The reason that we're here is because of the lake
and the river coming together and creating
this wonderful estuary.
Yeah, we want people to have that experience that's
sort of transformative and gets them a little bit
out of their comfort level, but in a way that we've
sort of structured it to be very safe and controlled.
This is just perfect.
I mean, this is it.
When I graduated high school it's like,
well, you kind of leave.
You know, you don't stick around Duluth.
There weren't many jobs.
There were opportunities elsewhere.
I ended up landing in Arizona and I spent a little
over eight years in Arizona.
But Duluth was always on my mind.
It was always home.
When I moved back to town, it was really obvious
that craft beer scene in Duluth was about to sort of go big.
Bent Paddle was just getting ready to launch.
Canal park brewing was getting ready to launch.
Blacklist had just started.
A couple of friends and I were sitting around having a beer,
and we were thinking about, well, wouldn't it be cool if--
and so we took the idea that started as a brewery tour
company.
And we decided that, well, hold on.
There's a lot of things happening in Duluth right now,
that we love and appreciate in our personal life,
that we think a lot of other people need to experience,
or at least need to have the opportunity
to see what's going on.
And so that was the mountain biking.
That is experiencing the lake with kayaking.
That is digging into and exploring the stories
that really have shaped Duluth.
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Since the Duluth Experience started five years ago
we've actually been working in Lincoln Park.
Bent Paddle, of course, was on our early brewery tour right
from the get go, along with Lake Superior Brewing Company
as well.
And so, for us, it was just a natural extension
of sort of our first steps of taking people
behind the scenes in our breweries in Lincoln Park.
And now expanding that to some of these other
crafting-oriented handmade businesses
that are here in Lincoln Park.
So that was really it.
We'll stop at OMC, and we'll talk with Louis
about how they prepare the meats,
and what goes into the restaurant business.
And then from there we we will head over
to Karin Kraemer's Duluth pottery studio.
And we'll learn a little bit about her back story--
the history behind her art form--
and sort of the inspiration for her
to relocate into Lincoln Park.
DAVE GRANDMAISON: Yeah, this is really special
because, again, it's someone who we've talked with for years
about creating some sort of an experience for people
to get to know what she does, and why she does what she does.
And so now we can do that.
So yeah, should we go in?
KAREN SUNDERMAN: Yeah.
All right.
I'm making things here.
We're making things.
And that's the best thing they can do,
is show what we're doing.
How you do it.
So that when you get that bowl, or whatever,
you see how it got made, and why people are doing that.
So it's great to bring them in and give the whole story,
rather than you're just in a store looking at stuff.
One of the really fun things about the Duluth Experience
is the partnerships.
And so we've been talking with Chris Benson at Frost
River for years about--
let's get something together.
Let's do something fun and collaborate on something.
So that's always been sort of like one of those partnerships
that we wanted to find the right opportunity for.
And this is it.
Because now we can weave together
the story of Lincoln Park and highlight
a couple of the important businesses that are really
helping to drive this sort of Renaissance of Lincoln Park.
And then we'll end it, of course, at Bent Paddle.
So we'll have a chance to bring people around and show them
the different pieces of art.
Take them into the pilot brewery,
and give them some samples.
And give them a chance to, again, communicate and connect
with another local business.
That's really helping to inspire Lincoln Park.
Let's create opportunities for people
to sort of have a transformative Duluth experience that
gives them a deeper appreciation for the city,
and builds a more personalized connection with the city.
And as we started to write a business plan
and do all that stuff, it just became more and more clear
that that was the right direction to go.
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The cool thing about the Duluth Experience, and getting
back to sort of my background as a scientist,
is there's a certain level of experimentation.
We try things.
We take an idea and we give it a chance to see if it'll work.
And if it works--
that's great.
We start to tinker with it and make it better and better.
If it doesn't work--
if we can fix it, we fix that.
Or we might have to just let that one go.
So there's a level of sort of this creative experimentation
that happens through the process, which is really fun.
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