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Photo by Kathleen Stoehr
Tuthill'
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Biz buzz // Balloon business changes hands
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By Jake Weyer and Dylan Thomas
After spending more than three decades running Tuthill’s Balloon Emporium at 2455 Hennepin Ave. S., Meg and Dennis Tuthill are out of the business.
The husband and wife team sold their family-run shop in October, when Meg Tuthill, elected in November to serve the 10th Ward on the City Council, was concentrating on her campaign.
“During the campaign it was taking too much and ultimately we decided after 30 years it was a pretty good run,” Dennis Tuthill said. “And the people who were taking it over were so well qualified that they didn’t need us.”
Those people are Kristin and Tim Traynor, a couple from Northeast Minneapolis. The Traynors renamed the store The Corner Balloon Shoppe, but they aren’t planning many other changes except for some inventory updates. The focus is still balloons and party favors.
Kristin Traynor said she used to work for D’Amico Catering. Creating displays for events was part of the balloon business that appealed to her.
The Traynors are working on a new website for the store, which will eventually be at cornerballoonshoppe.com. The phone number is the same: 377-4011.
New flower shop open in Calhoun Commons
Local flower and gift-shop chain Indulge and Bloom opened a third store Dec. 9 at 3054 Excelsior Blvd. in Calhoun Commons.
The business offers an assortment of flowers and specializes in exotic varieties.
It also creates floral arrangements for weddings and special events, offers gardening accessories and design help and sells gifts including home décor, vases, candles, stationary and other items.
Indulge and Bloom is planning a grand opening celebration from Jan. 14-16. On those days, all merchandise and floral arrangements will be 30 percent off and all customers who make a purchase will receive a $5 discount at Homemade Pizza Company next door.
Store hours are still being developed.
Indulge and Bloom’s other stores are in Gaviidae Commons Downtown and in Northeast Minneapolis. Each of the stores can be reached at 343-0000. For more information, go to indulgeandbloom.com.
Cabinet and kung fu combo comes to Kingfield
Eric Muchowski is a licensed chiropractor that happens to have a passion for kung fu and a knack for crafting custom cabinetry and other wood furnishings.
He does all three for a living — running a chiropractic office from home and, more recently, a kung fu school called Golden Leopard Martial Arts Center and a cabinetry shop named Dovetail Design Inc. from a couple spaces in Mulroy’s Body Shop near 39th Street and Nicollet Avenue.
“I have three schedules and try to mesh them all together,” said Muchowski, who only has staff help for the martial arts school.
He said he’s been into martial arts since he was a boy. The style he teaches is a type of kung fu called Choy Li Fut. He hopes to add Thai chi classes as well.
Muchowski developed his woodworking skills in high school and early college while working with his brother, who builds custom homes.
Though he went to school to be a chiropractor and practiced full time for about eight years, Muchowski said he also helped his brother renovate a couple homes during that time. People started asking who did the work, he said, and before long, customers were lining up for custom cabinetry.
Muchowski hopes to eventually use another space in the Mulroy’s building for his chiropractic service, so all of his businesses are in the same place.
Hours for each business vary and Muchowski is working on websites for Dovetail Design (dovetaildesigninc.com) and Golden Leopard (goldenleopardkungfu.com). For more information, call him at 578-0805.
Rosalux no longer coming to Southwest in February
There’s been a change in plans at Soo Visual Arts Center (SooVAC), 2640 Lyndale Ave. S., since buzz about a merger with Downtown gallery Rosalux spread late in the summer.
SooVAC Executive Director Suzy Greenberg said complications arose in the discussions for her nonprofit arts organization to share exhibition space with Rosalux, a for-profit gallery that closed its Downtown location in September. Plans for Rosalux to re-open in the SooVAC building in February are now on hold, Greenberg said.
She stopped short of saying all plans for a partnership were off.
Greenberg, who purchased the SooVAC building in 2001, was still looking for a new tenant to replace Highpoint Center for Printmaking, which moved to a new Lake Street location last spring. Rental income from Highpoint was crucial for supporting SooVAC, she said.
“We would never be able to have such a big space and such a prominent location without that, so it’s just been a tough time, and it sort of puts everything on hold, really,” she said.
The SooVAC building used to house Fuji Ya, and Greenberg said restaurants were among the potential new tenants. Given the state of the economy, though, it has been difficult to get a commitment, she added.
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Newest development proposal: A courtyard with pool and movie screen in the heart of the Uptown nightlife scene
UPDATED August 31, 2010, 11:04am
By Nick Halter
A new development proposal in Uptown calls for the construction of a three-level restaurant with a rooftop patio, plus a private, ground-level courtyard with a pool and movie screen in the heart of the Uptown nightlife scene. The courtyard would go between Cowboy Slim’s and the new restaurant, which would be built directly across from the Lagoon Cinema on Lagoon Avenue, according to a plan submitted to the city of Minneapolis. The owner of the site is Uptown Gassen LLC, which is owned by Clark Gassen. Gassen is proposing a 3,000 square-foot, single-level retail building that would go along Girard Avenue between Lake Street and Lagoon. Underneath the proposed development would be a 125-car parking ramp. The restaurant’s three
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Harriet concession contract nears approval
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 1:00pm
By Jake Weyer
2 Comments
The board will decide this month whether to approve local restaurateur Kim Bartmann’s concept, Bread & Pickle.
After more than a year of community review and a selection process that narrowed a field of nearly a dozen applicants, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is scheduled to vote this month on a new Lake Harriet concession contract.
Staff recommended local restaurateur Kim Bartmann’s concept, Bread & Pickle, based on the suggestion of a community group that reviewed and interviewed the applicants. That group was made up of former members of a Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) the Park Board assembled last year after public outcry over a proposed concession change that would have required a new building. The CAC examined concession opportunities and drafted recommendations used to review applicants.
“The CAC was really a lengthy, drawn-out, long process,” said Park Board General Manager Don Siggelkow. “But it yielded the information and the understanding that I think brought this conclusion the way it needed to happen.”
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Urban fashion store and art gallery opens on Hennepin
UPDATED August 26, 2010, 10:14am
By Nick Halter
With rare Michael Jordan sneakers dating back to 1985, local art work, a DJ table and pinewood floors, Moh Habib on Aug. 21 unveiled Studiiyo 23, an urban fashion store and art gallery at 2319 Hennepin Ave. Everything about Studiiyo 23, from the name to the design to the merchandise, is a reflection of Habib, a 34-year-old world traveler who spent his high school and college years in Minnesota. “In those travels — I’ve been to 30 countries and 169 cities so far — I picked up the best of what I like from all those spots, and what I did was try to merge everything I love in life into one space,” he said. Habib has spent the last eight years working in Japan and Switzerland, first for Northwest Airlines and later as a
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Bryant Lake Bowl operator plans to buy Casey’s Bar and Grill
UPDATED August 25, 2010, 2:12pm
By Nick Halter
Kim Bartmann, who runs popular Lake Street establishments Bryant Lake Bowl and Barbette, said she has a purchase agreement for Casey’s Bar and Grill, 3510 Nicollet Ave. Bartmann wouldn’t offer specifics on what she will do with the space. She is asking to present to the Kingfield and Lyndale neighborhood groups soon to show them her plans. She said the renovation will last a couple weeks and said work will be done on the kitchen and dining area. Casey’s has a very limited food menu. “We’re a very food-focused company, so I think that will be a major change,” she said. Bartmann said Casey’s current owner has taken good care of the place and kept it clean. “It has a lot of potential,&rdq
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Neighborhood notebook
By Dylan Thomas, Nick Halter and Sarah McKenzie
THE WEDGELHENA hires new newspaper editorLowry Hill East Neighborhood Association hired a new editor for its monthly newspaper, The Wedge. Wedge resident Quentin Skinner took over with the July issues of The Wedge. Best known as the theater critic for City Pages, Skinner also has written two novels set in the Wedge, where he has lived for 15 years, according to an announcement posted Aug. 2 on thewedge.org. ——— WHITTIER Rex Hardware demolishedWrecking crews in early August demolished the former Rex Hardware building at 2601 Lyndale Ave. S. The demolition came 11 weeks after the Minneapolis City Council overturned a Heritage
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Parks update // Lake Harriet health
By jake weyer
Park Board applies for grant to study Lake Harriet healthThe Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has decided it’s time for Lake Harriet to get a checkup. The board frequently receives complaints about the lake’s smells and surface algae and is hoping to perform a diagnostic study — funded by a $55,000 matching grant from the state — to see just how healthy the popular body of water is. “These grants are specifically being put out to prevent lakes from being designated as impaired lakes,” said the board’s Environmental and Field Services Director Debra Lynn Pilger. Pilger presented the details of the “clean water partnership grant” to the board at its Aug. 4 meeting. A
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Green digest // More mini markets
By Dylan Thomas
Farmers market season is at its late-summer peak, and more neighborhoods this year have easy access to fresh tomatoes and sweet corn thanks to an expansion of mini farmers markets sites. The number of mini farmers markets located mainly in low-income neighborhoods has tripled between 2008 and 2010, reported the Whittier-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), which established the market program in collaboration with the city. The Walker Place Farmers Market in the East Harriet neighborhood near a senior housing facility was one of the mini farmers markets to debut this summer. The Stevens Square Farmers Market, Southwest’s only other mini farmers market site, opened in 2008. The mini farmers markets are limited to five or fewer
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Wine may flow, after all
By Dylan Thomas
Uptown wine tasting was in question this springStart working on your swirl, sniff and slurp technique: The annual wine tasting sponsored by Hennepin Lake Liquors may go on this year, after all. This spring it appeared the wine tasting, an important fundraiser for Uptown-area neighborhoods, might not return for its 28th year. In mid-August, though, event organizer Pat Fleetham said he was nearly ready to announce a fall wine tasting. Fleetham said he was “tentatively proposing” a date in October for the tasting but still needed to finalize agreements with event sponsors before he could announce a time and location. The event in recent years had been held in early June. In March, though, Fleetham wrote in an email to
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Biz buzz // New improv theater
By Nick Halter
New Lyn-Lake improv theater will focus on long-formA new improv theater is coming to Lyn-Lake this fall, leasing the space formerly held by Lava Lounge clothing store at 3037 Lyndale Ave. Huge Improve Theater, the nonprofit company that is leasing the space, plans to have a roughly 100-seat theater open in late October and is pursuing a beer and wine license from the city. While Minneapolis already has improv theaters like Comedy Sportz and Brave New Workshop, HUGE Executive Director Butch Roy said the Lyn-Lake theater will be dedicated to a unique form of improv — long-form. No theater in the Twin Cities is devoted to the form. Most know improv in its short form through the “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” TV
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Schools notebook // Southwest steady on AYP
By Dylan Thomas
Six Minneapolis Public Schools in Southwest met goals for student proficiency in reading and math this year, down from eight schools in 2009. The district as a whole saw slightly fewer schools making AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress, toward student achievement goals. About 14 percent of district schools met benchmarks on state standardized tests, down from nearly 19 percent in 2009. The slide means more district schools will face escalating sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind law, although many in education say the law sets an unachievable goal. Approved by Congress in 2001, No Child Left Behind set a goal of 100 percent proficiency on math and reading assessments by 2014. But the ever-rising benchmarks mean more schools every year are
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Park Board organizing LRT advisory group
By jake weyer
Adding another facet to the ongoing Southwest light rail discussion, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted last month to organize a citizens advisory committee (CAC) to mitigate the impact of the route on parkland. Park Board commissioners, City Council members, neighborhood associations, Mayor R.T. Rybak and County Commissioner Gail Dorfman will appoint the 17-member CAC. The group will consider historical, cultural, visual, social, and safety issues associated with the 14-mile Southwest Light Rail Transit line (LRT). The route will start Downtown, travel along the Kenilworth trail between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, then stretch through St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka, ending in Eden Prairie. Along the way, it will intersect or run
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