When food/drink establishments go to Restaurant Heaven, we mourn them, as we did recently with two St. Paul favorites—Tin Whiskers Brewing's downtown taproom and Sameh Wadi's seafood joint Grand Catch.
(Click here and here to read about those respective closures, both of which apparently saddened us deeply considering those exclamatory headlines.)
But, as perhaps best illustrated by Elton John in the Lion King, the restaurant ecosystem never stops churning, and those left standing pick at the bones of the departed for nutritious deals. Yeah... that's what that song was about!
Such is the case for Tin Whiskers and Grand Catch. The earthly remains of both restaurants are currently up for auction via Auction Masters, the Osseo-based auction house that has facilitated similar liquidation events for Nye’s Polonaise Room, Porky’s Drive-In, the Roller Garden, the Minneapolis Auditorium, and, most recently, Electric Fetus Duluth.
These types of auctions are obvious draws for restauranters looking to score sexy items like stainless steel washtubs and walk-in freezers, but also for ex-patrons in need of furniture and/or nostalgic knickknacks. (I write this as someone whose stylish dining room chairs once, in a past life, cupped the asses of Whole Foods shoppers.)
Among the intriguing items in the Tin Whiskers auction, ending June 1: a whole lotta beer-related stuff, plus original art of the robot mascot ($250ish), TVs ($40ish), a jumbo Connect Four game ($66), and, for those with far more friends than me, 84 pint glasses ($26).
Over at the Grand Catch one, ending May 25: industrial kitchen items galore, plus a soft serve machine named Betty Lou ($310), the shop's massive "WHAT'S CRACKIN?" neon wall art ($24), fish-shaped water pitchers ($16), and Bluetooth speakers shaped like boulders ($16).
For an exhaustive roundup of the comings/going of the local food scene, be sure to consult Em's report from Wednesday. Now let the gavel sound on this blog post: *CLACK! CLACK!*
