Guest Bloggers Welcome!

Have a favorite local experience, event, local store, local restaurant or local business or local service that you feel may be ignored and should be shared? Radar's giving you the space to express your local voice and it's right here.

I don't have a dog, so I can't write from an owner's perspective. I don't have little kids, so my "Mom" perspective is limited. And, let's face it, I can't be in Mpls, St Paul and Stillwater at the same time or take-in overlapping events. Although I would like to.

So, I welcome you to become a guest blogger and share your favorite local sites and scenes. Together, we can shout even louder about all the local reasons why we live and love the Twin Cities.

Rules:
• Subject must be local
• No big-box businesses allowed

Here's how it works:
• Send me your final, edited blog entry to jen@radar-msp.com
• Include personal photos of this local subject if you have them
• Want credit? I hope so, but some of you may be shy, so indicate yes/no if I can use your name, pseudo name or no name.

Looking forward to spreading the local love together!

Eat Chocolate, it's good for you.

This Thursday, Friday and Saturday or while supplies last:


"Felchlin chocolates are a wild and rare treasure. Experience the difference with this rare savings.The Felchlin Chocolate company from Switzerland is committed to selecting the best cocao from the top plantations and the best plants from each harvest. We are happy to be able to present them to you in our bonbons collection."

Ecuadorian Arriba 72%
Venzuelan Maracaibo Clasificado 65%
Madagascar 64%
Bolivia 68%

Chocolat Celeste is located at 2506 University Avenue West in St. Paul. Just two blocks from the Minneapolis border. Take I94 to the Highway 280/University Avenue exit. Our boutique is on the southeast corner of the bridge over Highway 280. Look for the black awning.

Zappos 10 Core Values

An entrepreneurial business I admire and one that does it right in so many ways, here are their values:

1. Deliver WOW through service.
2. Embrace and drive change.
3. Create fun and a little weirdness.
4. Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded.
5. Pursue growth and learning.
6. Build open and honest relationships with communication.
7. Build a positive team and family spirit.
8. Do more with less.
9. Be passionate and determined.
10. Be humble.
    

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/successstories/article202710.html#ixzz0MTJmq5Fy

Garden Party!

Two of my favs in the Tangletown hood are having an event this weekend, and you're invited!

It's Tangletown Gardens, "Garden & Art Tour". What is it exactly? "This self-guided annual tour features some of the Twin Cities’ best gardens, local art, and galleries. Wine tasting in the gardens is generously provided by Solo Vino of Saint Paul with other refreshments supplied by Tangletown Gardens. Proceeds from the tour help fund public art, charities, and garden projects throughout the Twin Cities’ area. Every year the event gains more recognition and has fostered a loyal following."

My other favorite spot is Gallery 360, is getting in on the "garden" action by having a Storewide Summer Sale, 20% off sale all weekend, and an additional 10% off those who bring in a "Garden Tour" button.

Another bonus, and sorry, two more of my favorites - playing at the Tangletown Garden's event will be my dear friend Joseph's band, Tambuca, and catering the event will be yet another friend, Scott Pampush of Corner Table.

Garden, art, outside, music, food, summer - really, what else is there?

This blows.

Hairdressers, are part therapist, part friend and part magician. I often wish I could have mine live in my bathroom just to blow-dry my hair the way only they know how.


Well, the Aveda Institute feels our pain, and are offering tomorrow evening a workshop called BYOB (bring your own blow-dryer). Top instructors will educate the public on a very important matter: how to achieve a better, faster DIY blowout. Thurs, July 23, 6:30-7:30 p.m., $20, 400 Central Ave. SE, Mpls., 612-331-1400

And remember the Institute is an excellent value for all your spa needs - hair, make-up, massages, pedicures, manicures and waxing. Day and evening appointments available at significantly reduced prices.

And that doesn't blow.

Ready for a (Sea) Change?

I am clearly not alone in my love of Tim McKee's food. The James Beard Foundation likes him too, so much so, he won the "Oscar's" of the food world award for "Best Chef in the Midwest".

Tim's had quite a year, his on-going successful La Belle Vie restaurant continues to thrive, as well as Solera, then this year he opened Barrio Mpls, Barrio St Paul, Smalley's in Stillwater, 423 Main St S # A Stillwater, MN 55082-5180, (651) 439-5375 and the official opening today of Sea Change, at the Guthrie Theater, 806 Second Street S. Minneapolis, MN 55415.

I've been to Sea Change twice already. Fine, I'll admit to stalking Tim, I know I'm not alone in this either. So of course, Tim seems to know his seafood. My first visit to Sea Change, I focused on my favorite way to dine, ordering several small plates. So the bar menu was ideal for this - there were options of intensely fresh seafood, as well as other unique meat options. I tried the Beef Tartar, Tempura Chicken Wings, Ahi Tuna and my personal fav - Shrimp Linguini w/truffle oil. All betw $8-11, crazy prices for Tim McKee-quality food.

My second visit, we had the Octopus, charred with a variety of salsa verdes, the Tuna with watermelon, mint, jalepeno and lemon-infussed oil.



Sea Change offers a 3-course, pre-theater dinner, designed to get you in and out to your show in plenty of time. Also, daily fresh West and East Coast Oyster Bar.



Then I checked out their lunch menu, below, prices between $8-$13 for Tim's cooking, wow!


Outdoor dining also available, this time along Second St, in front of the Guthrie. The space is surrounded by beautiful flower pots and green umbrellas.


Decor has been enhanced with a modern green color accent, which after the second visit I really took in and fell in love with. The large dining room has been given the right attention, bringing an intimacy to the space with several warm wood bookcase-like dividers. The space overall is cozier. And my husband Tim, was thrilled to see the flat TV screens, which do not over-take the bar, but allow a more homey feel.




So if not for today's opening, please go to Sea Change, and once you have tasted this man's food, you'll start stalking him too.

A taste of local inspiration, a la Geri Wolf.

I met event planner extraordinaire, Geri Wolf, just over two years ago while looking at sites for our wedding reception. She showed us FIVE, which was not a match to what we were looking for. So we said thank you and started to head out, then Geri rattled off about 17 other event space options in 3 minutes. I listened in amazement at her determination to help and her knowledge of her "territory". After each option, my picky head would shake no, but then she mentioned, Theater Jeune Lune, the non-traditional event space which I had already tried. Geri, of course, knew the owners and said she would talk with them. And she did, in a matter of a day she had contacted them, and got back to me, her "non-client". That was my first taste of Geri's work ethic, professionalism and connections.

That day, Geri also inquired about Radar, which was in infancy. And, since then she has been an excellent source of support, networking and inspiration.

For example, last week Geri emailed me, "I'm cooking in Chambers Kitchen on Wednesday from 3 to about 6". Me, "What?". Geri, "To learn how to be better at my job, sometimes I take on unpaid internships."

So when she invited me down to the Chambers to have a taste of her creations, I was on it. And sure enough, there she was in chef whites surrounded by stainless steel and Executive Chef Chris Damskey and his staff. Geri brought out her rice cracker encrusted tuna, had a sit and chat with me, and also introduced me to Chef Damskey.




Yep, that's Geri, the "firm believer that if you aren't learning something new every single day, you're not living up to your potential". So she's been doing unpaid "internships" with some of her vendors to learn other parts of the event world.

To be inspired yourself and hear direct from Geri about her Chambers Kitchen experience and her many other "to dos", check out her blog, Eventful Ramblings and her event-planning business, Styled Laboratory.