Once upon a time, “fine dining” in Two Harbors meant a visit to Dairy Queen. These days, with a smattering of posh resorts for the ‘visit Lake Superior’ and ‘get away for a night Duluthian’ crowds, dining has been elevated to an entirely new level.

The Ledge Rock Grill is the house restaurant for the Larsmont Cottages, a 40 acre enclave on the shores of Lake Superior, “inspired by a Scandinavian fishing village”. The Ledge is open for lunch and dinner seven days, as well as breakfast on the weekends, and is open to the public at all times (in other words, you do not have to be a guest of the cottages to partake).

Ledge Rock Grill

Serving “modern American”, chef Todd Torricer, who has Hawaiian roots, also offers monthly special menus, and the August theme features “inspired by the sea”.

Minnesota lead Burger Reporter Kawikamedia took a couple nights off from burgers, to check out a few menu items at the Ledge. Having lived in Hawaii, his intention was to check out the Huli Huli chicken, but alas, it was not offered the night of his first visit.

He started with the smoked shrimp appetizer with a dried cherry balsamic, and then went with the Kobe flatiron, served with parsnip mashed and asparagus, a bargain at $31.

His second visit was more successful, and described the seared Ahi, from the special August menu, as “out of this world”. The plate was Fresh Pacific Ahi Tuna pan seared and paired with avocado puree, sushi rice tater tots and finished off with a wasabi-soy butter sauce.

The Huli Huli chicken was very good, (if you don’t know Huli Huli, it is a traditional Hawaiian barbecued chicken, with a sauce made from soy sauce and ketchup, sweeting with brown sugar and a bit of sherry.)

He didn’t care for the side mash that night, which he described as “must have been doused in liquid smoke.”

Kawikamedia highly recommends the Ledge, despite the fact there is no burger on the dinner menu!

(All fotos in this post copyright Kawikamedia, 2010, and cannot be used w/o permission).


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Smoked Shrimp Starter

Huli Huli Chicken

Kobe Flatiron Steak w/ Parsnip Mashed

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Mickey Paulucci, spawn of Jeno Paulucci, self-described “peddler’ and ‘not a nice guy’,  started the Grandma’s, restaurant empire over 30 years ago, in Canal Park, Duluth, MN, across the street from his father’s office.

The original Grandma’s became known for quality food, ample servings, and fun ambiance, and grew to be a statewide mini-chain, but eventually cutting back to concentrate on opening several other eateries in the hometown Duluth area.

One of the spin-offs is Little Angie’s Cantina and Grill, a Tex-Mex outlet within avocado throwing distance of the first Grandma’s in Canal Park.   Little Angie’s puffery says “Little Angie’s Cantina is the kind of place where the food is so fresh it’s still sizzling at your table.”

Minnesota Burger Reporter Kawikamedia popped into Little Angie’s the other day and checked out the Cowboy Burger $7.99, a 1/3 pound all-beef patty topped with marinated lettuce (wtf?) tomato, mayo, add bacon and cheese for $2.09. The Cowboy is served on a toasted bun and comes w/ fries.

He said the burger looks much better than it tastes, overcooked, dry, no seasoning. The fries were “passable.”

In these days of boutique burger places, restaurants that offer burgers as just “one more item” need to try a little harder to upgrade their offerings.  One has a number of dining choices in Canal Park, and some of them aren’t part of the Grandma’s group, even!

Little Angie’s menu is online.
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John Jacob Astor was the first billionaire in the US, amassing a fortune in fur trading, real estate, and exports to China. He also created the first trust. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest person in the US, and, using 2010 dollars as an equivalent, he ranks as the 4th richest person in American history. Local legend in Duluth has him dying on the Titanic, which would have been a cool story, had he not died decades earlier.

Curt Carlson, founder of the Radisson Hotels, was also a billionaire, founding the Gold Bond Trading Stamp company after a stint at P&G. He bought the downtown Minneapolis Radisson Hotel in 1960, and started a second phase of his career which eventually included hotels, restaurants, and hospitality companies around the world. 10 years after his first hotel acquisition, he built the Radisson Duluth, which encompasses the cylindrical hotel design, so popular at the time, replicated at so many urban Holiday Inns, and taking its place in history forever with John Portman’s 4,000 foot tall (well it seems like it) Westin Peachtree (original name) in Atlanta.

These three elements come together in the relaunch of the Radisson Duluth’s rooftop revolving restaurant, JJ Astor’s, whose opening coincides with the complete refurbishment of the hotel, a modern updating using retro decorating and furniture, from top to bottom.

Time was, the Radisson revolving restaurant (where was the first one, anyway?) was the place for several things: the big date; mother’s and father’s days; engagements, anniversaries and birthdays. Now they hope to take a place in regular dining and lounge choices for Duluthians, and even shut off the “turntable” in the afternoons for Happy Hour. (kind, folks!).

Minnesota Burger Reporter and the Minnesota Burger Posse stopped by JJ Astor’s for lunch the other day, and reported a generally very positive experience. They like the house-made pickles which had a hint of garlic. Plates came with fresh cut fries, which were excellent, but not mentioned on the menu as a feature. Two of the posse enjoyed the cheeseburgers, one had the pan-fried Walleye sandwich, a common fixture on Duluth menus. The Walleye is a local fish, full name “Walleyed Pike,” but it actually isn’t a member of the pike family. Go figure!

Astor’s hot young chef brings a new twist to local favorites, employing the ‘simple is better’ technique so popular today.

The Radisson stands at 6th Avenue West and Superior St., near the site of the base of the formerly famous Duluth funicular. (Oh, look it up!).

It’s open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the menu is online.

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Once upon a time, there was a “wrong side of the tracks” in Duluth, Minnesota. East and West, usually people didn’t stray too far from their part of town. Now, the burgeoning hip hop area of “West Duluth” (not to be confused with the “Friendly West End”) is taking on a life of its own, with development, shops, housing, including the newest eatery GB Schneider & Company at 46th Avenue West and Grand Avenue. Of course they are on Grand Avenue, their catchphrase, on their website and signage, is “grand eats”, and it appears they more than accomplish this promise, with a fun, diverse, American food menu.

Minnesota Burger Reporter Kawikamedia and the Friday Burger Posse hit Schneiders on Friday with a large group, and reports no missteps for this just opened foodery. Kawika went with the Howie Burger, cheese, mushrooms, and grilled onions. All of Schneider’s burgers start out as 1/3 pound of fresh grilled angus, served at medium, unless you request otherwise, and can be doubled, tripled, or as “big as you dare” for slight additional costs. (The entire party agreed the prices are inexpensive for the city).

Other plates the Posse imbibed in with strong reviews were the clam chowder, Monte Cristo, salads, sliders, veggie burger.

The Posse universally pronounced the fresh cut fries a masterpiece.

I can imagine the Posse might have had an eye (or palate) towards critical that day, as some of them were in high school w/ Mr. Schneider, and don’t we all like to call out old friends some times?

The menu offers a number of items that appeal to my own tastes which I look forward to trying next time I am that way – including, a Cuban, pulled pork, and Duluth’s homage to St. Louis with toasted ravioli – did this guy work on the Hill? And any “Italian Sausage” hoagie will get a nod from me.

GB Schneiders is open late, and has carry out. Whereas once West Duluth’s only dining options were bar pizza, and a decades old Cantonese room, the choices these days are varied and sublime.

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35 years ago, the Green Mill, ensconced in St. Paul’s oldest, licensed bar, a tiny hole on Hamline Avenue in St. Paul, was the “go-to” place for fancy pizza in the Twin Cities. A variation of Chicago deep dish, the pie was known for its quality ingredients, and for taking (by those day’s standards) too damned long to bake, at least if you were like me, and sneaking out on your lunch break from your job at a Twin Cities tv station. A few years later, “Green Mill Too”, was spawned on S. Hennepin in Minneapolis, which was larger, fancier, and had a full menu in addition to their extraordinary pizzas ( at that time, I had not developed my snobbish preference to thin crust pies).

I seem to recall we had a group dinner there prior to my first wedding. Today, Green Mills are spread across half a dozen states in the Upper Midwest, including an outlet in Canal Park, the tourist sector of Duluth, Minnesota.

And that’s where Minnesota Burger Reporter Kawikamedia when in pursuit of his quest to find Minnesota’s best pepper cheeseburger. The usual local version of this is a ground beef patty, breaded, deep-fried, with pepper cheese adorning the top. Pepper cheese, in this instance, is usually a mild soft Monterrey Jack with flecks of various peppers inside. Some variations can be found using specific peppers (i.e. Habanero Pepper Jack, et al).

The usual version of the pepper cheese burger does not appear on the Green Mill menu, however, they offer a wide variety of choices via their “build your own burger” selection. One could, for example, should they be so inclined, have a black Angus on a ciabatta with chipotle and buffalo sauce, goat, feta, and blue cheese, onion rings, black olives, and adorned with another meat, like pulled pork and buffalo shrimp. Hey, I’m just saying.

Kawikamedia reported the burger to be up to his standards, and it came with tasty waffle fries. He did not mention whether it was a contender for “best of the best” however. And he would have, if it were.

The complete Green Mill menu and locations can be found online, and Green Mill pizzas can be found in the frozen foods sections of many Upper Midwest groceries (pictured above).

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