Debra Keefer Ramage
Debra Keefer Ramage began writing freelance for Southside Pride in 2012, shortly after returning from a 13-year sojourn in England. She covers progressive politics, education, co-ops and neighborhoods. In 2017 she started doing Southside Pride’s restaurant review column, The Dish.
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Housing nonprofits and land trusts Selby Avenue, like everything else, exists in the now, but unlike many other streets, Selby Avenue seems very conscious of its past and its future. Part of Selby Avenue’s past was the brutal destruction of a prosperous African-American community and neighborhood…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Chicago Avenue, from downtown to the city line Every year since 2020, when we check out this section of Chicago Avenue, we focus most sharply on George Floyd Square. And this piece will do the same, but let’s not start there. We sometimes overlook the things…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Lots of hot restaurant news! Lynette (3753 42nd Ave. S.) is open. This is the new restaurant, greatly anticipated, in the former Riverview Wine Bar space. Tender Lovin’ Chicks (2700 Lyndale Ave) is also open, the brick-and-mortar incarnation of a popular food truck. Two breweries will…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Two East Phillips institutions at Bloomington and Franklin Avenues One of the biggest stories about this summer on Bloomington Avenue is happening right at its northernmost point. This is the heart of the city’s Indigenous people’s community at the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC). In May,…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The Wonderful Wedge Do you mean the neighborhood or the cooperative grocery store? I could mean both! But right now I mean the co-op. Although I’ve been a member of a different co-op for 33 years, my favorite co-op to shop is the Wedge (2105 Lyndale…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Openings around town and coming soon Darling (3311 25th St. E.) opened in the former Birchwood Cafe space in the Seward neighborhood in mid-June. A friend and I went there for a late-ish brunch in early July, and it was pretty packed. I only had one…
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BY DEBORAH KEEFER RAMAGE Where to eat on Cedar Avenue? Twice now, in The Dish, I have reviewed a really good Persian restaurant in my son’s neighborhood of the northern Atlanta suburb of John’s Creek. My excuse was that Minneapolis didn’t have a real Persian restaurant. But last time, I…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Highland Bridge status check-in I started writing the July articles on Highland Park in 2016, so this marks our ninth piece summarizing the year’s news on this St. Paul neighborhood. In 2016, we noted the impact of automobiles and the Ford plant on Highland Park’s development.…
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BY DEBORAH KEEFER RAMAGE Openings and closings There are three interesting openings to report this month, although none are in South Minneapolis. The first is Little Canada’s Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co. (3 Little Canada Road E.), part of a small national chain. It’s drawing rave reviews and it’s open seven…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE A lot is happening on Franklin Avenue! Two major portions of the stretch of Franklin Avenue we cover in Southside Pride are the American Indian Cultural Corridor from Hiawatha Avenue to 11th Avenue and the part that runs through Seward neighborhood, from Cedar Avenue to the…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Reconnected Avenue is ever closer As we have asserted in previous editions, Nicollet Avenue is really two different streets. There is everything north of Lake Street (Cecil Newman Lane, really) which includes the crossing of the Greenway, Eat Street, and Nicollet Mall downtown, and then there’s…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE CD5 DFL endorsing convention, May 11, South High School Having not succeeded in becoming a delegate to my Congressional District convention, I attended on a guest pass to “cover” it. I put that in quotes, because it’s not my forte to do straight coverage, nor rabble-rousing…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Openings, closings and changes With late spring comes the reopening of outdoor dining spaces, from lakeside pavilions, to ice cream stands, to rooftop bars, to sidewalk or backyard patios. Bread and Pickle at Lake Harriet reopened on May 10, Painted Turtle at Lake Nokomis on May…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Clusters of fun and joy dot 34th Avenue As I also mentioned in “Spring on East 38th Street,” a Racket.com article from April 17 listed their take on “the 13 best intersections in Minneapolis,” and the single street that occurred the most was 50th Street,…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE A mixed overview Racket.com did a list of the 13 “best intersections” in Minneapolis on April 17, and 38th Street was the cross street in two of them (Cedar and 38th, Grand and 38th), exceeded only by 50th Street, which featured in three of them. So…
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