Norton "The Nabbitect" L.'s Profile

On our second night of a family reunion, we bought a bushel of crab from this little store.  My uncle made a reservation and picked it up just before dinner.  I tagged along to see what the store was like.

The shop was small, but to the point.  They had fresh seafood on ice in the middle of the store and the edges were lined with wine, cheese and crackers, and gift knick knacks.  All of the seafood looked very fresh.

My family usually likes to cook their own seafood, but since the price of the prepared and live crab were the same price, we let Carawan do the cooking and clean up.  My uncle ordered the cajun style and it was fabulous.  We all chowed down the first night and had plenty left over for several meals after that.  There were 17 of us and I think all but the two little kids had one or two that first night.  Plenty of yummy crab to go around.

I was in OBX for a family reunion and on our first night, we all got in late and didn't want to fire up anything in the kitchen of the house we rented.  So one of my uncles suggested a seafood place nearby that he ate at for lunch.  We all got in our respective cars (convoy of 4 vehicles) and followed him to his suggestion.

After 20 minutes of driving around with wrong turns, losing cars, and people not paying attention to where cars were going (I'll post the story if people are interested), we ended up at Cosmo's Pizzeria.

It's a small joint where the 14 people in our party (we lost 3 of them) pretty much filled half the restaurant.  As we were all hungry, we went simple and ordered a cheese, a supreme, a sausage/pepperoni, and a sausage/mushroom.  It was plenty for all of us plus leftovers.  We all inhaled them as we laughed about what had just transpired on the way over.  It wasn't the best pizza I've had, but better than average.

My only complaint is that the drinks tasted funny.  My cousin had lemonade with a funny aftertaste and my Sprite left the same remnants in my mouth.  We figures it was the water between the lemonade and the ice used for the Sprite.

I stopped in here with my daughter on the way up the Gunflint Trail one Friday night.  Our first choice was the Angry Trout because I've always wanted to try it, but there was a long wait and we wanted to get up the trail as soon as possible.  We ended up here where there was only one other table occupied.

I was here once years ago when it was called the Harbor Inn Cafe.  Made sense since it's in the same building as the Harbor Inn Hotel.  But they renamed it and upgraded the decor.  The furniture was classic Northwoods furniture made out of old trees and the paint on the walls was much more modern and less... cafe-ish.

My daughter had a corn dog kid's meal and I chose the Trout BLT.  It was FABulous.  The trout was cooked and seasoned perfectly, the bacon was cooked crisp (just the way I like it) to add texture, and there were some pieces of red onion that added just the right amount of zip.  The whole thing was on a french roll.  Delicious.

My only complaint is that it was really expensive.  The kids meal was $6 andmy sandwich was $14.  Fortunately, we just had water to drink to keep the bill under $25.  $25 for a meal for two people where one is 8 years old???  Crazy.  I cut a star for the prices, but to be fair, many of the places in Grand Marais have gotten just as expensive.  It's become somewhat of a tourist trap.

While the food was first class, I don't think I'll come back again.  I just can't afford it.  But if you're willing to spend a pretty penny, I would recommend it.

I came here last weekend to check out my latest lust, a Hobie Mirage Pro Angler kayak (http://www.hobiecat.co...).  They are the only listed dealer of Hobie products in the Twin Cities.

The shop is small with a lot of products packed in, but not so much that you can't get around.  They make good use of wall space.

When I walked in, there was a young lady in her late teens/early 20s that got out of her chair from behind the counter to tell me about the Pro Angler when I told her what I was there for.  She spent a good few minutes telling me about the kayak and was very knowledgeable when I asked her questions.

They sell the full line of Hobie products and even have free on water demos where you can try out a Hobie kayak to see if you like it.  They alternate between White Bear Lake, Lake Calhoun, and Lake Minnetonka.  The schedule is kind of hidden on their site, so here is the link, http://www.hitempokaya....  They sell the demos at the end of the season for a discount.

I was very impressed with the young attendants of the store.  They knew what they were talking about.  It was obvious that the owner let's them try out products so they can talk about them.  It was also obvious that they have a passion for water sports, so you weren't talking to a teenager who was just there for the job.  They were there because they wanted to share their passion.

When I'm ready to buy, I'll be back.

My wife got the bright idea of roller skating for my daughter's 9th birthday party.  That's great, but that meant that *we* had to roller skate as well.

Since I don't rollerblade, I figure I haven't had wheels on my feet for 30 years.  That was an experience, let me tell you.  It took a while to get used to and I watched some of the experts out there to pick up some tips.  By the end of the 3 hours, I was doing pretty well.  I only fell three times, but twisted an ankle and knee in the process.  I bet it looked pretty funny those couple of times I managed to catch myself, arms and legs flailing like Elaine Benes's dance moves.

The rink is only open for 3-4 hours at a time.  It doesn't look much different than I remember since I was there last in elementary school (from what I can remember of it, anyway).  It's definitely an older building, but it's got a rink to skate on and you're not there to pick up decorating tips, so what's the difference?

There were about 6 other "official" birthday parties there.  Ours wasn't official because we didn't have enough kids (only 3 of the 10 we invited could make it), but the DJ did mention my daughter's name a couple of times.  The have some fun games for the birthday parties and a hoola hoop contest, a moon-walking contest, and a limbo on roller skates.  I would have rather they kept the open skating going all the time, but the games did break up the time a bit.

I had forgotten how much fun it is just to go around in circles.  It's worth the $5-7 admission for 3 hours.  Where else are you going to get that kind of value?  Plus, they have group rates for $140 for 20 that include pizza and drinks.  We're thinking about a neighborhood party there.

Go give these places your patronage.  They are dinosaurs that probably won't be around much longer.  They are disappearing like other classic forms of entertainment such as the drive-in.

I was driving to Sears the day before Mother's Day and saw a sign on the wall saying they serve dim sum.  I was excited to find a place less than half the 45 min drive to my favorite dim sum place, the Mandarin Kitchen, but the question was: is it any good?

The answer is, yes.  Given that this is a Vietnamese restaurant, I had my doubts as to whether they could do classic dim sum, but they did a decent job of it.  Most of the dishes were tasty, and others, if you were to compare them to what they were *supposed* to be, weren't up to par, yet they were good in themselves.  An example is the classic dim sum dish, sui mai.  As sui mai, it was horrible, but as a pork dumpling, it still tasted good.

My only complaint was that we we typically look for certain dishes when at dim sum.  A few of them didn't come by our table.  We thought, being a Vietnamese restaurant, that they didn't serve those dishes.  But on our way out, we saw them on the tables of other patrons.  So the carts just never got to us.  We were there for a good hour and sat in a main aisle, so the cart-pushers didn't have their routes set up well.  We saw several carts multiple times, while other carts not at all.

We would definitely come back since it's not the haul it is to Bloomington for us.  But next time we'll know to get up and go after the dishes we want if we don't see them.  We'll still go to Mandarin Kitchen for the best in town.

4 stars for the food, -1 for the service.

A number of months ago, I discovered that Schoonover's doesn't just do body work, they also do general repairs.  Given my positive experience with their body repair, I thought I would try them for my alignment problem I had been procrastinating about.

They found that my back tires were worn different amounts and that's what was causing the pull.  What they didn't do, is do a complete once-over of the entire car and recommend a dozen more repairs that I should have, like many mechanics do.  I appreciated that.  They stuck with what they were supposed to look at, and no more.

But that wasn't the amazing part of my experience with them.  I ended up buying new tires (which was a good deal from what I could tell) and few weeks after my repair, my wife noticed that the hubcap on one of the new tires was missing (on the passenger side, lest you think I'm completely oblivious).  I don't know if it fell off recently, or had been missing just a day or two after the repair.  Schoonver replaced the hubcap, with no more questions asked than should have been.

Given the amount of time that had passed since my repair, they certainly weren't obligated to replace the hubcap, but I'm very glad they did.  It's nice that they were willing to spend an extra couple of bucks to keep a customer happy.  That's customer service that is rare these days.

In a nutshell: yummy burgers.

A co-worker of mine drove all the way from our office in Eagan to her stomping grounds to get meals for all of us from this place.  In winter.  After a minor snow storm.  She had coupons, but still.  The food *had* to be good.  It was.

I can't speak to the restaurant itself, but if I'm ever in Woodbury, I now have a new place to eat.

If you go to a Noodles & Company, it doesn't matter if you go to this one, one in the Northern suburbs, one in California, one in Atlantis (if you can find it), or one on Mars (when it gets there).  The food will be the same.  It's a chain.  That's the point.  This review isn't about the food.

(However, I will say, that I do like the food.  I usually get a Trio with caesar salad, mushroom stroganoff, and braised beef.  Good value.  Tasty.  'Nuff said.)

Noodles could technically be classified as "fast food" because you get your food fast.  But it's a step above linoleum floors, plastic tables, and ketchup dispensers that make disgusting sounds when they are empty.  At the same time, it's a haven for zit-ridden teenagers looking for a job so they can go to the latest movie with their friends.  Because of this, they could care less if they pushed the button for tuna noodle potato chip casserole vs. what you actually ordered.  That could be said of anyone behind the register really.

Then there's management.  Management at these places do as much work behind the counter as the rest of the peons and then have to do their manager duties.  As a result, if you ever have a complaint, they look at you with a stare that says, "just finish what your saying so I can say I'm sorry and get on with slapping these kids around."

But then every once in a while, there is an exception.  An employee gives me hope that there *is* someone that cares about the people that come into their store, and truly cares that you enjoy your experience there.  I found such a person yesterday at this location.

I had an appointment with a friend and she was 15 minutes late.  If you've ever been to a Noodles, you know you're supposed to order your food before finding a table.  To be polite, I stood near the registers waiting for my friend instead of taking an empty table.  While watching patrons come and go, I saw an employee (presumably a manager) help out one of the register monkeys when a customer seemed to ask about something complicated.  He offered her some combination of food that seemed to make her happy and I even heard something about it being cheaper (I wasn't trying to listen in, just watching more than anything).  He got points for being helpful.

A few minutes later, that same employee saw me waiting (it had been at least five minutes by now) and offered me a drink.  I didn't need one, but impressive nonetheless.

Ten minutes later, I finally saw my friend drive up and when I turned around to wait for her to get out of her car, the very person was standing in front of me with a glass in hand.  "Are you sure you don't want a drink?  I have a glass right here."  Again, I declined since my friend was just coming in, but I was floored.  Here is a guy that not only saw me standing around and offered me a drink, but in knowing how long I had waited, really wanted me to be comfortable by nearly forcing me to take a beverage.  Had my friend not been imminent, I would have definitely accepted.  This gentleman ended up bringing our food to us and was polite and pleasant as ever.

Now that I write this review, I realize I should have thanked him personally and gotten his name to tell corporate.  This kind of person is an island competence in a sea of apathy.  Not just in the super employee turnover world of fast food, but in retail in general.  Good customer service just doesn't exist anymore.  Exceptional customer service is downright rare.  I hoe this guy gets noticed.  He should.  I hope he goes far.  He deserves to.

I was back here recently and wanted to relay a funny story.  

I was the only one in line and the owner (who always mans the meat shaver) was friendlier than usual.  He's always friendly, but this day, he seemed to be having an especially good time.

After getting my sandwich order, he asked if I wanted soup for my meal (I've heard it's good soup, but I'm not much for the Chicken enchilada soup they have as a staple on their menu).  I said, "no soup today, thanx."  He replied, "NO SOUP FOR YOU!"  We both chuckled.

I love a place where the people working are having a good time.  And I love that the owner here likes to get his hands dirty and do some of the grunt work.  It shows his passion for his shop.

If you're looking for somewhere for lunch, don't pass GO and go directly to Obee's.  Eat there now and eat there often.  Places like this need you more than the chain sandwich shops.