DULUTH RELICS

Memories Of The Flame Run Deep

BY KATHLEEN MURPHY

My journey to find information on a Duluth relic began this time with a deceptively simple item: a postcard. One of the smaller postcards I remember from my childhood, about three by five inches, the kind I could buy for a quarter in the 1980s. This postcard was undated and neither addressed nor mailed, but someone wrote on the back in cursive writing: “Had a cruise on here Aug. 1969.”

On the front, a small red and white passenger boat cut through the Duluth Canal, brightly colored flags decorating the deck and what looked like over half the boat’s passengers crowded at the bow of the boat. They were probably getting ready to look up as they passed under the Aerial Lift Bridge, much as excursion passengers do today.

What caught my attention, however, was the name on the side of the boat: The S.S. Flame. This took me by surprise. I knew the Flame as a restaurant down by the harbor that closed when I was a child, but an excursion boat? Curious, I posed the question online. What I received in response was an absolute flood of memories and nostalgia. The Flame might be gone, but it obviously holds a special place in the minds of many

Duluthians. People wrote to tell me of prom dates, family reunions, watching famous players perform in the Rooster Room, and the feeling of family for those who worked there.

Jimmy and Ruth Oreck, owners of the Flame, were indeed some of the original partners in the Duluth harbor excursion business. Their restaurant had been a staple along the Duluth harbor since the early 1940s, providing an excellent view of the Aerial Lift Bridge as well as ship traffic passing under it. A bell was rung in the restaurant whenever a ship passed in front of the restaurant’s expansive glass windows, and Jimmy himself often announced the name of the ship and other statistics for the diners. Including an excursion boat in 1959 probably seemed like a natural addition to the posh, marinerthemed restaurant.

But before the elegant restaurant at the harbor, before the excursion boats and the bell, Jimmy Oreck opened a small, simple barbeque stand. It opened in 1931 and was located on London Road at Fourteenth Avenue East — where Valentini’s is located today. It wasted no time in becoming a Duluth hot spot.

By the end of the decade, the little stand had expanded into a full-fledged restaurant, easily identifiable by its unique Art Deco exterior and decor, the flame red rooster logo, and a large walk-in glass rotisserie where customers could watch their meats being prepared. This location burned down in 1942, prompting the Orecks to purchase and convert an old warehouse on the waterfront.

One Duluth native tells memories of hot summer nights when “our dad would forego the car and wrangle us kids onto the boat to pick up my mother, who waitressed at the Flame.” Ron Garatz, an antiques collector from Duluth who showed me items from his Flame memorabilia collection, remembers going to the Flame with his mother as a young child. “Sometimes they would let kids ring the bell,” Garatz said. “But only one ring. No more.”

Michele Pearson is one of Jimmy and Ruth Oreck’s granddaughters. “I believe I have the questionable fame of being the first person ever to run through the restaurant in my pajamas,” Pearson said. She was a young child when the original Flame closed for good in the early ’70s, but when Mickey Paulucci of Grandma’s restaurant fame re-opened the Flame in 1983, Pearson worked first at the coat check, then as a cocktail waitress. “His (Mickey’s) food tasted fabulous,” Pearson said, “but it was nothing like the old Flame. There were no longer any popovers, barbeque or fried chicken, no frog legs or char broiled steak.” She noticed that customers seemed to miss the Art Deco motif, as well as the references to the shipping industry right outside the giant windows. “The ship’s wheel no longer sat on the stair landing,” Pearson said. “I probably heard people complain about its absence more than anything.”

The Flame closed for good in the mid-1980s. In 1988 the building with the familiar rooster logo was demolished to make way for construction of the Great Lakes Aquarium. Fortunately for all the Duluthians who remember the Flame with great nostalgia, the restaurant auctioned off everything. When I first inquired if anyone had memories or memorabilia from the Flame, countless offers came in to show me items such as dinner plates, coffee cups, old fold-out postcards and photos. Ron Garatz had a collection of dinnerware and matchbooks, one of which even advertised the Flamette, a smaller spin-off restaurant located near the terminus of Interstate 35 today. Garatz also had a special item for me to photograph that he wouldn’t divulge until I arrived.

It was worth the suspense. Garatz is the proud owner of one of two rounded, etched glass light covers that lit up the bottom of the staircase, the original flame red rooster strutting across the glass. Online searches revealed no pictures of the etched glass intact, which would be interesting to see. Anyone? Find this story on the Duluth News Tribune’s Facebook page to tell us what your favorite Flame memories are!

His (Mickey’s) food tasted fabulous, but it was nothing like the old Flame. There were no longer any popovers, barbeque or fried chicken, no frog legs or char broiled steak.