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RIP Harry Singh
On July 4, local comedian Fancy Ray McCloney broke the news that legendary Minneapolis chef Harry Singh—and we only use the L-word in rare occasions like this one—had died. "He was my friend, my brother, and my very first meal stop at the Minnesota State Fair every year," McCloney wrote in a Facebook post. "I've celebrated countless birthdays, Father's Days, and other special occasions at his restaurant."
The Star Tribune's Sharyn Jackson reports that Singh died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 81, at his home in Coon Rapids. Her lovely remembrance takes us from Singh's birth in 1945 in Trinidad and Tobago through the opening of his first restaurant in the 1980s to his Eat Street and State Fair debuts and beyond.
Singh was the eldest brother to Marla Kissoondath Singh Jadoonanan, she of the wonderful, bygone south Minneapolis restaurant Marla's Caribbean Cuisine. "We will always remember him for his jokes, his love and the legacy he has left behind of Harry Singh’s Original Caribbean Restaurant. A founding father of the West Indian community in Minnesota, an Uncle to all," she wrote on Facebook. Jadoonanan also shared the information about Singh's wake (July 9, from 5 to 8 p.m.) and funeral (July 10, from 1 to 3:30 p.m.) at the Cremation Society of Minnesota.
Man, it's too bad the Star Tribune took City Pages' archives offline and never put them back, because there's lots of great Singh stuff in there we'd like to link to. For now, revisit Sarah Brumble's delightful 2020 CP profile of the "Godfather of Spice" via the Internet Archive. I love too many lines from it to choose just one, so enjoy this excerpt:
Singh started out on Central Avenue in northeast Minneapolis before bopping to 32nd and Cedar in South, then briefly holding court in the heart of Uptown, only to land at his current spot on Nicollet 18 years ago. The original aesthetic remains intact, from a cloud-painted drop ceiling and a brilliant, dangling wood macaw, to the giant hand-lettered sign above the kitchen window that Singh commissioned decades ago, which has outlasted many a lease. It reads as long as this article, but concludes, simply, “Tell a friend.”
“I never give up, I just continue. They follow you,” Singh says, with the sort of patience one imagines he honed early, possibly while cooking for seven younger siblings in a kitchen he calls “semi-primitive.”
But how Singh has managed to distill the heat of the sun itself into regrettably widemouth bottles for all these years remains a mystery. “I have a unique pattern, a method of how to procure and produce this thing.” It turns out his secret is a longstanding, committed relationship with FedEx.
Sorry, that's already a too-long quote, so please learn about the role FedEx played in Singh's operation when you read the rest of the profile here. RIP to a really, really real one.
Remembering Philando Castile on the 10th Anniversary of His Death
Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the killing of Philando Castile by officer Jeronimo Yanez, and over the last few days local news outlets have been exploring his life and legacy. Many reporters attended a candlelight vigil at the Philando Castile Peace Garden Monday night, which drew 100+ people to Falcon Heights, and others have been using the anniversary as a chance to reflect on what's changed.
There's lots of great work out there, but here are some of the stories that have resonated with our newsroom over the last few days:
- ‘Nobody was supposed to know what his name was’: Philando Castile’s legacy grows a decade after his death | Jon Collins, MPR News
- A decade after Philando Castile’s death, community marks his legacy and his loss | Gloria Ngwa, Sahan Journal
- 10 years after an officer shot Philando Castile, how have traffic stops changed? | Mara H. Gottfried and Imani Cruzen, Pioneer Press
- For Valerie Castile, every day is a tribute to her son Philando | Nina Moini and Alanna Elder, MPR News
Choo! Choo! Here Comes the Bicentennial Train.
The U.S. Semiquincentennial was, in a word, pathetic. (I thought The Ringer's Lex Pryor did a great job of summing up just how pathetic, as well as bizarre and ideological, in this piece.)
But let's not focus on our nightmarish present. No, let's return to the utterly unproblematic [citation needed] days of 1975, when the bicentennial "Freedom Train" made a two-year sojourn through the lower 48 states, including a five-day stop in Minneapolis's Minnehaha Park.
Longfellow Whatever takes us on this little ride down memory lane today. A whopping 14,000 people showed up to see the Freedom Train during its first day at the park, with more than 75,000 people visiting throughout the five-day run. Some people waited as long as four hours before forking over $2 to check out the museum displays the train's 10 cars had been retrofitted to hold; the New York Times called it "a kind of traveling multi-media, mechanized, historical Disneyland." A fun feature from our friends at the Whatev'!
Go Get a Coffee From Misfit This Week
Hm, I don't think that window is supposed to look like this...
Swing by Misfit for a coffee or a Misfitcicle to help 'em out, if you're in the area. They're open daily 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
