Distinguished Duluth 2020

DISTINGUISHED

and

By Jimmy Lovrien jlovrien@duluthnews.com

Moline Machinery, a family-owned maker of industrial bakery equipment in Duluth’s Irving neighborhood, is just moving into its new 25,000-square-foot expansion.

A pingpong table sits on one side of the wide-open space as computer numerical control (CNC) machines and other equipment recently moved from the company’s assembly building across the street fills one corner of the space.

“It does set us up for growth,” said Dan Moline, vice president of operations and the fourthgeneration family member working there. “We weren’t able to grow before. Now we can.”

In a typical year, the company might produce five or six machines,

custom orders for national doughnut, pastry, bread and snack companies. The machines are massive — some up to 200 feet long — with everything needed to make the bakery item: from cutting and shaping dough to frying and glazing doughnuts.

Moline now has about 90 employees, with almost 50 of those positions in the trades — assembly, machine tool operators, electricians and more — and the others in CNC programmer and engineer positions.

But Moline has consistently been hiring for most of the decade.

“We’ve had a lot of retirements, so we’re trying to keep up with that, so there’s been a lot of hiring,” Moline said.

And it’s not alone. Other area manufacturers like Altec and Epicurean are facing similar

Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

Freshman Benjamin Bijold uses a surface grinder to grind parallels at Lake Superior College on Thursday, Feb. 6. Bijold spent three hours working on the parallels the day before and planned to spend five hours that day.

Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com

Nicole Okstad welds a piece of aluminum at Moline Machinery in Duluth.

workforce issues, and, like Moline, are filling openings with graduates of Lake Superior College’s manufacturing campus in downtown Duluth. Some are even hired while they are still students.

REPLACING AN AGING WORKFORCE

Recruiters for manufacturers within Duluth and throughout the region have been reaching out to programs at schools like LSC on a regular basis.

“It’s non stop … almost a daily call,” said Daniel Fanning, the college’s vice president of Institutional advancement and external relations.

Max Udovich, an LSC machine tool instructor, said job placement at well-paying manufacturing jobs for graduates is near 100%, but many students are able to work as they complete the two-year manufacturing welding programs.

“It’s a win-win for the student … by the time they graduate, they have almost two years of experience,” Udovich said.

While some can even take fulltime jobs before finishing the program, Udovich encourages

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students to finish school so they can advance to higher-paid positions.

Most area manufacturers are willing to offer flexible schedules for students. LSC also offers evening classes for students that might be working during the day.

That worked for Scott Welty, a CNC programmer and manufacturing engineer at Moline, who graduated from the college’s integrated manufacturing program in 2010.

In his first semester there, he was hired as a CNC operator at Epicurean, a Twin Ports-based manufacturer of kitchen tools from wood composite, and worked through school.

“When I had graduated with the programming degree, (Epicurean) promoted me off the shop floor to programming,” said Welty, who still has his TI-83 graphing calculator from high school handy at his desk.

“I went from running the machines to programming them.”

CHANGING THE PERCEPTION

There’s still a perception that jobs in manufacturing mean dirty working conditions and male-only fields. But Fanning said that’s changing.

More women are enrolling in the programs at LSC than a decade ago and more potential students understand what a modern factory looks like.

It starts with exposing high school students to the opportunities in manufacturing.

“We have to get to guidance counselors and parents just as much as students,” Fanning said.

High school industrial tech classes play an important role in introducing students to manufacturing. While most can offer welding, classes using high-end equipment like CNC machines are harder to find.

“It’s important to have that because the students are exposed to that, they understand it,” Udovich said. “Not every (high) school has the funding to get that.”

Still, 57% of the state’s workers never learned about manufacturing careers before turning 18, according to a 2019 study.

Last year, West Monroe Partners, a Chicago-based business consultant company, asked 1,000 Minnesota workers aged 18-40 about the manufacturing industry. The study found 44% of respondents would

not consider a manufacturing career, but that figure falls to 38% and 35% if the respondent had family employed in manufacturing or if the respondent grew up learning about manufacturing, respectively.

The study concluded “early education and awareness of manufacturing careers drives interest.”

From 2019 to 2020, enrollment in LSC’s manufacturing programs — welding, machine tool, computeraided design and integrated manufacturing — have increased from 419 to 448 students.

Enrollment in one spring welding course is up almost 32% compared to last year.

Fanning said those numbers are promising, especially when other area schools are seeing a decline.

“To me, that actually says even more about our community and our local economy than just LSC,” Fanning said.

And Moline is starting to see the impact of more local manufacturing students in its own recruiting.

“There was a gap there for a long time where people weren’t going to school, and now we’re starting to see a resurgence of that,” Moline said.

Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

Freshman Will Schmitz uses a horizontal bandsaw to make a shear bolt at Lake Superior College on Thursday, Feb. 6.

Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com

Dan Moline, vice president of operations at Moline Machinery talks about the expansion that is concurring at the industrial bakery equipment manufacturer.

Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com

Scott Welty of Saginaw tests a program for a CNC machine at Moline Machinery.

Clint Austin / caustin@duluthnews.com

Jason Graham, a utility machinist, programs a CNC machine at Moline Machinery in Duluth.

MC-CUBED CONTINUES INNOVATING

Fledgling company works on several community-based projects

O

Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

By Kelly Busche kbusche@duluthnews.com

CEO Nathan Lipinski started the company just a few years ago. Now, the company is developing and launching various community-based technology projects — all to better connect people.

One of these apps is for an assisted living facility in the Twin Cities. Residents will use the app to make payments, receive notifications for packages and more.

There’s potential for the app to spread to other facilities, as the code that runs the app can be copied and altered to fit new communities.

Another app, one of its first ventures called Platonic, may be implemented in the University of Minnesota system.

It’s an activity-driven app, where people can connect with others to partake in an activity — with the goal of forming friendships.

On campuses, users can make their own events. They plan to target freshmen, as most have recently moved away from home and are focusing on making relationships.

They’re also in contact with people on the West Coast who may fund the app, said Josh Helmer, an account executive with MC-Cubed.

“That could potentially be a game changer in the development of (that) application,” he said.

perated out of the top floor of an old Duluth mansion, startup MC-Cubed is juggling numerous projects.MC-Cubed is also working on a fashion app. Users upload photos of their outfit, and, much like Tinder, others can swipe to show approval or disapproval. This gives users instant feedback on how their outfit looks, Lipinski said, But the app’s use goes beyond fashion feedback. MC-Cubed will build a database of clothing styles that can be used to target advertisements to its users.

Recently, the startup launched the Rainbow Rain clothing brand. RBR highlights inclusion and acceptance through its rainbow-styled apparel.

It sought to fund the new brand though Kickstarter, which failed a few weeks back. The funding, all $15,000 of it, would have supported the production of the shirts.

“Being an entrepreneur, I feel like failure is built into your DNA. But … as an entrepreneur, you just kind of learn to manage that,” he said. “If anything ... it’s the sting of failure ... (that) motivates you.”

The RBR brand will be on the backburner for now, he said. Many projects take several years to get off the ground.

Lipinski’s been working on projects like these for several years. He first gained attention for developing StarShip, a device that monitors whether shipped items, like vaccines, are

being stored at the proper temperatures. The project won him first place at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s “Shark Tank” competition, according to News Tribune reporting.

There are only a few other startups in Duluth, which makes financing difficult as investors aren’t familiar with startup operations, Lipinski said. He often goes to bigger cities to pitch projects and obtain funding.

“We’re persistent,” he said. “It’s not all about the money. Being an entrepreneur, to me, is ... the pursuit of freedom and purpose.”

But being in a smaller city also presents opportunities, he said. He often gives guest lectures at UMD, during which he can recruit potential staff members and educate students on startups.

“In Minneapolis, I think it’d be a lot harder to get a startup recognized at a university level,” Lipinski said.

During Helmer’s 10 months at the company, he said he’s seen the business shift its focus to health care. The company has a medical background, as Lipinski was a former University of Minnesota medical school student.

He said the health care industry is very lucrative.

“Duluth right now is going through a big renovation in infrastructure advancement,” Helmer said. “And the technology is going to have to scale as well.”

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MC-Cubed CEO Nathan Lipinski poses for a portrait in the startup’s office space with a 3D-printed logo for his new app, Platonic. The non-dating app will allow people to connect in a platonic way based on common interests and activities.

BREWERY SCENE’S SUCCESS

‘NO SURPRISE’

Longtime brewers cite good water, enthusiastic beer culture for its success

By Kelly Busche kbusche@duluthnews.com

“It’s almost impossible (to) brew bad beer here,” said Dave Hoops, owner of Hoops Brewing.

That’s because the area’s nearly dozen breweries use great, clean water from Lake Superior, he said.

Since the 1990s, the DuluthSuperior area has seen the number of breweries dramatically increase, with a little help from the water. And for some who have watched the industry expand, like Hoops, they’re staying focused on what their breweries do well.

When Hoops arrived in Duluth from California in 1999, he said everyone was drinking bad beer. He used his California brewing expertise at Fitger’s Brewhouse, where he worked for 17 years before starting Hoops in Canal Park.

“I just started making West Coast beers,” he said. “And so I got all this unnecessarily unfair praise for being some kind of wizard brewer.”

As the only craft brasseries in the city at the time, Fitger’s did the “heavy lifting” to help develop the industry, he said. During his time, they created hoppy beer while a culture grew that was centered around breweries.

“Like water in the desert, people just went

crazy over hoppy beers,” he said.

To Hoops, a longtime Duluth brewmaster, brewing is a combination of art and science.

The art side is creating the beer from scratch, just as one does for a recipe. And, for the science aspect, beer requires attention to microbiology and chemistry to manage fermentation, the reaction of yeast and more.

“It’s a great combo,” Hoops said.

Tim Nelson co-founded Fitger’s in 1995, making it the fifth brewery in the state. During the early years, Nelson said they were often educating customers about the basics of craft beer.

They even created a gateway beer for customers who were new to craft drinks.

“We were educating consumers one pint at the time,” he said.

Now, he said breweries have the opposite problem.

“(Customers are) so transient in their lust for new flavors, you have to be constantly innovating,” Nelson said.

Nelson eventually left Fitger’s and co-founded Earth Rider Brewery in Superior.

The industry further developed when a second round of breweries opened, which was largely driven by a chance in state laws that allowed taprooms and the sale of growlers, Nelson said.

Now, they see growth in smaller breweries.

Hoops cited Bent Paddle Brewing in the Lincoln Park neighborhood as one of the newer

FROM WIPER BLADES TO TRANSMISSIONS WE ARE HERE FOR YOU

breweries that “hit it out of the park.” It has a perfect storm of great beer, a clear vision and a well-balanced group of owners.

“At that point that everything started going crazy,” Hoops said.

He’s made his brewing space at 325 S. Lake Ave. one for community gathering, he said. With TVs displayed across the walls, board games piled in a corner and plenty of seating, Hoops aims to draw people to drink in the facility.

With numerous choices in the area, he said “brand loyalty is something that is kind of hard to find.”

And Hoops avoids trends and says his beer quality is paramount.

“I really tried hard to have people be original and true to themselves as brewers, and everybody has a different idea of what that is,” he said.

Hoops believes the industry will continue changing. He has numerous ideas on what may happen, but he highlighted three: a greater emphasis on natural ingredients, a natural consolidation in businesses and more focus on health issues related to drinking.

“We are (lucky) in Duluth to have this many breweries,” he said. “A lot of people want to push the fact that we are a beer destination. I believe to be a beer destination, you have to have a number of world class breweries. But we certainly are a tourist destination that has great beer.”

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Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

Owner of Hoops Brewing Company Dave Hoops poses for a portrait on the brew deck at Hoops Wednesday, Feb. 5.

CITY GIRL COFFEE REACHES BEYOND MIDWEST

Duluth roaster has made strides in recent years

By Kelly Busche kbusche@duluthnews.com

Alocally roasted coffee brand has hit the shelves of East Coast stores — while staying focused on its mission of empowering women.

City Girl Coffee is roasted and packaged in its building at 1330 E. Superior St. in Duluth, which also houses its sister brand, Alakef Coffee. Alyza Bohbot took over the company after her parents’ retirement, and the company’s seen growth under her leadership.

“As I was preparing to take ownership of the business, I knew that I wanted to honor the legacy of the company,” Bohbot said. “But I also wanted to create something that was more representative of me and my voice.”

Alakef has been around for around 30 years, and Bohbot took the helm in 2015. The chance to reach a new customer base influenced her decision to add City Girl to the company’s lineup.

City Girl sources its beans from womenowned companies, managed tribes and cooperatives. A portion of profits go to organizations that support women’s access to resources, financing and education that’s needed to be successful.

The idea to support women though City Girl sourcing and profits came during a conference Bohbot attended. There, she heard a story of a Colombian woman who struggled to secure a bank loan for her farm because of her gender.

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Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

Alyza Bohbot, CEO of Alakef and City Girl Coffee, poses for a portrait at Alakef Roaster Thursday, Jan. 30. Bohbot launched City Girl Coffee in 2015 to support women in the coffee industry.

Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

City Girl Coffee brings awareness to inequality women face in the coffee industry while also supporting them. They source as much coffee as possible from female-owned coffee farms.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Kayli Staubus monitors coffee beans roasting in the drum-shaped heater at Alakef Coffee while just-roasted beans are stirred and cooled in the bin beside her. The beans are for City Girl Coffee, founded in 2015 with the aim of empowering women coffee growers.

COFFEE

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The story resonated with her, as her parents came from humble backgrounds.

“That’s when I started to do my own research and realize how significant that equity is for not only these women and their families, but these communities in these countries. And what investing in the future of empowering these women would do,” she said.

So Bohbot settled on a mission to help others through a new brand.

“For virtually the entirety of our company’s history, we’ve been giving back to local nonprofits and charities and organizations simply because it was the right thing to do,” Bohbot said.

Although feedback has been “fantastic,” she said some were initially skeptical if a missionfocused brand could succeed in grocery stores.

But City Girl’s launch came at the right time, she said, as present-day consumers feel connected to brands. The Duluth community has recognized this and welcomed the brand, she said.

“I think consumers are looking for brands that aren’t just a marketing ploy,” she said. “People are really supportive of the mission that we’re trying to create and the coffee’s really good.”

Alakef and City Girl’s coffee beans are both available on Amazon, as well as on shelves in the Midwest and on the East Coast.

“While we still have ... fabulous and loyal customers around the area, we wanted to really open ourselves up to the possibility of a different type of consumer, and so City Girl has given us that opportunity,” she said.

MakeupMatters that

Solution: The

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Jesse Hakala bags City Girl Coffee at Alakef Coffee.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Kayli Staubus checks on the progress of coffee beans roasting for City Girl Coffee.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Kayli Staubus picks foreign objects from roasted coffee beans mechanically separated from other beans.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

The back of a City Girl Coffee bag tells consumers how they are making a difference.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com Bags filled with City Girl Coffee sit at Alakef Coffee.

OLD WORLD MEATS EYES NEW EXPANSION

By Jimmy Lovrien jlovrien@duluthnews.com

Duluth’s Old World Meats is eyeing a new world: meat sticks.

For almost 20 years, Paul Wrazidlo, the third generation of the local family to continue in the meat business, has operated his market off Central Entrance where customers can get freshly cut meat. It remains Duluth’s only retailer of Certified Angus Beef, the American Angus Association brand of high-quality meats requiring inspections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But now Old Worlds Meat owner Paul Wrazidlo said he’s eyeing Duluth Economic Development Authority-owned property at the MEATS: Page 10

Bragg Wins Big Hitter Award

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Ed Wrazidlo shows Old World Meats’ smoker to a visitor.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Meat sticks hang in the smoker at Old World Meats.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Old World Meats employee Luke Eilefson carries meat sticks from the smoker to where they are packaged for sale.

MEATS

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Atlas Cement site in the Morgan Park neighborhood and another plot of land in Superior for a potential 20,000-square-foot meat stick plant.

It was a natural progression, Wrazidlo said.

“Every place I know that sells jerky today and snack sticks ... they all started out of a grocery store or a meat market,” Wrazidlo said.

It started about a decade ago Old World Meats started selling meat sticks to gas stations and convenience stores within a 5-mile radius. It was successful so they moved to a 15-mile radius. Then they got a distributor.

Today, Old World Meats is selling meat sticks in at least 40 states and Guam. Flavors include dill pickle, bloody mary and honey barbecue.

But it could do more, Wrazidlo said.

During that time, Wrazidlo hired his cousin, Ed Wrazidlo, now one of five cousins working there, to oversee the meat stick production as production manager.

A former Navy mechanic, Ed brought his know-how to the operation, boosting production.

“And I brought some of that with us, as far as organizing things and structuring things to streamline it,” Ed said. “So it’s really taken off.”

The current setup can produce up to 12,000-16,000 meat sticks per day. The new facility will churn out 200,000 meat sticks per day, about 15,000 pounds.

About 90% percent of that will be for other private labels, while the remaining will be the Old World Meats label, Paul said.

About 35 people will be hired for the plant, up from the 11 full-time and six part-time employees currently at the market.

But even with the new facility, the market near Central Entrance isn’t going anywhere.

“I’m absolutely born and bred Duluth,” Paul said. “My grandfather had his first business in 1951 in Duluth here, and then my father had his meat market in Duluth ... So it’s been a long tradition.”

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Mike Wrazidlo prepares salmon for sale at Old World Meats.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Luke Eilefson boxes meat sticks that were just individually vacuum packed in the machine to the right at Old World Meats.

WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME

For 81 years, family-owned Marshall Hardware has served Lakeside

By Jimmy Lovrien jlovrien@duluthnews.com

Scott and Steve Marshall still ring up customers from the wooden counter their grandfather built when he opened Marshall Hardware in 1939. The aisles haven’t changed much since the 1980s and customers can still charge their purchases to a house account.

And yet, the family-owned hardware store has remained a Lakeside institution for 81 years.

“It’s a good community spot,” Steve said. “People come in and

find out what’s happening in the neighborhood.”

“And still viable in the Amazon. com era,” Scott added.

Steve and Scott, who have owned the hardware store at 4415 East Superior St. since 2000, when they took over from their father, Lyman Marshall Jr., say the lessons they learned sweeping the floors of the shop in junior high for 25 cents an hour, following around employees and asking questions, still guide them running the store in the 21st century.

HARDWARE: Page 12

Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

From left: brothers Alan, Steve and Scott Marshall pose for a portrait behind the counter of their family-owned business, Marshall Hardware, on Jan. 28.

Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

Scott Marshall (right) helps longtime customer David Fischer find a part to fix his snow blower Jan. 28. Fischer said he enjoys visiting Marshall Hardware because they provide great service and offer house accounts.

Tyler Schank / tschank@duluthnews.com

Marshall Hardware’s original cash register sits on the counter.

That customer service and know-how has helped the store service when chains like Menards, The Home Depot and Fleet Farm popped up in Duluth, and later, Amazon and other online stores.

Not only can they sell a product, but they can also explain to a customer how to use it so they can go home and try it.

“You get great satisfaction out of helping people through their projects and empowering people that they can do it themselves,” Steve said. “We know most of our customers by name.”

That’s helped Andrew Busam, who lives within walking distance of the store and admits he’s not very handy or mechanically inclined.

HARDWARE

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“Whenever I have something, I can come in here and I can kind of give the general idea to the folks here and they can figure out what I’m saying — and they’ve never failed to give me the thing I need,” Busam said.

Founded by Lyman Marshall Sr. and his wife, Myrtle, the store opened in 1939 down the street from its current location. In 1949, the Marshalls relocated to a new building, where it remains today.

After his father died, Lyman Marshall Jr. owned the store from 1965-2000. Then his sons Steve and Scott took over. Their brother, Alan; sister, Beth; and nephew, A.J, all work at the store today.

“A family tradition of hard work is really

what it is,” Alan said.

The only non-Marshall working there is Patty Sullivan. She grew up working in her family’s hardware store in Michigan and later at Daugherty’s Hardware & Appliances in Duluth for years. She headed east to Marshall when Daugherty’s closed in 2008.

Tom Jesperson, who recently bought a faucet stem from the store for a leaky sink, said his Victorian house on London Road is often in need of new hardware. Why has he been a Marshall regular for more than 40 years?

“Well, it’s really obvious,” Jesperson said. “It’s one of the last remaining neighborhood hardware stores, which I’m patronizing every chance I get … they’re just the best people.”

AT SARA’S TABLE

Duluth farm-fresh cafe expands

By Kelly Busche kbusche@duluthnews.com

AlA popular Duluth farm-to-table cafe has continued growing at its Chester Creek location.

Selling locally influenced comfort food, craft cocktails, coffee drinks, bakery items and more, At Sara’s Table Chester Creek Café has been a Duluth staple since the early 2000s. Now, it’s opened a second-floor expansion, giving the restaurant a larger kitchen and new gathering room.

Before the project, the restaurant struggled to manage the high volume of customers, co-owner Carla Blumberg said. Kitchen staff were also more stressed, and the facility couldn’t open all of its seating.

“I never thought in a million years it would be as busy as we are,” Blumberg said. She owns the restaurant with partner Barb Neubert.

Now, kitchen staff can better communicate because the prep and cooking lines are located next to one another, Executive Chef Jillian Forte said.

“I think for us, everything is a lot smoother. It’s faster, efficient. There’s more camaraderie because we used to be separated. Now we can hear each other tell jokes,” Forte said.

“When (the other line is) feeling the pressure, we can feel it more.”

They’ve also added a new fryer, stove, grill and griddle, among other changes.

The new kitchen may help them prep dishes quicker, and its

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customers could see new menu items because they’re increasing the number of line cooks, Forte said.

Upstairs, the new 1,500-squarefoot room overlooking Lake Superior offers space for meetings or group gatherings.

At Sara’s Table moved to the neighborhood in late 2002, replacing Taran’s Market Place. The restaurant renovation used salvaged lumber from the grocery store for its ceilings, booths, tables, wait station and bookshelves, according to its website.

The restaurant owners later reached beyond the restaurant walls, and built a mixed-use development next-door in the early 2010s. Dubbed the Chester Gardens, it was the former site of Snooty

Fox Tea Shop and currently houses McTavish Quilting Studio as well as Benchmark Tattoo and Fade Away Laser Tattoo Removal.

The restaurant garnered national attention in 2010 when it appeared on Food Network’s “Diners, DriveIns and Dives,” hosted by Guy Fieri.

Over its nearly 20-year life, At Sara’s Table has remained committed to locally sourced food, Blumberg said.

But the desire to stay locally sourced has become a concern for Blumberg, she said. The Earth lacks a sufficient amount of land and water resources to feed everyone in a natural and organic way, so a certain portion of the population

SARA’S TABLE: Page 14

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Ned Gufflyr, a line cook with At Sara’s Table in Duluth, cooks a meal recently.

SARA’S TABLE

Continued from page 13

has to eat factory-sourced food, “otherwise we wouldn’t be able to feed everybody,” she said.

However, its customers still turn to the restaurant for locally sourced meals, so Blumberg said they will continue that focus and try to better utilize its garden.

The supply-and-demand problem will eventually become more prevalent in the restaurant industry in the coming years, she said.

DULUTH MEDIA GROUP

“The most noticeable (change) ... is how the context of the industry has changed, not the industry itself,” she said. “We’re still making the same hamburgers we made 20 years ago.”

Blumberg and Neubert had plans to retire in 2011, but found it challenging to sell the business. She added that they may be able to sell it now as it’s become profitable, but they may also pursue an employee buyout.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com Kassidy King picks up an order in At Sara’s Table’s kitchen.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com At Sara’s Table Chester Creek Cafe, 1902 E. Eighth St., Duluth.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

A second-floor room added to At Sara’s Table will be available for special occasions.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

Pete Ravinski and Amy Nakamura install shelving in At Sara’s Table’s kitchen.

Steve Kuchera / skuchera@duluthnews.com

At Sara’s Table Executive Chef Jillian Forte prepares peppers in the restaurant’s new kitchen.

Twin Ports Dermatology opened in 2015 after owners Heather and Anthony Smith had a personal scare with the shortage of Dermatologists in the Northland. Heather was working as a Dermatology Physician Assistant in the Twin Cities when her motherin-law was unable to get into a Dermatologist in Duluth for 9 months for a dark changing mole. This mole turned out to be Melanoma; the most deadly form of skin cancer.

It was shortly after that they decided to take action and offer the Northland more accessible Dermatology care. Heather and Anthony opened the first and only Private Practice Dermatology Clinic and Medical Spa in Duluth.

It is our goal to keep wait times short as skin health is often unpredictable. We place no barriers to being seen in our clinic. No referrals are required. We stay innovative and practice evidence based medicine. We would like nothing more than to serve your skin care needs.

Page 16 Duluth News Tribune | Monday, February 24, 2020 duluthnewstribune.com

We thank our colleagues who work tirelessly to make a healthy difference in people’s lives. Through their tenacity and drive for quality, Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center has been recognized with:

America’s 100Best Hospitals AwardTM for Coronary Intervention Healthgrades®

During the next three years, Essentia Health will construct a replacement for St. Mary’s Medical Center and clinic space on its downtownDuluth medical campus. The project, called Vision Northland, represents the largest private investment in Duluth’s history andamajor investment in Essentia Health’s mission as well as the futureofDuluth and surroundingareas.

Vision Northland is much more than abuilding project. It’s about how Essentia Health cares for its patients while matching its facilities to how medicine is practiced now and in the future.

Vision Northland will benefit Duluth and the region by:

n Providing the highest level of healthcare with patient and staff safety as the imperative

n Building state-of-the-art medical facilities with single rooms and advanced technologies to meet patients’ needs

n Improving the availability,affordability and quality of care for Duluth and the region

n Boosting the Northland’s economy

n Enhancing the patient and staff experience

n Creating an environment that retains and attracts top talent

n Opening space for other development in Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood by reducing our overall footprint

To follow the project, watch videos and get weekly construction updates, visit EssentiaHealth.org/VisionNorthland

Join ourteam: EssentiaCareers.org

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only accredited Chest Pain Center with Percutaneous Coronary Intervention& Resuscitation American College of Cardiology Highest Level of Heart Failure Quality Care

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4-Star ratedhospital* Medicare.gov

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American Heart Association

Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program® American CollegeofSurgeons &American Society forMetabolic and Bariatric Surgery

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