The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Back in the late 70's, when I was a kid going to Groveland Elementary School, the little strip mall at the corner of Minnetonka Boulevard and Highway 101 contained a hardware store, an inky-dinky library branch, a small natural foods co-op, and a SuperValu that smelled like chicken and macaroni and cheese.

Well, who ever imagined that strip mall would some day contain a swanky little wine shop and a restaurant so popular, the parking lot would be jam-packed and you would have to park in front of the auto body shop across the street?

The answer: Chris Eriksson did.

It’s Friday, and like that girl you had in the backseat of your dad’s Buick back in ’82, Spring just ain’t giving up the goods. And while the putrid grey color of today’s sky and frozen water the clouds vomit forth inch by cursed inch may bode well for today’s opening of the new North Face store in Uptown, it may well drive many in our fair state to crack open a bottle of Jameson and toast to today’s freezing over of the Nine Hells.