Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Big News for Stone Arch Bridge Fans
Beginning in the spring of 2024, separate halves of Minneapolis's historic Stone Arch Bridge have alternately closed for construction crews to repair mortar, rocks, and stones as part of a $38.5 million facelift. (Hey, you try looking half that good at 134 years old.) The project was expected to last into this fall, but on Tuesday the Minnesota Department of Transportation announced that full bridge-crossing activities will resume on August 9. To celebrate, there'll be a ribbon-cutting ceremony complete with food trucks and entertainment for, we gotta assume, all ages; additional bridge party details are expected Wednesday.
In late 2023 the nearby Third Avenue Bridge reopened after several years of reconstruction, meaning that, for the first time this decade, downtown Minneapolis is packin' three fully active powerhouse Mississippi River bridges: Stone Arch! Third Ave! And that ol' reliably beauty with the Grain Belt sign, yes, we're talkin' Hennepin Avenue. What a time to be alive and spanning rivers.
Two Closings and an Opening
Businesses: Somedays it feels as if they can't stop opening, maintaining regular hours, and/or closing. Today was no exception.
First up, we've got news that Café & Bar Lurcat, a Minneapolis staple since 2002, will close up shop in Loring Park this September. That means no D’Amico & Partners full-service outposts will exist in this state, Minnesota Monthly's Jason DeRusha observes, marking an influential run than began in 1982 with D’Amico Cucina. Lady Gaga, Mick Jagger, and Prince have all dined at Lurcat over the years, though sadly not at the same time or table. ("I won't 'Kiss' that 'Goats Head Soup,' Mr. Jagger," we could imagine the famously vegetarian Prince saying. "What do you take me for, some kinda 'Monster?'") “For 23 years, Café & Bar Lurcat has been a beacon of celebration, a space where every meal is a memory, and guests are family,” co-owner Richard D’Amico says via press release. “We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our staff, whose dedication, passion, and skill have made every experience extraordinary.”
Next up, we've got word that Pickin' Parlor, a Richfield folk-music institution since 1979, will close at the end of the month. The culprit, reports Luke Taylor of the Current? Owners Marv and Dawn Menzel say the "primary reason" is their newish Richfield landlord jacked up the rent. The landlord is a "nice enough fellow," Marv reports, but the "pretty hefty" rent increase applied at "his first adventure into commercial real estate" wasn't tenable. Losing the close-knit community Pickin' Parlor cultivated will be felt throughout the music scene, local folk musician/publicist Ellen Stanley tells Taylor. “The customers we've developed have become like our family,” Marv says, noting that, at 82, he's been eyeballing retirement for a number of years. "They're all loved and appreciated. That will be hard to give up.”
Finally, some good news: Lito's Burritos, which has operated the past few years outta El Tejaban Mexican Grill in Richfield, is steppin' out. The brother-sister team of Miguel and Diana Hernandez has found a brick 'n' mortar home at 901 W. Lake St. (aka the ol' Union Hmong Kitchen) in Minneapolis, meaning their "quiet breakfast burrito revolution" will soon expand beyond their parents' digs. (The Richfield outpost will remain operational into the future.) Racket canonically digs Lito's, and urges you to support their fundraiser on August 6.
Meet Minnesota's "Queen of Walleye"
Hard to believe this is the first we're hearing of Genevieve Furtner, the manager of the DNR fish hatchery in St. Paul and so-called "Queen of Walleye"—a title that was apparently bestowed upon her by Gov. Tim Walz.
Luckily, we have this story from the Star Tribune's Alex Chhith, who stopped by the state’s oldest fish hatchery to watch the Queen in action. This year, Furtner and just one other staffer will raise 42,000 muskies and 6 million walleye (her record is 40 million walleye in one season, enough to stock about 150 lakes), but it's a job that keeps her at the old East Side hatchery at all hours. And the hatchery needs help.
The story is as much about Furtner's work as it is her workplace more broadly; advocates say the St. Paul facility is in need of crucial updates. Mark Holsten, a former DNR commissioner and current executive director of the nonprofit MN-FISH, describes it as a "drab basement" with "duct-taped pipes" and "black mold growing in corners."
“They’re raising fingerlings in 2 liter bottles,” Rep. Erin Koegel (DFL-Spring Lake Park) tells the Strib, to say nothing of the old/dark/leaky building. “I could not imagine working eight hours in an environment like that.”
Who's Playing U.S. Bank?
U.S. Bank and Live Nation are promising to announce "one of the biggest shows in Minnesota history" later this week. And... that's all we know so far, except that the Thursday morning media event will "include a photo opportunity revealing a customized Vikings jersey."
So who's it gonna be?
The Racket staff, with varying degrees of seriousness, has floated: Billy Joel (again!), Elton John, the Boss, Fugazi, U2, BTS, the Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, Pitbull, NSYNC, and hologram Prince. (BTS is perhaps the best bet; the K-pop superstars have never played Minnesota, much to the chagrin of their local superfans, who've got a picnic scheduled this week.) But what do we know—let's hear it, comment section, who do you think is coming to downtown Minneapolis, presumably sometime in 2026?