ELIZABETH’S CHOP HOUSE, arguably the best restaurant in the Upper Peninsula (yes, we can argue about it), is getting some serious recognition.
A website, onlyinyourstate.com, recently listed it as the 7th best steakhouse in Michigan.
Quoting: “Elizabeth and Tom Wahlstrom have transformed a restaurant in downtown Marquette into a piece of old Manhattan with their ridiculously prime cuts of beef and elegant lobster dishes.”
Not much argument there.
And then there’s this: Mlive.com, a digital collaboration of several news organizations in the state, is also looking for the top ten steakhouses in Michigan. Their crew visited Elizabeth’s a couple of days ago. They’ll publish the “winners” on Thursday.
Mlive began with 50 nominations for best steakhouses, then narrowed it to the top 25 and Elizabeth’s made the cut (sorry for the pun), and now the Wahlstroms wait to see if their restaurant makes another top ten.
And why not?
It delivers a classy atmosphere, top notch service, and delicious food. It ain’t Bonanza but it’s still pretty damn good.
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LOOKS LIKE THE city of Marquette is acquiring an 11 acre park, complete with 1000 feet of sandy beach on the shoreline of Lake Superior. The cost? Zero dollars.
After two years of planning and some contentiousness, the City Commission decided to accept the gift from the family of the late Clark Lambros and his personal and business partner, Michele Butler.
The property, when developed, will also include a bathhouse with showers, picnic tables, a parking lot, and a ramp providing beach access for the handicapped.
Why the contentiousness? Well, some of the commissioners questioned whether the property and its structures might be too expensive to maintain, whether it was right to build any structures near the water, whether maybe the land might be polluted, whether…whatever.
The land was free. Without the deal, the land would have stayed in private hands and probably been developed as condos or apartments. Now, it’ll belong to the public. Oh, and Butler is also donating $250,000 for future maintenance.
Back story: It’ll be called the Clark Lambros Beach Park, in honor of longtime businessman and civic leader Clark Lambros and his son “Clarkie” who died in a tragic accident at the age of 24.
Originally, Clark was donating the land solely in the name of his son. But then he took ill a couple of years ago, and just before he died, Michele, along with Lambros’ daughter Joy, and son-in-law Rob, told him they thought the park should named for both Clark and Clarkie. Clark agreed, then died the next day.
A final gift to the city he loved. Something for us all to cherish on the shores of Lake Superior.
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WELL, THAT DIDN’T take long.
Bill Vajda, who recently surprised most of us by resigning as Marquette City Manager, has taken a new job in town–he’ll be the senior vice president of operations for Easy Ice.
Easy Ice is a company that provides commercial ice machines, along with maintenance and repairs, to customers in 45 states around the nation. It was founded in 2009.
It’s certainly a change of pace for Vajda, who not only served as City Manager but has worked at NATO, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Security Agency, and the IRS.
Vajda has said all along he wanted to stay in his hometown of Marquette. His new gig allows him to do that.
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A LITTLE UNREST at NMU over reported cutbacks in adjunct professors and classes. The reports (150 profs to be cut!) seem a wee bit exaggerated.
For this semester, according to the administration, the adjunct numbers are actually up by a few dozen over fall of 2014, while the full-time professor numbers are down by four.
The big concern is with the winter semester coming up. With NMU’s enrollment down by more than 400 students, we can fully expect there to be fewer adjuncts hired and fewer classes to be offered. That’s the way budgeting goes.
The losses may be significant but not catastrophic, and a recent student protest of the expected cuts by conducting a Zumba class outside certainly seemed to trivialize the cutbacks. After all, we’re not sending our kids to college to learn Zumba, are we?
Seems like we should have other priorities at a state university.
The more serious question that needs to be answered is why NMU’s enrollment continues to decline. NMU’s administration and faculty need to do some soul-searching.
Michigan Tech’s enrollment, by contrast, is the highest it’s been in 30 years.
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A FASCINATING MOVIE coming to the historic Vista Theater in Negaunee.
Superior: The Movie tells the true story of two young men, lifelong friends, who biked 1300 miles along the shores of Lake Superior back in 1969. A final, youthful adventure for them, as one was headed afterwards to Michigan Tech, the other to military service and the Vietnam War.
The director, writer, and producer is Edd Benda who traces the journey of his uncle, Karl Benda, a half century ago.
The movie was shot last summer in the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Biking, the U.P., youth, friendship, adventure, the Vietnam War? Yeah, those are pretty compelling themes.
Superior: The Movie is being shown at other venues in the U.P., but its showing at the Vista (Tuesday, October 13th, 7:30 pm) is the only one at an actual theater.
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MORE SIGNS OF life in Ishpeming.
Globe Printing, which recently opened up an arts and gift shop–Earthly Treasures–in the front of the store, is now expanding Earthly Treasures.
It’ll be next door to Globe, and this is the exciting part: it’ll be a cooperative of local artists, some of whom will actually be working on their art in the space.
Ishpeming, an arts community! That’s the hope and plan of Stacey Willey, herself an artist and the owner of Globe.
Willey’s having the space revamped now while working out contractual arrangements with artists. She’s hoping to get it opened before Christmas.
Question of the Day: Is it possible to nominate the Pope for President?
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