Bone Yard or Old Chicago usurper

The restaurant-bar that took over the Old Chicago Uptown site opened on Friday. Rose, Jennifer, Michael and I checked it out.

A busy weekend

A busy weekend that started Friday evening with Christine's double-nickel birthday celebration at Tosca in Linden Hills. Lots of laughter, good food and wine.

Birthday girl Christine at Sabastian Joe's ice cream parlor in Linden Hills.

Saturday is not represented in pictures. Started the morning with hill sprints in Theodore Wirth Park with my trainer and 4 other very athletic people. It is tough but feels good. Spent the majority of Saturday working on a home repair project replacing the trim around the house-facing set of windows. There was a lot of wood rot so all the trim had to be replaced.  I had previously prepped the area a few weeks ago. It went pretty well. Still needs to be painted to match the rest of the garage trim but I am happy with the near-finished project.

Sunday started early, too, with the Minneapolis Park Grand Rounds bike ride.  Friends Kelly, Dave, Bud and I biked 36 miles around the Minneapolis parks system and lakes.  It had rained over night but fortunately stopped and the roads were mostly dry.  We had a great time riding and talking.

Got back from the bike ride and baked a fresh apple pie. I had prepped the apples from my apple tree Saturday night and used a pre-made pie crust. The pie was for Tim, the chef and manager, at Old Chicago Uptown. OC Uptown was closing on Sunday. I met Amy and Bunny there to watch the Vikings game and work on the NY Times crossword puzzle. We reminisced about the good times, laughs, birthday celebrations, and all the friends over the nearly 20 years of OC Uptown as our hang out. I'll be honest I shed some tears when we left.

Amy got her 10-tour beer stein.

And the final and most wonderful event of the weekend was the wedding of Peter Couture and Duane Faber. The ceremony, dinner and reception were held at the Minneapolis City Hall Rotunda -- a beautiful marble and stained glass hall with a dramatic staircase and huge marble statue called Father Water. The ceremony was filled with song and speech and care and love. There were over 200 people in attendance filling the lower rotunda and the second level. I was so honored to be there and wish Peter and Duane all the best.

The groom and groom, Peter (left) and Duane (right),

Its Open

All last summer and fall, I watched the construction of the Mozaic project in Uptown which includes the first pedestrian only bridge across the Minneapolis Greenway.

Today the bridge opened to no fanfare.  I plan on using it as a short cut to Isles Bun & Coffee and to Old Chicago.

On the Mozaic side there are several sculptures in the plaza in front of the new building.

The building and multi-level parking ramp has not opened yet.

Rose's Birthday Celebration

the birthday girl

Our party hats on at Rose's birtday gathering at Old Chicago Uptown.

Gosh but we laugh a lot when the gang is together and it is just so great.

Ben, Old Chicago manager, got into the celebration by "stripping" to his wife-beater.

Amy's birthday card predicted Ben's striptease.  It was so prophetic!

Old Chicago St. Patrick's Mini-Tour

 Bunny enjoying the not-so-appetizing-sounding mutton stew pizza.

Chef Tim at the Uptown Old Chicago often makes a pizza to fit the mini-tour kick-off party.  This year he made mutton stew pizza with lamb, carrots and a brown sauce on pizza dough.  It doesn't sound like it would be very good but it was excellent!

 Christy, our ever present server, kept us going forward on the mini-tour.  Let's just say Bunny and I are almost halfway through already.  Neither of us were driving.

Loretta heading for the free food...followed by Bunny and me.

Uptown Old Chicago is the best!  Lots of free food and giveaways.  Loretta and I won t-shirts and even though Christy REALLY tired to help Bunny, Bunny was stumped and didn't win anything.

I gave her the t-shirt I won.

Old Chicago Uptown

Gang got together last night at the Old Chicago Uptown for Mom's last night in Minneapolis.

JT, Linda, Amy, Bunny and Rose joined Mom and me for a drink, some food, catching up and the Vikings game.

Thanks to all who wished Mom a safe journey home and healthy 2011.

We also found out that Rose's 10 World Beer Tours tankard was at the bar.  She got to enjoy her first tankard beer last night.

The usuals at Old Chicago Halloween beer tour kick-off

You guessed it.  Bunny, Rose, Amy and me at Old Chicago Uptown for the kick-off of the Halloween beer mini-tour.

The food was great.  The fun was better.