HOW TO DESCRIBE The Flying Moose, the soon-to-be-opened store at Washington and 5th (formerly Hockey Central)?
Well, you’ll be able to buy local and organic produce, meats and groceries there, along with backpacking and hikers’ gear, along with bikes to buy or rent, along with Michigan beers and wines, and local artwork and crafts, and…oh, how about a 15 seat cafe with sandwiches, salads and soups?
Sounds like a 21st century general store.
Jeremy Poch and his wife Melanie are the owners. They’ve lived in the Marquette area for the last five years or so but they have a long history with the U.P. They currently own Seasoned with Salt, an organic seasoning company.
The Flying Moose, they hope, will open by mid June. The sign should go up soon.
The inevitable question: Will it be direct competition for the Marquette Food Co-op, just up the block from them? Jeremy says absolutely not. The Co-op is much, much bigger. He’s confident there’ll be plenty of business for both stores in Marquette.
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FIVE MINUTE DRINKS. Ten minute foods.
That’s the new motto at the reborn L’Attitude, scheduled to reopen early this week, likely either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Five minutes to get your drink served, ten minutes to get your food served. No delays, no waits, no excuses. That’s been one of the bugaboos of previous iterations of L’Attitude–inconsistent, inefficient service.
The partners in the new operation–Jill Hayes and Joe Constance–are determined to put that reputation to rest.
The new menu is still being honed but it will feature small bites, not large meals. In other words, sandwiches, paninis, salads, soup, a cheese plate, whitefish tacos.
Most of the menu will be new but there will be some holdovers from the old L’Attitude.
Among some of the featured dishes:
1)Small pretzel twists tossed in curry butter with honey mustard.
2)Mediterranean falafel waffles deep-fried and served with lemon dill sauce.
3)Sesame seed crusted Ahi tuna chilled with seasonal greens, Asian slaw, wasabi cream and topped with sesame dressing
Eclectic, needless to say. But Hayes guarantees they’ll be tasty, reasonably priced, and on your table within ten minutes.
Drinks? Seven tap beers, one of them a speciality. And the wines, which many had previously criticized for being over-priced, will be less expensive.
A new L’Attitude with a new attitude, Hayes and Constance hope. The key for them will be to find a loyal local following who will still fill the restaurant/bar even when the weather turns cold.
Hours for the restaurant: 2-10 pm to start, then 11 am to 11 pm after Memorial Day. Seven days a week.
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LEAVE THE MEN at home and come on out, spend some money and have some fun.
That’s the message of the newest “Girls Night Out” campaign downtown.
So far it involves five women’s clothing stores in the 100 block of Washington: Reblossom, Darling, Panara, Chickadees, and Boomerang (which features retro clothes). The campaign may expand to other stores.
“Girls Night Out” is occurring the first Thursday of every month through September. The merchants promise special sales for those nights only, along with refreshments. And fun. The hours will be 5-8 pm. And then afterwards, you can go out for dinner and drinks.
And the guy left at home? Don’t worry about him. He’ll be fine with with his beer, Cheetos and the TV remote.
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SO YOU THINK with the ice disappearing from the lake six weeks earlier this year than last, that it’s going to be a nice, warm summer. A scorcher maybe.
Well, think again, according to weather guru Karl Bohnak.
Yes, it’ll be warmer than last year–both the air and the lake–but likely only by a few degrees. The problem, according to Bohnak, is that there’s been a lot of rain in the southern and central plains recently, and that rain has sunk into the soil, so that means when that air down there makes its way up here toward the Great Lakes, it’ll be cooler and we won’t heat up much in the UP.
Oh, and there’s also a northern flow aloft.
Sorry for the butchered meteorology lesson, but you get the point.
Last summer by the way, we had only 18 days in the UP of 80 degrees or above–far below normal–and no days above 90. Very rare.
Hey, we’ll take 70 degrees and sun.
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ANOTHER FEATHER IN the cap for Marquette.
Canoe & Kayak, a magazine and website, just published an article touting Marquette as one of the best paddling cities in the nation.
It refers to us as a small town with the culture and music of a larger city.
Quote: “There’s a great brew scene, diverse shoreline for kayaking, good inland lakes and rivers for canoeing, an hour from Pictured Rocks and Grand Island.”
Unfortunately, this year, unlike last, we won’t be having any iceberg kayaking.
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