A Prix Fixe Restaurant, Polzinville, and Dolaskieville
SOMETHING NEW COMING to the Zephyr wine bar later this summer.
SOMETHING NEW COMING to the Zephyr wine bar later this summer. Downstairs will be converted to a fixed-price restaurant on the weekends. A single price for a multi-course meal which you may or may not pair with certain wines. Distinctly upscale, a concept that has worked in other cities. Executive chef Ryan Howe has been hired. Furnishings are changing, details still being worked out.
Up the block, the newly reopened Crow’s Nest (formerly North Star) atop the Landmark Inn, has forsaken some of its previous intimacy in favor of a brighter, bolder, maybe younger feel. It works. Good small-bites food, newly concocted drinks. One quibble: It seems awfully loud. Hard surfaces everywhere. Maybe some sound-absorbing material might soften it?
That exquisite chocolate and pastry shop, Towners, on Front Street didn’t last long. Owners Katie and Jake Bonzer were making a go of it but then ran into a problem: they needed air conditioning with summer heat arriving, and they say their landlord wouldn’t install it, so they closed down the shop…But wait! They’re now negotiating to locate in another prime spot downtown. It’s a more ambitious venture. Not a done deal, we’re told, despite the rumors, but we can hope.
New city manager Karen Kovacs is still looking for a house to buy in a very tight real estate market—good luck—but she’s adjusting to her new job in a new town. Her first impression? “Oh wow! This is a wonderful town!”….What else has struck her? The huge role that tourism plays in Marquette, a striking contrast to her previous home, Milan, downstate.
Projections call for this to be the biggest tourism season ever in Marquette as people eagerly escape their pandemic bubble.
That massive construction project on Washington Street downtown? Just about done. A nice, new, pedestrian-friendly look. A nagging, probably irrational worry, though: Are we becoming too cutesy, too touristy, while losing some of that Marquette authenticity?
We might just as well call the Lake Superior shoreline in Marquette “Polzinville.” Architect Barry Polzin has designed virtually every new and renovated building along the shore over the last 20 years…The newest, now under construction, are Two Marquette Place, a three story apartment and commercial complex, with occupancy due to start next March…and Gaines Rock Townhomes, with first occupancy due (optimistically) this December.
And maybe we should start calling Munising “Dolaskieville.” Tom and Ana Dolaskie, with their out-of-state partner, have opened up their Hillside Party Store East, along with Tacopotamus, a taco truck…Those join the other Dolaskie businesses—the original Hillside Party Store, Roam Inn, Tracey’s restaurant (now open again), Eh Burger (which recently had its biggest revenue day ever), and Gallery Coffee, where they’re hoping to resume concerts eventually.
At NMU, Freshman enrollment, two months out, looks to be up about 5-10% over last year, transfer students down slightly. It’ll take some time to overcome the impact of the pandemic…Meantime, full seating has been restored in the classrooms and the plexiglass has come down….Students will be asked about their vaccination status, but there will be no requirements.
The Medicinal Plant Chemistry major, by the way, now has 380 students enrolled. The marijuana fervor of a few years ago has died down somewhat but it’s still hot because, quite simply, there are well-paying jobs in marijuana.
Something new to check out of the Peter White Public Library. Seeds! Everything from herbs to vegetables to flowers. They’re donated by the Queen City Seed Library, and are now housed in a repurposed card catalogue. “Our greatest hope is that this will create greater interest in growing your own food,” says library director Andrea Ingmire….Just sign in, take your seeds, and hopefully, when your plant produces new seeds, you’ll bring them back to the library so that others can check them out.
Crazy swings of 30 degrees within a day in recent weeks in the UP. Hard to make plans. Still, it’s much preferable to the scorching, almost unprecedented heat out West. Prediction: If the pandemic was the story of 2020, heat and fires will be the story of 2021. Not here, though. We’re sitting alongside a huge, natural refrigerator.
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