Food + Dylan Connection = News Story -or- People of Hibbing Rejoice, The Lybba's Staying!

If you were to play some sort of word association game with Hibbing "outsiders" and they had to name fabulous things that people associate with the city, I'm pretty sure it would go something like this:

Bob Dylan. 
Food.
Mining. 

Perhaps the order would change depending on the individual.  But I'm pretty darn sure those are our top three, like it or not. 

In studying the analytics for this blog, it is obvious that food-related posts generate the most traffic.  So, I'll add another to that pile (and I will honestly start tagging these things, too.  Promise.). 

Checking Twitter this morning, I came across the following update from MinnesotaBrown:

Jason Davis of On the Road profiles Hibbing's Sunrise Deli. I sense great change in Iron Range food iconography.... fb.me/1ud0dAdGr

Definitely piqued my interest.  Yet I'll admit, the phrase "great change" made me a bit nervous as the town gossip I've been hearing over the past few months was that the Deli was going to close and relocate down in the Twin Cities.

Bracing for the worst, I crossed my fingers and clicked through to the blog post where I watched the KTSP story and read Brown's short commentary.   

Color me happy to discover that not only was the Deli not closing its historic Lybba location (once again thanks to a little public outcry), it was expanding business into wholesale food distribution.  This was thanks in part to the great reaction that the Deli had to selling its food at farmer's markets in the Twin Cities with its high Iron Ranger ex-pat population. 

Hooray for Hibbing!  And a big congratulations and thank you to Tom and Mary Lou Forti! A traditional Iron Range eatery preserved and a local business expanding all in one fell swoop.

Could this be the beginning of a community-wide trend?  Lets hope so. 

Note: Hats off to KTSP's Jason Davis for capturing the story, however, I hope that next time you're on the Range you will remember that it's "po-teat-za" not "pot-ick-a".  Also, special thanks to MinnesotaBrown for the link love at the end of the post.  Slowly, but surely this little blog is finding it's way in the vast expanse of the interwebs.   

Everything Changes, Deal with It.

I get it. 

When you move away from your hometown, you can't expect things to remain the same as when you left.  Expecting everything to be the same when you return weeks, months, or years later is illogical.

And yet, I do (and I'm betting there are a lot of you Hibbing ex-pats out there who are right there with me).

There are people and places and things that you have relied on for years.  Its their familiarity and constancy that make up this cozy, comforting picture of Hibbing that many of us out-of-towners hold dear. In a world where technology seems to be changing our work and personal lives at a break-neck pace, it's nice to have something to rely on.  As I've mentioned before in this blog, one particular piece of nostalgia we hold on are the unique foods available at local stores and restaurants (and, of course, your family's table).

Sammy's pizza.  Rudy's subs.  Pancakes at Sportsmen's.  

Iconic view of Park Addition.  (Sure it's probably more picturesque in the Hugh Reynold's rendition, but you get the idea.)

 

Saturday mornings at Sunrise Bakery.  Picking up day old bread on sale and a bag of donuts, if you're good.  *sigh*  Good memories.

What?!  What do you mean, Sunrise is moving?  What?! Already has moved?  During my last trip home over the holidays, I saw for myself the vacant bakery building.  Even though I had known this was coming, it was still a little surreal.  The building has been purchased by Rich Lees (Lees Rental and Commercial Development) who now owns more of Hibbing commercial real estate than I can believe, but that's another story for another post. 

The former home of Sunrise Bakery as it stands as of December 2011. 

Anyway, I stood for a moment and looked at the vacant building.  I thought about all of the trips my family made there while I was growing up.  I remembered carrying brown paper bags filled with bread to be put in the back seat of the truck or more often the mini-van.  I smiled as recalled how I used to imagine that living above the bakery and waking up extra-early every morning to go downstairs and make bread would be best life ever.  (Note: I was a kid and to this day have no idea if there are even living quarters above said bakery and if so, if any bakery employees actually lived there.  It was a pretty cool daydream though.)

Anyway, onto the second half of the title of this blog post: deal with it--a little reminder to myself, if you will.  Sunrise Bakery didn't close.  It just moved down the street (as captured in the photograph below).  Word on the street has it that many people complained that they wouldn't patronize the business if it did indeed join the main baking space at the old Jefferson Elementary School.  So, the owners compromised and although they left the building, they didn't quite leave the neighborhood. 

New home of Sunrise Bakery.  Just a little south of the old stomping grounds.  This building previously housed Pam's Health 4 U and before that Range Broadband (now Mediacom). 

 I actually think the new building is quite charming.  It looks better than it ever has in recent memory and Sunrise seems to have filled out the space quite nicely.  Of course, it's not the same.  Things are never the same.  But all of that said, I'm willing to venture that things are still pretty darn good.  And I bought the wild rice, day old bread, and apple fritters to prove it.