion of the state.

Via: Fox Twin Cities - 56,000 Without Power in Metro

A week after sever flooding in S.E. Minnesota washed out a bridge, Amtrak has resumed service between La Crosse and Minneapolis.  The flooding washed out a bridge near Minnesota City which was used by the Amtrak passenger service.  Traffic was rerouted over BNSF rails that run through La Crosse.  Normal traffic was resumed on Sunday on it’s normal route, track that is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway.

Via: TwinCities.com - Amtrak resumes service between Twin Cities and La Crosse, Wis.

Amtrak, BNSF