Door’s open, C’Mon in

Saturday, May 13, 2023

Today was the second Minneapolis Doors Open Event. The first one was in 2019 and we were not aware of it. Pandemic happened and then it was now. I just heard about it on Thursday and was clever enough not to forget about it in two days. It is a free behind-the-scenes access event to 87 venues all over Minneapolis. I looooove a tour, so I was excited.

I wanted to go to the hydroelectric station at St. Anthony falls, but it was a pre-register one and it was all full. Oh, well. My next pick was the Star-Tribune. Keith had rehearsal this morning in Wisconsin, so we didn’t get there until 1:45. It took a few minutes to download the parking meter app and figure it out, then to walk over. We waited outside with our umbrellas for a couple minutes, as the inside was stuffed full of people. A lady came out and told us that they were doing the last tour at 2:30 and that it was full, so we were out of luck. Huh. The event was from 10 – 6, although some places had advertised reduced hours. Fail on that Star-Tribune. BUT she said apparently they are starting tours during the week in June sometime, and that they will be actually printing the paper at those times, so it might be more interesting. Ya think?? I wasn’t too disappointed to be missing out on seeing non-functioning equipment. I will go in June.

We regrouped in the car and found the next closest place – K&K metal recycling. It was very cool. I am all about recycling of any kind, and I certainly knew nothing about non-ferrous metal recycling. The most interesting part to me was seeing how they chop up insulated copper wire until it is so small that the insulation and the wire can be separated just by weight – the conveyor belt shakes and blows air and the copper is heavier and goes one place and the plastic goes the other. Soooo much better than melting it off – according to a guy in the crowd who saw them doing that in China. There were about 60 people in our group – and the one in front of us and the one behind us. I wonder how many were Star-Tribune cast-offs. I was glad to see that people were out and taking advantage of the opportunity regardless of how they ended up there.

Next, we went to the Pillsbury Library. It’s no longer a library – a law firm just bought the building in January from some medical research people – but it was swell of them to open the doors and let us come in to see the pretty building built in 1904. And we got a doughnut. Yay.

The Minneapolis Cider Company was hopping when we arrived. We went in and the Doors Open volunteers at the table greeted us with an information sheet and said, “They advertised a tour, but they aren’t giving one.” Huh. They said we could look around, so we did. There are some indoor pickleball courts, which were in use, so we watched for a few minutes. We stopped to chat with some young adults who were playing The America Trivia Game. They said it was a bit dated – from the 90s – then read us the next card: What is the capital of Tennessee? I asked if they had changed it…and they said no, it wasn’t a dated question. My brain froze – then thought Nashville – no, not Nashville, don’t pick the easy answer, Memphis, no, it’s a weird one, Frankfort! Both they and I said No! That’s Kentucky all at the same time. I said Memphis and they said no, Nashville. Duuuuuh. It was the obvious. We considered buying some canned hard cider, but they only came in four packs and what if I didn’t like Blueberry Basil or Cardamom Weevil (might have made that one up)? I then decided I shouldn’t patronize them because they didn’t give me a tour. I did think we could go there sometime and try a cider and play trivia, and the food smelled good.

The Purcell-Cutts House is in a lovely neighborhood and belongs to the art museum. It is a prairie style house (the best style of house) and it was just lovely. All (ALL) of the windows are matching leaded glass. There was a woman who was near us as we self-guided around who kept saying, “Well, this was really worth it.” I wondered what exactly she was referring to since it was free to park in front on the street and free to go in.

The Granada Theater on Hennepin in uptown was a delight. It was a movie theater, built in 1927, that a young woman bought in 2018 to refurbish into a restaurant/event center. Her dad said it closed in the 1980s and had been empty, but then our friend said he was there about ten years ago for a company party…so….I don’t know. It has stars on the ceiling and made me want to have a party there. There was only one other tour-er with us – a young woman. She and Keith asked the dad a LOT of questions. As we were leaving, I told Keith I wanted to ask the young woman for her contact information so if we ever had a party there, we could invite her – then I realized I was insane. As we walked down the street toward our car, she hurried and caught up with us and asked what we had visited today and shared what she had done. As she crossed the street after we lingered on the corner, I saw her turn back and look at us. She was wishing I had asked for her contact information because I am sure she wanted to come to our party.

We got in the car, then cleverly figured out there was another open door literally across the street. We got back out and went to Arts & Rec Uptown – which is a bar/restaurant/pinball/mini-golf place. I would go there and mini-golf sometime. It was very cute. I kept saying exactly that, “OH, that’s so cute!” as the guy toured us around, until I realized I sounded insane, so I switched it up with, “OH, that’s adorable.”

There are more tours tomorrow. Woohoo