The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

We're big fans of The Craftsman. It's pretty much our go-to nice-but-not-ridiculous restaurant.

For me, it's almost as much about the ambience as it is the food. I feel comfortable there.

Also, the food is heavily, if not exclusively, local/regional and organic, etc. etc., which I believe explains the higher prices. We decided that that's a priority for us, so we're willing to pay.

Oh, and the seasonal old fashioneds make me happy.

and your average make-it-at-home pasta can be served for around $5/plate, even with fancy fresh veggies and meat and shit.

I .. you ... but ...

This country isn't in recession.

$18 for a plate of home made gnocchi is perfectly fair. Have you ever tried making them? They may cost little in ingredients, but the labor and skill curve involved is somewhat daunting.

In Seattle this weekend at a place called Elliots I had a fantastic alder plank grilled Alaskan White Salmon with fingerling potatoes and garden veggies. It was $24.

They also gave us some bread, so the idea was to take a small piece of meat and put it on the bread with butter, I guess.

Is this a joke?

I laughed at that too...make yer own sammich!

This country isn't in recession.
True, it would take two consecutive quarters of negative growth for it to be a real recession. We are however in a fairly flat economic climate made worse by rising inputs. It does not inspire confidence.

/did not RTFA

but I almost never go out to eat anymore
unneccessary expenses, no thanks!

when times get tough, the tough stop going out to eat. or the broke do. or something.

whatever.

It does not inspire confidence.

People still go to overpriced restaurants. Drive to the REI store in Bloomington on the weekends and you can't find a place to park. There's not a damn thing in the store that anyone actually needs.

@alie at least your dad knows what Sapporo is...

There's not a damn thing in the store that anyone actually needs.

Sure they do. They've got bikes for those who can't afford to drive. And canoes....some day I'll commute by canoe.

In regards to food, this week I had really good service for the first time at Red Stag, and a another below average meal at Whitey's (does this place serve anything above average?)

It seems that Bennigans is closing all the corporately owned restaurants, including the Steak & Ale chain. Linens & Things is closing a good chunk of their stores also. People are obviously spending a lot less money.

Not to belabor the REI thing, but when it comes to stuff that isn't food or shelter, at least they're selling things that people USE for recreational activities that get them exercise. Plus jackets and shit, which come in handy in the winter. When I think of all the useless decorative trinkets people buy, or crap they'll never use, or things with giant noisy polluting engines, I don't know that there's a place I'd rather people be spending their money than there.

My old pal Mark Wernimont has already sent out an email blast on the nationwide closing of the owned and operated Bennigans.

Three guess to what he blames for the closings...

unbelievably delicious, locally-sourced elk or rabbit or some shit

Yummy! Is the shit locally-sourced too?

I'll go to the Craftsman probably twice a year, inevitably during the summer so I can sit outside and reminisce about what used to be the best bar patio in town.

at least they're selling things that people USE for recreational activities that get them exercise

Or to sit in the garage with the rest of their good intentions.

Link

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put...

I went to Steve and Barry's once to check out SJP's Bitten line when it first came out. The store and clothing looked as cheap as the prices. I'm not too surprised that they're not doing well. I still don't get how SJP decided to team up with them for her clothing line.

Let's let Bob explain it to us.

Please let's not.

I agree. If the topic is so important to you, Rat, create a post.

The smoking ban won't matter much when there is nowhere left to buy cigarettes.

They don't sell them at the Prairie Stone Pharmacy at Lund's in NE, either.

A woman was griping that the place doesn't sell cigarettes or lottery tickets.

"Something for the poor people," she said.

Then she cussed a blue streak and said some stuff about George W. Bush and left.

I felt like telling the woman behind the counter: Welcome to Nordeast.

The End

from the WSJ re: Bennigen's

"High ingredient and labor costs are eating into profits, and several years of rapid expansion by bar and grill chains has left a glut of locations in the market. Pressures such as high gasoline prices and dwindling home values have prompted consumers to eat out less often or switch to cheaper fast-food meals."

"The venerable chains weren't able to survive in part because their menus and atmosphere failed to set them apart from the pack"

""There's just too many stores in this category,"

Hmmmm - "smoking ban" is conspicuously absent from the reasons they are closing

Maz you must be in some kind of magic neighborhood. We're in SLP and down 19.4% since buying our home in 04.

"JoAnn, people can get a cheeseburger anywhere. They come to Chotsky's for the attitude."

I think our current economic difficulties are playing out differently than past ones. Formerly the pain was caused by big monetary trends which rippled across the economy as a whole, this time its smaller economic trends wreaking havoc over different silos of the economy one at a time. Housing and related industries to investment banking to commercial banking to small business(small business loans are tight right now and lines of credit fuhgeddaboutit.) to what next? So if your economic silo isn't suffering now, you are in the majority, but you could be next.

Well, I guess I should have pulled my head out of my ass when I was 2 years old and purchashed in 1980 too. What a stupid baby I was.

mb, you're forgetting: if maz hasn't personally experienced it, it doesn't exist.

They don't sell them at the Prairie Stone Pharmacy at Lund's in NE, either.

A woman was griping that the place doesn't sell cigarettes or lottery tickets.

"Something for the poor people," she said.

Then she cussed a blue streak and said some stuff about George W. Bush and left.

No, they don't. It annoys me, but I just walk down to the gas station or santana's. It's a bit out of the way, but the owner is super friendly and always knows what I want. Not the best prices, but who cares. I'm all for locally-owned corner-store type businesses like that. The fact that a big chunk of their family hangs around there a lot of the time at night is all the more reason to support it.

but also: OMG DO YOU THINK YOU HAD A RAINDOG SIGHTING?
I always wondered if she lived in our hood.

To be fair, wayne, Maz's theory is no less simplified than other measures of economics that are taken quite seriously.

and I doubt dennis understands that a lot of people have "lost their jobs" or "not gotten cost-of-living raises to keep up with inflation" or "don't sit on their fat ass at home in front of the computer for work and pay out the arse for gas to get to their job" and thus do not have the kind of discretionary budgets they used to.

bob, true enough.
which is why the whole system is so goddamned broken it's starting to fall apart.

one thing that always bothered me about economics:
-you make your observations of the system from the perspective of an outsider (with no influence on the system), and then create your 'rules' about how it acts based on those observations
-then you take those 'rules' and begin to act on the system to try to profit from it, thus changing the system and invalidating all the observations you made

wash, rinse, repeat and you have the history of economic theory.

oh no I'm at the office, taking care of bidness, thanks dennis.
but not every minute of the day is a busy one. unfortunately since so much of the business world operates on the conventions of an 8-5 world and doesn't pay for piecework, there's some wasted time that happens.

heh

Imagine the economics education you can receive when you eventually advance beyond your first job, wayne. Imagine still, the lessons learned from buying and selling property, managing corporate budgets, starting and running your own business! naaahh. Never mind.

I'm going to start deleting comments if you two don't reign it in.

The more I work with economic models, the less certain I feel about our understanding of markets and human behavior. There is a level of complexity to it that is like looking into the Grand Canyon.

has he ever contributed anything worthwhile?

Well, he turns you into a raving fool. But even that's getting a little old.

Man up, wayne, and let it pass...

Well, I guess I should have pulled my head out of my ass when I was 2 years old and purchashed in 1980 too. What a stupid baby I was.

You were probably a very mean baby too!

microeconomics is an entirely different beast, and I think dennis is all-too-comfortable applying his lessons from that to the macroeconomic world where they're not appropriate.

and I'm sure I do have plenty of both macro and mico-economic lessons to learn, but I've also done a lot of reading and thinking about macroeconomics and understand the math behind it a lot better

@Messy Missy

That's a better nickname than I got. I was Murky Dismal or Bees Knees.