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 I went back and read Southside Pride’s pieces on Dinkytown from the past few years. (You can do that too, if you go to our online version southsidepride.com and type Dinkytown into the search bar.) It was, with 20/20 hindsight (plus now we have 2021 hindsight…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE As we’ve mentioned in a previous year, it’s easy to see the small business hub at 28th Avenue and 42nd Street as a small town within the city, with 42nd Street being “Main Street” of the mythical town of Standish-Ericsson, or Stan-Eric for short. As usual,…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Midtown Global Market’s 2021 is faring better, slightly, than its 2020 did. There have been four or five vendors who have left the market, some for larger spaces elsewhere, and two or three new ones have moved in since we last visited. There has also been…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE New Secretary of Education At least we don’t have Betsy DeVos anymore! In March of this year the new Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, was appointed, and he couldn’t be any more of a refutation of DeVos if he had been designed by a computer that…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE More great cider! Last month The Dish 2.0 covered a couple of innovative cideries in Minneapolis, and we didn’t even mention Sociable Cider Werks! I apologize for that, and I am going to make up for it by telling you all the cool things Sociable has…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Selby Avenue’s hilly, bumpy history When Selby Avenue was first named on a map, in 1854, the site of the present Cathedral of Saint Paul (the fourth and final one to bear that name) was occupied by a 40-acre farm belonging to Jeremiah Selby. This land,…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE McRae Park is one of the friendliest parks, much beloved by its surrounding neighborhoods. It stands as a green and welcoming gateway to the business hub of Chicago and 48th and the southern parts of south Minneapolis beyond. Current use information for parks and rec centers…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Downtown at Chicago Avenue’s northern terminus, the venerable Guthrie Theater is cautiously reopening. I have really ambivalent feelings about entertainment happening while the pandemic is in the situation where there are no ICU beds available, and kids are having to go back to classes with nothing…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE New eating places and concepts and “new to me” Amazingly, new restaurants and cafes and food service “concepts” keep on opening. Three fairly recent openings, in descending order of grandness (which pretty much relates to price and that pampered, entitled feeling, but not necessarily to actual…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Grand Avenue is not like most of the other major thoroughfares we write about. It’s the only one with two esteemed liberal arts universities on it. Which may explain why it has no less than three independent bookstores on it as well. Also, although in terms…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE We have a load of interesting things to tell you about on or near Lyndale Avenue South. A few are long-time stalwarts, and a few are either new, or newly reopened since the last shutdown, or newly discovered by me and checked out for the first…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Bloomington Avenue is looking OK these days. I love to see it, because a year ago, I wasn’t sure. Businesses along Bloomington tend to be either very small and/or creative and unusual. Eateries capitalized on being cozy and intimate, and had to pivot to takeout, which…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE Dining rooms reopened and indoor café returns The Seward branch of Pizza Lucé has opened its dining room. Quite a few other Lucés have been open for indoor and patio dining for a while now. But this one doesn’t have a patio, so that may have…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE When you live in south Minneapolis, your only knowledge (if any) of Highland Park in St. Paul may be Ford Parkway and its mostly upscale businesses. That’s because Ford Parkway is accessed via the bridge over the Mississippi River which is at East 46th Street on…
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BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE There has not been as much change in the past year on 66th Street as we have experienced in South Minneapolis. One or two small businesses have moved to new locations here. A few have closed; it’s not clear if it was the pandemic or just…
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