Time to close Shepherd

BBQ Friday

New menu at an old favorite

Oooo, that smell

The Thursday Special

You could lose a car in there

Rayette Stairwell A

Respect the icicle

Prince sound bites rule

Hey look, it’s Shelly!

RIP Easy Chart Builder

Either the Google API is down or my last-updated-in-six-years charting plugin is dead…

UPDATE: Looks like both the plugin and the API are dead.

UPDATE 2: The API seems to be back (on a new server).

Tapemark Memories

Hidden Huts

Happy Shamrock Shake Day!

Super cheap entertainment

ALL THE CALORIES

Rocket scientist

Sadie’s a good dog

It’s melting, melting!

Sounds good to me

Post-meeting breakfast

A Downtowner breakfast with MK

RIP Bob Klas, Sr. 1928-2019

When I was three years old, Bob Klas, Sr. and Pat Cody founded a charity golf tournament at Southview Country Club to raise money for Minnesota children and adults living with developmental disabilities. I started supporting the event after tournament president Phil Callen read about my CD-ROM guide to Minnesota golf in a Pioneer Press story written by Gregg Wong (who also wrote about the tournament). This started an 18 year run that included multiple versions of the tournament website, thousands of lines of code, hundreds of photographs and one very stressful long weekend every June. I even got to play in the event one year, shooting two embarrassingly high numbers and failing to make the cut.

Last year, the Klas family decided to find a new group to continue the tradition and the tournament has transitioned to the leadership of the Minnesota Section of the PGA. They have launched a new website and will take over all tournament operations this year. I plan to add a Tapemark section to this site, so that people can still view the old scoreboard pages and view some of my favorite photos from past tournaments.

Last Friday, Bob Senior died at the age of 91. My condolences go out to the entire Klas family, many of whom I have had the pleasure to spend considerable time with since joining the Tapemark family. That’s really what it was too, a family. It was always so great to see Bob Senior at the drawing banquet and driving his golf cart around on tournament weekend with wife Sandy by his side. His son Bob Junior is a wonderful person too, although I’m not 100% convinced he really likes golf all that much.

Pics and obituary after the jump. UPDATE: the 7MM Tapemark page is here.

Read more…

Wanted these for two years

This place was hoppin’

I miss #88

Never seen that before

2019 Best Of

I kind of forget that City Pages is now owned by the Star Tribune, but it seems to have kept the same editorial vibe as before. I always have liked reading the annual Best of the Twin Cities issue, which you can vote for here (until March 26). Here are a few of my recommendations:

• Best Place to Buy Art Supplies – Wet Paint on Grand (at least according to my very artsy daughter).
• Best Movie Theater – Riverview Theater. All of the nominees are solid, but this one is still my favorite.
• Best Casino – Mystic Lake. It really is in a class by itself (for Minnesota).
• Best Festival – Minnesota State Fair (don’t really consider it a festival, but whatever). See also: Best Place to People-Watch
• Best Public Park – Minnehaha Park and Falls. I wish I was riding my bike there right now.
• Best BBQ – Q Fanatic. Need to get back to the one in Minneapolis soon.
• Best Breakfast – Keys Cafe & Bakery. Really just the one on Raymond, though.
• Best Brunch – Martina. I like others just as much (if not more), but this wins out of those five.
• Best Burger (Classic) – Parlour out of that list, but Saint Dinette’s burger blows all of them away.
• Best Chinese Restaurant – Rainbow Chinese. I need to go there more often.
• Best Cocktails – Marvel Bar. Still the best, in a town full of great places to drink.
• Best Diner – Hi-Lo Diner. Another strong category – we are blessed with many fine diners.
• Best Distillery – Tattersall Distilling. Those guys rock.
• Best Dive Bar – Bull’s Horn. Go Team Amy and Doug.
• Best Fried Chicken – Revival. This is a very, very tough category with many fine options.
• Best Fries – Barbette. Long time champ retains my title (for that type of fries, anyways).
• Best Ice Cream – Grand Ole Creamery. Sweet Cream Forever.
• Best Italian Restaurant – Mucci’s Italian. Chef Chris and Sarge rule.
• Best Lunch – Cecil’s Deli. Home of my all-time favorite sandwich.
• Best Mexican Restaurant – Pajarito. Need to go here more often too.
• Best New Restaurant – In Bloom. Lots of good options, but gotta stay true to my Saint Paul roots.
• Best Pizza – Punch Pizza (at least out of those five)
• Best Restaurant Minneapolis – Restaurant Alma. So much has changed, but Alma still holds strong.
• Best Restaurant St. Paul – Saint Dinette. The default was always Meritage, but the times are a-changin’
• Best State Fair Food – Pronto Pup. NEVER CORN DOGS.
• Best Steak – Murray’s Steakhouse. Although you can’t wrong at any of these.

Skipping all of the the music options, as I don’t know what to think of the local scene these days. Rock the vote, yo.

Springtime on campus

First game in months

@tim_mckee has the meats

Post-dentist reward

Wake up with the rising sun

The banners are up

I am *very* aware

Best tourney in the land

Bar bingo with Cathy & John

Lowertown Soigné

Third vehicle since October

New menu items

March Madness

Wish this was still open