Kiger's Notebook

Rochester's Maid-Rite on the way

Here's a quick update on the Maid-Rite Diner that Don and Noreen Sanford and their daughter, Reann Blumers, are cooking up for Rochester.

Early May is when Don Sanford says they hope to be able to open the doors of the classic loose meat sandwich diner, which is an Iowa icon.

"There's a lot of stuff to get done, but I think we can do it," he says.

A banner is up in the window of the diner's future location in the new Crossroads Plaza across from the Olmsted County Fairgrounds. It will bookend the center opposite the new Walgreens drug store.

The Sanfords say they've gotten very enthusiastic responses as they've handed out coupons and information about the coming of Maid-Rite.

"I think we're on to something good," he says.

So will they be able to handle crowds hungry for burgers, shakes, sweet potato fries and nostalgia when they open the doors?

"Bring it on," Sanford says.

Roch. Area Builders bash @ Merchants Bank

Between 100 to 150 people turned out last night for the Rochester Area Builders Networking Night at Merchants Bank on 55th St. Northwest.

Lot of interesting chatter as well as hot dogs (with chili and kraut) were served up.

Inside tidbit for anyone who enjoyed the food and drink spread, it was all prepared and served up by the Merchants Bank crew. For the record, those tasty mini-apple treats were made by Holly. I think I had one or two…handfuls. Heh.

 Bank President John Doyle and his crew throw an impressive party, but it seemed more than food and drink was responsible for the positive attitudes.

While things are still obviously very tough out there, it feels like people are ready to try some new projects and face doing business in the "New Normal" economy.

Hot dog! Downtown Roch. hot dog cart is back

Spring is truly here.

Rick "Murph" Murphy is back.

He is rolling out his popular Diamond Dog hot dog cart for the season in Rochester's downtown Peace Plaza today.

Looking for a quick lunch to enjoy outside today? This is an option to consider.

Kasson is open for business

The Kasson City Council locked down deals at its meeting last week to bring three new businesses into the city.

One of the business is moving from another area town, one is growing from a home-based operation to building a new facility and the third is the opening of a new retail store.

Had a nice chat with Mike Martin, Kasson's city planner/economic development coordinator this morning.

I should have the details on these deals in print/on blog soon.

Roch. tile, countertop biz to add carpet showroom, expand

Degeus Tile and Granite, a long-time Rochester family construction business, is doing something very few such operations are during these difficult times.

It is expanding.

It is joining forces with Gerard McCabe to add carpeting and vinyl flooring to its offerings. Co-owner Mike Degeus says the new division will be branded as Carpet Plus.

A few selections have been on display for a little while, but the full displays should be set up in April at Degeus' facility along the frontage road at 3532 U.S. 63 S.

McCabe last sold carpeting at Rochester's Home Design Studio.

"It is a good fit," says Degeus of the pairing. He owns the company with his father, Dick Degeus.

This move follows Degeus' renting of space to Jim Brogan's Creative Hardwood Floors in 2008.

"If you walk on it, we have it here," Degeus says.

Late spring or early summer, look for construction to start at the Degeus center to add a carpet and flooring showroom on the front of the building.

Meanwhile, more space will be added to the back of the building for granite and quartz countertop production and storage space.

This will replace some of the space Degeus lost when he rented to Creative Hardwood. It also will provide an enclosed place for customers to see countertops, which are currently store outside.

Look for the staff of about 25 to expand as the carpet business launches.

The father and son duo built the facility in 2004 to bring their tile and countertop business under one roof.

Degeus cites a strong remodeling as driving his business' growth today, while others struggle with a decrease in home construction.

If all goes as planned, this won't be the last expansion. Plans for the next phase are already drawn up for the future.

"We are always planning and trying to think ahead," Degeus says.

Roch. Area Builders networking event Tues.

The Rochester Area Builders are getting together Tuesday evening for their first networking event of 2010.

 Not certain I'll make it, but I plan to try. This group is a good one to get to know and be connected with.

• The Rochester Area Builders, Inc. is sponsoring its first Networking Night of 2009  from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Merchants Bank, 3586 55th Street N.W.

Door prizes will include four tickets to a Twins Game, gift certificates to Hu-Hot, KFC, Nick N Willy's Pizza, and more. In keeping with RAB's "Take Me Out to The Ballgame" Membership Drive, Merchants Bank will be providing a gourmet hot dog bar, along with a variety of beverages.

Good Food Store, 2.0 - the upgrade

Here's some from a lengthy piece I have in today's paper about The Good Food Store Co-op in Rochester and its recent remodel and upgrade.

An evolution is changing Rochester's oldest natural health food store into a more competitive player in a grocery industry now influenced by the likes of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

 A series of recent upgrades at the Good Food Store Co-op and Back Room Deli,1001 Sixth St. N.W., have transformed it from an a "old timey" health food store of the past into a modern retailer with bright lights, colorful walls and big aisles.

While the more than $120,000 investment made it look similar to a commercial grocery chain, Good Food still remains an organic, free-range co-op at heart.

Walking through the rows of new shelves with more products than ever before, General Manager Phil Guida can't help grinning as customers fill the aisles.

"We're all about change," says Guida, who started at the store last fall.

Customers coming through the door of the store saw dark shelves loaded with vitamins and nutritional supplements.

"This store had that old timey co-op feel," he says.

All new lighting, new shelving, fresh paint, modern refrigerator and freezers cases changed that.

Re-arranging the store to be more customer-friendly also made it feel more up to date.
Displays of vitamins and supplements used to be the first thing customers saw as they entered. 
"It was hard to tell exactly what type of store it was," says Guida.

Now the entrance is more open leading to the grocery aisles and flanked by the organic, fresh produce.

An expanded wellness section with more nutrition supplements and vitamins now has a new place in the store.

All of the changes are aimed at adding to the store's three bottom lines — financial return, benefiting the environment and giving back to the community. With overall sales up $12,000 to $15,000 and grocery sales up 23 percent over last year, it looks as if Guida and his staff are hitting the financial target.

The average customer checkout is higher than the health food store average, according to Guida.

In a time where chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's as well as independent stores like The Wedge in Minneapolis are flourishing, Good Food's upgrade seems to open it up to a growing customer base.

National sales of organic food are estimated by experts to hit about $22 billion this year.

New type ethinic food + Roch.

Look for the Clay Oven, the northwest Rochester restaurant opening in the former Happy China space off of West Circle Drive, to serve up something new for local taste buds soon.

While it will offer Chinese and Indian dishes, the menu will feature a third ethnic cuisine not seen in Rochester previously.

 Rochester developer Ken Dewan says the cuisine of the Hakka culture is "a fusion of Chinese and Indian food."

Historical sources says the Hakka started out in central China, but were driven south from their homeland by Ghengis Khan and the Mongols. They continued to wander and some Hakka people ended up in India, near Calcutta.

That combination of Chinese and Indian created a new style of food.

"It is different than anything you've seen in Rochester," says Dewan. "It is like nothing you've ever tasted."

He describes the style as very "flavorful and spicy without being too hot."

He hopes to open the doors of the Clay Oven at 2711 Commerce Drive N.W. in a couple weeks. The Rochester Happy China closed in January, though a restaurant of the same name still operates in Byron.

The Clay Oven will seat 38 people. It will serve Indian, Chinese and Hakka dishes as well as beer and wine.

The name comes from how much of the food will be prepared. A style of clay oven used in northeast China with a "big belly and narrow top" will be used to cook the food quickly at high temperatures.

Traditionally, such ovens use charcoal, but the Rochester restaurant will use natural gas to fire them up.

This is not Dewan's only new Rochester project. He also has an eatery called The Beaker in the works at 1205 Seventh St. N.W.

It may be a month or so until it is ready to go, he says.

More on Z-Rock's doubling down

Here's more on the Z-Rock radio station change:

Cumulus Media is now rocking the local radio scene twice as hard as last week.

As of midnight Monday, the Rochester station Z-Rock KDZZ is broadcasting on the FM frequency of 103.9 as well as 107.7.

Cumulus launched Z-Rock, which plays what is called an active rock format, in 2008 on the most limited of its Rochester frequencies.

Active rock is described as leaning more toward harder and more modern rock music than classic rock stations. That means bands like Green Day, Linkin Park and Sublime as well as older groups like Nirvana, Metallic and Guns 'N Roses.

"We thought it might find a nice little niche audience. Then it really exploded," says Brent Ackerman, Cumulus-Rochester's operations manager. "It has really exceeded what what we thought it could do."

Z-Rock's growing audience eventually outgrew the range of the 107.7 frequency, which does not reach areas east of Rochester well.

"We thought now we need to really expand it off our smallest signal. With popularity of our other well-established stations like Quick Country and Y-105, the obvious candidate was KLCX," he says.

That means to expand the reach of Z-Rock, Cumulus had to pull the plug on KLCX Classic Hits, which had been broadcast on 103.9 for the past two years.

Ackerman is encouraging classic hits fans to try the sister stations of Soft Rock Y-105 at 105.3 or Oldies Cool 104 at 104.3.

KLCX's hitting the road did not mean any lost jobs for Cumulus. Jeff Cecil, who worked as program director and announcer for both Z-Rock and KLCX, now focuses solely on the expanded Z-Rock. Cecil and Karly Rhodes handle Z-Rock's mid-day and drive-time DJ duties. The national Mancow Show airs in the mornings.

Beagles, bunnies and biscuits

  The Rochester Feed & Country Store and Bone Appetit Canine Bakery will give local dogs  a chance to sniff out their own spring treats on April 3 at the store near the South Broadway and U.S. 14.

The hunt will start at 11 a.m.

Pam Miller, a Rochester native and the creator of Bone Appetit gourmet dog biscuits, plans to have, in her words, "Paw-fuls of treats for canines to sniff out and eat plus more than 500 Easter eggs with spec-PAW-cular gifts hidden inside."

Whoever finds the golden egg will get a gift from Netta Putzier's Rochester Feed & Country Store