Vineyard Renamed, Ron's Reconsidered, Upfront Re-Viewed, Nutty Goat Replaces and NMU Re-Invented

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THE FORMER VINEYARD is soon to be Spirits.

That'll be the new name of the party store just off of Grove Street and US-41. The new owner, Ed Jakubiszyn, a former health care worker who's made a sharp left turn in his career path, hopes to have Spirits open before the new year.

The shelves are mostly empty now but they should be filled within the next few weeks.

The new store will, of course, feature liquor, wines and beer, as well as convenience foods. Craft beers will be a specialty, and if you have a particular wine you like, Jakubiszyn says he'll find it for you and order it.

You'll notice the interior has been totally re-done. It's fair to say, the Vineyard, for all its charm and familiarity, was seriously due for an updating.
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NOT SO FAST on the re-locating of Ron's Taco Shop to downtown Washington Street.

It was scheduled to reopen earlier this month after a kitchen was installed, but the owner of the property reports a problem or two has arisen with the new tenant.

The deal's not dead, but it is uncertain at this point, according to the owner.

Ron's, meantime, has gone silent on its Facebook page. The last update, provided on November 9th, reported that "the reopening...will be coming soon!"

Stay tuned.
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AND WHAT ABOUT the Upfront?

Realtor Dan Keller reports two serious potential buyers, one from the U.P., the other from downstate, both with a background in food service.

Their engineers and architects have toured the premises trying to determine what might be done to the property and at what price.

No offers yet. The price of the property remains at $3.9 million.

In the meantime, more than 40,000 square feet of space downtown remain vacant, including the city's best banquet facility. Marquette's tourism industry will suffer as long as that space remains unused.
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THIS NATION'S BEST university-based invention program may well be the one just established at Northern Michigan University.

Invent @ NMU opened up a month ago at the corner of Presque Isle and Fair Streets. Founding Director Dave Ollila is the guy in the charge.

You may know Ollila as founder of Viosport. He popularized helmet-cams and invented back country skis. He started a video-sharing service five years before YouTube started up. He's got 12 patents. He knows a little something about making things.

And that's what Invent @ NMU is all about: making things. Widgets.
Hardware. You got an idea? Say, maybe a device to improve a golfer's putting stroke or a pan that never burns fried eggs? Then bring it in to Invent @ NMU.

The staff, consisting of Ollila and NMU students, will do the research and analysis and tell you whether your invention already exists, whether there's a market for it, and whether you'd be able to produce it at a cost-efficient price.

They'll charge you, but it'll be a helluva lot less than you'd pay otherwise, and they'll save you money--and anguish--on an invention that had no future.

Sixteen inventors have walked through the doors of Invent @ NMU so far. Ollila says if two of them actually brought their invention to market, that would be a good percentage.

All inventors, even Thomas Edison, have experienced many more failures than successes. But all you need is one.
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FOR A TOWN that already has more restaurants per capita than most other Michigan municipalities, Marquette's cup continues to runneth over.

You ready for the Nutty Goat?

Yep, that's the name of the coffee house-diner replacing the old Huron Earth Deli on Third Street. Sometime next month is the anticipated opening date.

A young couple with limited restaurant experience is diving in headfirst with a restaurant that will offer breakfast (crepes, anyone?), lunches (sandwiches and such), and dinners (tapas, maybe), as well as coffees, teas and juices.

Good, healthful, wholesome foods. Farm-to-table. Who, besides McDonalds and Burger King, isn't promising farm-to-table these days?

The new owners will be working hard and long (they're the only employees so far) to make the place welcoming and comfortable. Stop by in a month or so to say hello and to sample their crepes, tapas and lattes.
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QUICK! WHERE'S THE only barbeque restaurant in town?

Not the Union Grill. It closed down a few weeks ago.

No, it's Rollin' Smoke, a tiny drive-through on Wright Street that used to house Cruise n' Coffee. It's in a near-invisible location, now that most of the Wright Street traffic takes the little bypass to and from US-41.

The business plan, devised by owners Tom and Vanessa Curry, is a little different, as well. They close down between  July and September while they hit the road for festivals, fairs, parties and other events that have proven much more lucrative than their drive-through business on Wright Street.

They're now open five days a week. Before too long, they anticipate only three days a week. After that, who knows?

We need barbeque in town. Anybody got a spot with foot traffic or car traffic? How about just any spot that's easier to find than Waldo?

Restaurant Sale, Farm Sale, Costco Rumors, and TV News Changes

 

BIG CHANGES ON the restaurant scene in Marquette. The latest? The Union Grill on US 41 has been sold to the owners of the Steinhaus, the German restaurant downtown.

 

No, that doesn't mean the Steinhaus, with a growing and enthusiastic clientele, is moving. It's staying right where it is.

 

Justin Fairbanks, the chef and owner of the Steinhaus, says the Union Grill location will be used to prep food for the Steinhaus, and also for catering and special events, as well as the processing of local meats. The Steinhaus is big on that.

 

But there's more. The new location (no name yet) will also open for lunch and will also retail meats, cheeses and specialty foods. Marquette foodies are jumping for joy.

 

But wait, there's more!

 

Fairbanks and his family have also bought the Dancing Crane Farm in Skandia. He'll now have a ready supply of local produce (though they're not yet set up for winter crops) and a coffee roaster. 

 

In economics, they call this "vertical integration." In culinary circles, they call it "farm to table" or "farm to fork."

 

Whatever, it's an exciting and possibly game-changing development for the restaurant business in Marquette.

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SO PROBUILD IS closing down in the middle of November. No surprise, given the intense competition for builders and contractors at that location on US-41. Lowes and Menards are literally a (long) stone's throw away.

Now begins the speculation on who might move into that prime spot.

In the lead, early on, is Costco. That rumor is rampant. Marquette Township officials have heard it but know nothing about it. Costco corporate officials in Washington state are saying nothing about it and wouldn't say anything, anyway, until they got permits.

It does seem that the ProBuild site might be a little small for a Costco, doesn't it?

Also in the running on the rumor circuit is a Meijer hyperstore. There are 100 of them downstate. Why not one in Marquette Township?

Oh, there's also the perennial rumor about the Olive Garden moving in.

And this just in! Saks Fifth Avenue is moving to the ProBuild site! No, wait, it's Bloomingdale's!
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YOU MAY HAVE noticed the big tent that's sprouted up next to Coco's.

Turns out it's for a big Halloween party this Saturday night. Everyone's invited (in costume preferably) and reportedly at least 200 revelers are expected.

Don't worry, it'll be fully enclosed, with heaters inside. To say nothing of the body heat that'll be generated.

 

More important, perhaps, is that the tent will go up again next spring as a new wedding venue in Marquette. Coco's management says they already have two weddings booked for the summer.

Coco's, by the way, had been up for sale for well over a year. No takers at the asking price. Owner Jackie Gonda (with her husband Patrick) took it off the market a few months ago. They're staying, she insists, and expanding the restaurant's operations.

Why not? It's a huge piece of property in an ideal location, across from the beach and just down the block from the Nestledown B&B which should be opening early next summer.
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TV6 HAS ADDED a new face to its 6 pm newscast.

She's Sophie Erber, fresh out of Florida. Welcome to five months of winter, Sophie, and by "winter" we don't mean 63 degrees and gloomy skies, we mean 4 degrees, 150 inches of snow, and occasional white-outs.

For now, she's co-anchoring only the six o'clock newscast with Steve Asplund but plans are for her to possibly co-anchor the 7 pm and 11 pm newscasts, as well.

So far, she comes across as attractive, poised and confident. The chemistry with the other anchors isn't quite there yet, but she certainly seems to have a future.

Suggestion: Don't let her be just a pretty face, a news "presenter." Give her serious reporting responsibilities. Investigative work maybe (something sorely lacking in the UP). Get her fingernails dirty.

TV6 would benefit, and so would she.
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DOWN THE BLOCK, Greg Peterson, the new news director at ABC 10, is trying to inject a greater aggressiveness into his tiny staff of seven.

Peterson, himself, is out on the streets. A few weeks ago, he accosted Congressman Dan Benishek and quizzed him on climate change. The interview lasted for more than a minute, an eternity on local newscasts. Critics might have thought it was embarrassing and inappropriate, but it did get ABC 10 quoted in the Huffington Post.

For better or worse, it's a new day and a new approach for the UP's ABC affiliate which has had a remarkably strong web presence but woefully weak ratings for its newscasts.

Suggestion to ABC 10: Trade your $37.50 news set (also known as "Flowers in a Pot next to a Pole") to Zach Galifianakis for his Between Two Ferns set. Between Two Ferns is decidedly more attractive than what you've got now.


If you've got news, email me at briancabell@gmail.com

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Turmoil at Cliffs, Internet Cafe in a Bank, and a World Premiere in Marquette

THESE ARE TOUGH times for Cliffs Natural Resources but so far the local office is keeping quiet. Can't blame them. Who knows what lies ahead for them?

Here's what's been happening recently for the mining company that's long been one of Marquette County's biggest employers and most involved corporate citizens:

1) Its Duluth office, with 30 employees, is closing down. Those employees apparently are being offered jobs elsewhere.

2) Cliffs has reportedly hired Deutsche Bank to sell its coal assets in West Virginia and Alabama.

3) The company's also hired the Jefferies Group LLC to sell its Australian iron ore mines.

4) One of Cliffs' directors, Richard K. Riederer, has resigned from the board citing bullying by other board members as a reason for his departure.

5) All of this, of course, comes in the wake of the hostile takeover of the Cliffs' board by Casablanca Capital several weeks back, and the dumping of then CEO Gary Halverson.

None of these moves should come as a surprise. Casablanca, dismayed by Cliffs' dismal stock performance over the past few years, had promised major strategic changes and cuts when it seized control.

Whether those cuts will hit closer to home remains to be seen.
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SOME COMPANIES SEEM to see the future and embrace it.

A great example on Third Street in Marquette. The River Valley Bank branch recently closed down for a few months to make some remarkable changes.

When they reopen in late November, here's what we'll be seeing:

An internet café and lounge inside the bank. Yeah, that's right. Free cappuccino, free Wi-Fi, free iPad access, comfy chairs, and a fireplace. Oh, the popcorn's over there.

C'mon in, even if you're not a customer of the bank. Sit down, log on, surf the web, enjoy the java, give your feet a rest, take a break from the cold.

River Valley is calling it "the bank of the future." It'll also feature individual "teller pods," rather than a long, forbidding partition between tellers and customers. The tellers and bank managers will be out in the open and mingling constantly, rather than hidden away in their offices.

This new concept is being tried out on the East and West coast at some banks, and River Valley is now putting it into practice at their Wausau, Madison and Marquette branches.

An official says the idea is to give the bank--normally a boring, staid institution--more of a Starbucks feel. Sounds pretty good, especially when the coffee, the popcorn and the iPad access are all free.
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YOU MAY HAVE noticed that the Union Grill in south Marquette is up for sale.

Owners Terry and Christie Doyle have decided to pare back their business interests a bit with the awareness that they're not getting any younger. It was the same sort of reasoning that recently convinced Christine Pesola to loosen her ties to her beloved Landmark Inn.

The Doyles will, however, remain intimately involved with their primary business, the Vierling.

In fact, come November 15th, they'll undertake a major renovation of the kitchen at the Vierling and also of the underutilized front room which, to this point, has just been used for overflow, not for dining.

The Doyles plan to put a couple of TV's in the room, give it more of a hip, brew pub feel, and offer full dining, as well.

As for the Union Grill, which offers high quality food and barbeque in what's considered a fast-casual restaurant (slower but better than fast food, faster but less formal than a normal, sit-down restaurant), it'd be a shame to see it go. It's unique to this town.

The Doyles aren't rushing the sale--it's not even listed with a realtor yet.
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NO WORD YET on how long it'll take the city and Duke LifePoint to iron out a contract for the relocation of Marquette General Hospital.

One official suggested that the contract itself may present more difficulties than the original Memorandum of Understanding between the two parties. Let's hope that's not the case. DLP wants to start building next spring.

And let's get ready for the complaints from motorists and residents in the neighborhood of the new hospital. Erecting a bridge on Grove Street over US-41 and constructing a roundabout a few hundred yards west of there will not exactly be dust-free and congestion-free.

It'll be a mess for at least a few months.

One final thought about the entire Duke LifePoint search that has consumed the community for the last year: likely, the critical factor that turned DLP toward the Roundhouse property and away from the golf course and the township site was Roundhouse's eligibility for Brownfield funds. The township and the golf course couldn't offer that.

A Brownfield project can offer millions of dollars to a developer. That's important to a for-profit corporation.
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HOLD ON. ONE final, final observation about Duke LifePoint and the city.

City Commissioner Don Ryan's eloquent and clear-minded summation last week of the deal that was reached for the relocation of Marquette General Hospital had to remind some of us that we're losing three wise, conscientious, even-tempered commissioners this November.

Ryan, Fred Stonehouse, and mayor Bob Niemi are all leaving because of term limits. You might not have agreed with all their decisions during their tenure but you can't deny that they're smart and devoted and polite, and commission meetings have generally run smoothly.

And the city, despite some daunting challenges, is moving ahead.

Maybe our three retiring commissioners could move to Washington DC and teach those clowns how a government is supposed to be run.
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A WORLD PREMIERE in Marquette!

It sounds a little hyperbolic but it's true. The play Willpower takes to the stage this Thursday and Friday at Kaufman Auditorium.

It was written by Marquette novelist Tyler Tichelaar. The director is Moire Embley, the musical director is Jeff Bruning. They're both locals. The actors are local, the singers are local.

So yeah, this is local and it's original.

The story itself isn't too bad, either. It's about Will Adams, a young man in Marquette at the turn of the 19th century who overcame a mysterious, crippling disease to write poetry, essays, magazine articles and an operetta.

At the end of his life (at age 32), he was paralyzed from the neck down, but he was still determined and creative.

A lesson for all of us. And we'll be the first to see it this Thursday and Friday at Kaufman.


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

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