Tequila, Toys, Tricky Tabulations, TV, Tap Rooms, and Twisting Arms

SALT OR NO salt?

Sol Azteca, the Mexican restaurant overlooking the Lower Harbor, got the good news last week that, at long last, it will soon be able to serve margaritas...and Corona and anything else containing alcohol.

Its liquor license was finally approved.

The restaurant has been open for a nearly a year but it took several months to buy a liquor license, and then when it came up for approval before the Liquor Control Commission, it was turned down. Reason unknown.

In any case, it appealed the rejection and won.

Sol Azteca, at last report, was waiting for the actual license to arrive. When it does, it can go out and start stocking its bar and serving its customers. Best guess is that will happen next week.

Word was, some of the restaurant's customers over the last several months got up and walked out upon learning alcohol wasn't available. Many others loaded up on spirits downstairs at L'Attitude before or after their Mexican meals.

But it's a new day at Sol Azteca and not a moment too soon. It's tough to pay the bills at a high profile location when you're selling tacos, burritos and enchiladas.
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SPEAKING OF TIMING, how about a new toy store setting up in Marquette just one month before Christmas?

It's Great Turtle Toys, which was hurriedly stocking the shelves at the location of the old Food Co-op on Monday. It'll open this week.

It's actually a pop-up store, meaning it's only a temporary store for now, unless the owner decides to extend his stay. An employee says they'll see how sales go.

No sign outside yet. Inside, you'll find games, toys, remote control devices, etc. You gotta admit, it's something Marquette needs, especially this time of year. It's kinda like Toys "R" Us, only one billionth the size.

Incidentally, there's another Great Turtle Toys on Mackinac Island and in Clarkston.
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PREPARE FOR MORE changes at TV 6.

The station's new co-anchor at 6 pm, Sophie Erber, will also be co-anchoring the 7 pm and 11 pm newscasts with Greg Trick, starting December 10th.

That's a good indication that management likes the reaction they've been hearing about Erber who arrived here several weeks ago from Florida.

By the way, you wanna get into TV? TV 6 has reporter openings at two of its bureaus.  Abby Miller left her Iron Mountain job last month, and Sara Blakely is leaving her Houghton post on December 5th.

News Director Steve Asplund says the two reporters just decided to move on. So it goes in a business where smart, young people can look forward to job that pays in the low 20s (at best) and offers every other holiday off (maybe).

Oh, and there's also the snow and the cold. And the equipment to lug around. And all of us critics out there who don't like the way you look and sound.
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TALK ABOUT ELECTION intrigue.

Things are still being sorted out in Ishpeming, almost a month after the election. First unofficial returns of the voting had Mayor Mike Tall beating challenger Justin Koski for a council seat 964-961. Then the official county tabulation came in and results were reversed: Koski 960, Tall 955.

Now it gets more complicated. The state still has to certify those results, likely in December, and when that happens, Tall, the apparent loser, will ask for and be granted a recount.

But wait! Before that happens, the new councilman, apparently Koski, will likely be sworn in which means that if by some chance he loses in the recount, then he will be booted out of his seat before he even gets it warm.

And there's more! In the election, no one ran for the two-year-term seat, so it's now vacant. That means the new council (with Koski as a new councilman) will have to appoint someone to the two year seat. And who's among the likely candidates for that seat? Mike Tall, that's who.

Ah, politics. Ya gotta love it.
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ANY DAY NOW, we should be hearing from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  They'll tell us how much of a rate increase we'll have to pay to keep the outdated, costly and under-utilized Presque Isle Power Plant open.

The deadline for the notification is December 1st, although that could be pushed back to January 1st.

We don't want the damn plant but we've got to keep it open for the sake of the grid and for the reliability of the power supply and....blah blah blah.

What's especially outrageous is that FERC initially ruled that the UP would have to pay virtually all the costs for the plant. That could be especially tough on businesses and people on a fixed income.

UP and Michigan politicians are twisting arms to make sure that doesn't happen.

We'll see. It's inevitable we'll have to pay more for our electricity. It's just a matter of how much more.
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THE COGNITION BREWING Company in Ishpeming is just about ready to open, but not quite.

They're still working on the venue which is the long-vacated tap room of the old Mather Inn. Should be a great space when they're ready.

They're also dealing with getting their liquor license approved. They expect no problems with that. We wish them well.

They had been hoping to open in November, then it was Christmas, now it's January. In the meantime, they're waiting for their outdoor sign to arrive, their redoing their website, they've hired an operations manager, they're setting up their online store (selling growlers and such), they're....well, they're doing everything but opening their taps and selling beer.

So it goes with a new business.
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SPEAKING OF WHICH.

The Marq, Marquette's much anticipated farm-to-table restaurant, remains a work in progress.

The original hoped-for opening date was August which means today must be August 121st.

There's still work to be done inside and outside and oh yeah, there's also that pesky and familiar little item known as a "liquor license" to be dealt with. But it's going smoothly, we're told. Sure. Okay.

Best guess for an opening date? February.

Foodies are counting the days. One more thing: the interior of The Marq, featuring blacks and golds, is unlike anything else you'll see in town.

Just a tease.

You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com

If you want to be notified when Word on the Street is posted, go to Word on the Street by Brian Cabell on Facebook and "like" it.

MGH Is Counting Down, Eagle Mine Road Is Ever Widening, and a College Preacher Is Spewing Hate

TWO WEEKS, MAYBE less. That's when we'll have a deal for the new Marquette General Hospital. That's when all the courting and numbers-crunching and speculating will finally end.

Two apparent candidates remain in the running for the nearly $300 million project--the Marquette Township site just behind the Westwood Mall, and the city of Marquette's Roundhouse site, on the western fringe of downtown.

The Township submitted its deal several weeks ago. Duke LifePoint, the owner of the hospital, seemed satisfied with it, and the two sides have not had substantial talks since then.

The city, on the other hand, has been having on-and-off chats with DLP in the last several weeks, but no one is characterizing those talks as negotiations. Just questions and answers.

Two weeks, maybe less. Then one of these municipalities will finally be able to  start a friendly and prosperous collaboration with Duke LifePoint.
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IT'S ABOUT TO happen. After a decade-long struggle, the Eagle Mine outside of Big Bay will begin harvesting billions of dollars of nickel and copper in the next couple of months.

Have you been out there lately? The road to the mine--510 and AAA--is a startling, ten mile long, 50-100 yard swath of denuded land. The Road Commission, which is constructing the roadway with $45 million from Lundin, concedes it's wider than necessary but says that was the wish of the property owners. They wanted the timber.

Okay. We get it. This whole project is about money.

Further, one official suggested that this gash across the landscape might actually help the wildlife in the spring because the cleared area will melt before the forest does and maybe provide some early vegetation for the hungry animals. Of course, the critters, while snacking, will have to dodge the huge ore trucks roaring past at 50 miles per hour.

Let's not kid ourselves, part one. The road and the mine will have an environmental impact on what was a pristine area. How serious will it be? We don't know. Let's hope it's something less than what the environmental groups have predicted.

They're the ones who publicized the leakage of groundwater into the Salmon Trout River a couple of weeks ago. That's their job from now on: they may have lost the war to stop the mine but they'll be maintaining a close watch on every move that Lundin and the Road Commission make. They'll be ringing the alarm bells if something goes awry.

We should be thankful for them. The mine and road are realities but maybe...just maybe, the environmental damage can be mitigated by an alert and enlightened citizenry, and by an extra-conscientious mining industry that may want to extend its welcome it in the U.P.

Let's not kid ourselves, part two. The mining companies know there's a lot more ore...and money...down there. At the end of the Eagle Mine's supposed eight year life (and likely before then), the companies will be flashing more cash and asking for an extended stay in the U.P.
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NO ONE SAID it would be easy.

The July TV ratings have come in, and WJMN, the new entrant in the local TV news wars, can't be all that thrilled.

In the coveted 25-54 age demographic, which matters most to advertisers, WBUP (ABC 10) had slightly higher ratings than WJMN. Fox UP, likewise had higher ratings for its 10 pm newscast.

What that means is that TV news viewers don't readily change their news habits, even when the new competitor--WJMN--has a known and capable anchor and news director in Cynthia Thompson, a solid anchor at 11 pm in Gabe Caggiano, and an established parent station out of Green Bay--WFRV.

It'll take time.

In case you're wondering, the runaway leader in the July ratings, of course, was again TV6. That's been the case for the last half century. Tradition is hard to overcome.

On the other hand, WBUP (ABC 10) continues to compile an impressive website showing with more than two million page views last month. Needless to say, a lot more people are reading their website than are watching their newscasts.
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THE OPENING DATE for The Marq, the new farm-to-table restaurant in Marquette, was supposed to be August...but here we are in September and they're not quite ready to serve. Not even close.

Three or four months out, businesspeople are always optimistic, but then personal, financial and governmental realities set in.

The new opening date for the Marq is November.

Drop by the site of the old Rubaiyat restaurant and you'll see plenty of construction underway inside and out. The restaurant's eight investors promise that they will not overspend on the re-do of the building, which was one apparent reason for the demise of the Rubaiyat.

The restaurant's space is being opened up, however, allowing more sunlight to flow in, and recycled woods and other materials uniquely treated are being used throughout the restaurant.The Marq is also setting up a full bar for drinkers and eating customers. The design is being handled by University Michigan architecture professors Adam Fure and Ellie Abrons.

Seventy-two seats total in the restaurant which will feature as much local produce and meat as Austin Fure, Adam's brother, a classically trained chef, can find. He says the menu will change regularly to reflect the fact that available produce in the U.P. necessarily changes.

Sounds like the right restaurant in the right place at the right time.

Expect hiring to start within a month.
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INCOMING NMU FRESHMEN last week quickly learned that college life is just a wee bit different from high school.

A traveling preacher out of Texas showed up on campus to noisily denounce fornication, pornography and blasphemy. He called some of the female students whores, told just about everybody they were going to hell unless they changed their ways, and saved some of his harshest words for a transgender student.

All in all, a swell couple of days of evangelism that was chronicled by NMU's North Wind newspaper.

The preacher, whose name is Chris LePelley, has apparently left town to spread the good word on other campuses. Nevertheless, some NMU students are now trying to start a group known as NMU Love. It'd be a way of saying we disagree with hate speech, biblical or otherwise.

That's fine. Or you can just ignore the hate-spewing, spotlight-loving clowns and let them shout their nonsense at the sky.

You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com

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Farm-to-Table, a Change of L'Attitude, and Enigmatic Anti-Semitism

Get ready for a new farm-to-table restaurant opening up in Marquette later this summer.

It'll be called The Marq and it'll be located in the space that the much-loved but short-lived Rubaiyat occupied a few years ago, next to the Childrens' Museum.

Chef Austin Fure and three partners, all from the U.P., are behind this new culinary venture that will strive to bring as much local produce and meat to their tables as possible throughout the year, including winter. Hoophouses are extending the growing season here.

Fure, who worked as a chef in New England and Chicago after graduating from the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson and Wales University, describes The Marq as a "gastro-pub." That's fancy restaurant talk for cool, hip food and great drinks. The drinks will include creative cocktails and craft brews.

The four partners will be adding a full sit-down bar to the restaurant but, otherwise, the changes will be only cosmetic. The empty restaurant is already a great space.

The hope is that the gastro-pub will attract both date-night diners and the more casual types, taking a break from their bike rides.

What's not to like here? It's an infusion of young and local energy into the Marquette restaurant scene which would seem ripe for exactly what The Marq will offer--fresh, local food.

Anticipated opening date is August.
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Meanwhile, a few blocks away, L'Attitude (no, it's not plural or possessive...there is no "s") is undergoing a few changes of its own.

The owners, Steve and Sam Nagelkirk, are bringing in a new management team who will be starting in about three weeks.

Tommy and Elizabeth Wahlstrom, the owners of Elizabeth's Chop House, had been managing L'Attitude for the last three years but the Nagelkirks say they'll be taking the parkside restaurant in a new direction.

Most of the staff will be staying on but a new wine list is on the way, and a new menu will likely follow once the new management team gets in place.

The Nagelkirks say they want the new iteration of the restaurant to offer a more casual, friendly, welcoming atmosphere with an emphasis on drinks as well as a good but limited selection of food. The kitchen is small.

Just an opinion: the food, under the Wahlstroms' management, has been good. Diverse and tasty. Let's hope that doesn't change too much.

L'Attitude is as good a restaurant space and location as any in Marquette. Aged brick on the walls, with high ceilings, and huge windows looking out on the park and Lake Superior. Inside and outside seating.

The furnishings were recently updated and made more comfortable. The only obvious improvement, it seems, would be a fireplace or wood-burning stove to warm the place up for the frigid winter months, but that apparently is not doable.

L'Attitude should keep doing what it's doing...just do it a little bit better.
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A strange and ugly story is playing out in Tennessee but it has a distinct connection to Marquette.

Seems that a former resident here who claims to have taught English here and published the weekly live-arts magazine Marquette Jam several years ago has had a conversion to rabid anti-Semitism.

The guy's name is James Laffrey who says on his Tennessee-based blog that he's 56 and once voted for Barack Obama but now he's seen the "truth." He describes himself as an educator and journalist.

There's a lot of nasty, angry, frustrated people on the blogosphere but the reason this is relevant to us here is that, for some reason, Laffrey is spewing some of his hatred at Jason Schneider, a former city commissioner and now a candidate for county commissioner.

Schneider says he once knew the guy and Laffrey seemed nice enough. Normal. Why did Laffrey change? Schneider's got no idea.

In any case, he and another man who was also the target of Laffrey's hate-mongering, notified the police and FBI of the problem back in December. Laffrey's now being monitored by authorities.

And Schneider, who's one of our brightest, most talented and forward-thinking citizens in Marquette, is left to wonder...What the hell? What did I do to piss off some middle-aged man in Tennessee?

You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com