Kiger's Notebook

Midwest Food Processors group + Convention in Roch.

The Midwest Food Processors Association is meeting for a convention in Rochester this week.

Not sure how many people this has brought to snowy Rochester, but its seems like a pretty big deal.

Here's some details about this group from its Web site:

The Midwest Food Processors Association is the foremost legislative voice of the food processing industry in the Midwest.  MWFPA actively represents and lobbies on behalf of food processors in the state legislatures and agencies in Illinois, Minnesota and WisconsinThe MWFPA has 16 food processor members operating over 100 facilities in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. It also has over 200 Associate Members consisting of firms in allied industries.

From the convention agenda I see what looks like a pretty interesting talk from 11:45 to 1 p.m. Wednesday at the Mayo Civic Center.

Lunch Buffet & Keynote Speaker (Auditorium) Dr. Thomas Price – The Impact of Globalization on American Business

Dr. Price is a Visiting Scholar and Adjunct Professor at the University of Arizona. His extensive experience as a high-level American diplomat in Europe gives him a unique perspective on the impact foreign policy has on American businesses. He will discuss the growing concern around the nation and world with environmental issues and sustainability and how the Obama
In addition he will comment on the European attitude towards food in general and towards GMO’s in particular and how they have profound consequences for American food processors. (Sponsored in part by Lyco Manufacturing, Crookham Co, and Lakeside Foods)

Action in Stewartville

Word is that some action is coming to Stewartville.

The buzz is that a new store is opening soon.

And on the other side of ledger, a bar is expected to close at the end of the month.

I'll have some detail on the store at least on my column Thursday.

Potbelly Sandwiches Works here?

The snort in the feedlot is that a Potbelly Sandwich Works is snuffling around Rochester looking for a location, possibly more than one spot.

I'd say a spot next to Beer Bellyz might be good synergy…or maybe not. Heh.

Timber Lodge Steakhouse closed Sunday

I had a ton of tips on this while I was out of town early last week.

No one was available at Taher Inc. to talk about it Friday.However, worker answering phone said it was closing at Dec. 2.

Then on Sunday, a note went up on the Rochester restaurant's Facebook page saying that was the last day.

Here's what I have in my column today.

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After many false alarms, this one is for real.

Timber Lodge Steak House at 4144 U.S. 52 N. shut off its grills for good in Rochester Sunday. The eatery’s Facebook page announced the closing.

Employees at the northwest restaurant, near the IBM campus, have been telling customers for a while that the final day was imminent.

However, there was no official word  from Minnetonka-based Taher Inc. to confirm or deny the comments.

When asked about a similar story in January, CEO Bruce Taher said, “We have no plans on closing.”

Sometimes recipes don’t work out as planned.

Chinese food cooking again in Stewartville

Jacky Dong is extending the reach of his Chinese food beyond Rochester with a planned opening of a third restaurant.

Dong, who with his family owns Hunan Garden and Kingdom Buffet in Rochester, is gearing up to open New Hunan in Stewartville. He hopes to open the doors at 106 First St. by mid-December.

“We have a lot of customers from Stewartville. They talked to me and asked me for it,” he says.

The Stewartville eatery will offer take-out and dine-in service from the same menu as Hunan Garden. He expects to have about four people on staff to start.

The deal was brokered by Darci Fenske of Paramark Real Estate.

The work in Stewartville follows a renovation project earlier this month in Rochester that added windows to the exterior wall of the 26-year-old Hunan Garden in the Northgate Shopping Center, 1120 Seventh St. N.W.

“Customers are coming in and saying it looks totally different. It is a lot brighter in there now,” Dong says.

He plans to also replace the carpet and tile in that restaurant in the spring.

New international/ hahal market + S.E. Roch.

Chatted with a pair of local entrepreneurs who are working on opening a new international market that will also offer halal prepared meats.

It will focus on offering products aimed at people originally from countries on the Indian Ocean.

Beside international food and other products, it will also offer U.S. items.

The plan is to open up the store in southeast Rochester in January.

I'll have more details in my column Thursday.

Kitchen Collection store coming to Roch.

Kitchen Collection, an Ohio-based, value-focused cooking supplies retailer, has a store simmering in Rochester.

I believe it will open the doors and start ladling out ladles this weekend in the Apache Mall.

The chain has more than 200 stores in the U.S. and it plans on doubling its number of Minnesota stores by opening three this November, including one in the Apache Mall, according to its Web site.

I should have more detail on this soon.

Owners of Roch. McD's buy two in Austin, 1 in Albert Lea

During my chat with Rick Lommen, the president of Courtesy Corp., he said the Austin McDonald's is not the only one that will be leveled and re-built (like the North Broadway one).

"We'd like to re-build more in Rochester. we are working on that," he told me.

Enough of Rochester, here's some of the story about what was served up in Austin Wednesday.

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Austin’s 40-year-old McDonald’s restaurant on Oakland Avenue is slated to be rebuilt from the floor to the top of the Golden Arches this spring.

That comes from Courtesy Corp. of Onalaska, Wis., the company that bought both the two McDonald’s in Austin as well as one in Albert Lea on Wednesday.

They were sold by Dave Scherer and his family. Scherer’s father opened the Oakland Avenue McDonald’s in 1969.

Courtesy now owns 11 restaurants in Minnesota, five of which it acquired in Rochester in 2001. It owns 42 McDonald’s over in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Why buy three new locations, one of which will be demolished and re-built, in southeastern Minnesota now?

“It seemed a natural extension to look beyond Rochester to Austin. This was close by and it is an attractive business,” says Rick Lommen, president of Courtesy Corp.

As for buying during now, Lommen says McDonald’s sales have stayed solid with their economical offerings.

Hormel's new deal south of the border

Here's a deal that Austin-based Hormel Foods kicked out a release about Monday evening. Unfortunately, a bad bug of some kind knocked me out of commission Tuesday, so this is the first time I have been conscious enough to post this.

Anyway, Hormel has struck a deal with Herdez Del Fuerte, a Mexico City-based food company, to form a joint venture to market food to U.S. customers. The resulting company is called MegaMex Foods, LLC and it is based in Chino, Calif.

I've posted on this deal before. The reason Hormel is touting this now is that the deal, which was first announced publically in June, has now officially closed.

Here's some from the release on this deal:

Hormel Foods and Herdez Del Fuerte announced the closing of a 50/50 joint venture agreement to create MegaMex Foods, LLC, which will market Mexican foods in the United States.

The venture significantly expands the existing agreement between the two
companies and produces a portfolio with initial revenue of about $200 million.
MegaMex Foods has a comprehensive portfolio that includes brands such as
CHI-CHI`S, HERDEZ, LA VICTORIA, EMBASA and DOÑA MARÍA, among others, which
resonate with Mexican-American and mainstream consumers of Mexican foods.
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MegaMex Foods is a free-standing entity with an independent management team
based in Chino, Calif. MegaMex Foods will optimize efficiencies by leveraging
core competencies of the parent companies, such as manufacturing, research and
development and the supply chain.

New Shoppes on Second development plan

At the core of Matt Russell's article on the Rochester City Council's 4-3 vote to not impose a proposed development moratorium on Second Street Southwest is the latest version of the proposed Shoppes on Second plan spearheaded by local developer Rick Penz.

Plans for a commercial development at the intersection of Second Street Southwest and 16th Avenue Southwest in front of the Miracle Mile Shopping Center first surfaced publicly in 2007.
That incarnation featured upscale stores and a fondue restaurant. Since then, other versions have floated out as the project has run into obstacles involving the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Miracle Mile.

The latest plan, discussed last night at the meeting, has three buildings - a retail center, a fast food restaurant and a hotel (presumably a Holiday Inn). 

Here's a little from Matt Russell's council story to explain how the development and the proposed moratorium had a head-on collision with only the Shoppes on Second walking away.

The moratorium, brought forward by Council Member Michael Wojcik, was intended to enforce standards proposed by a recent study of Second Street Southwest led by First Homes, an initiative of the Rochester Area Foundation.

The standards, which have yet to be approved by the city council, would reduce maximum parking standards, prohibit drive-through windows, require buildings to be taller than one story, and reduce maximum building setbacks.

A resolution against the moratorium passed 4-3, with council members Ed Hruska, Dennis Hanson, Bruce Snyder, and Bob Nowicki voting in favor. Wojcik, Sandra Means, and Mark Bilderback voted against the resolution.

Earlier this month, when Wojcik proposed the moratorium, he said he wasn't aware of any impending development proposals along Second Street between downtown and U.S. 52.

On Monday, however, he said a proposal had surfaced that went against the design guidelines outlined in the First Homes study.

"The plan is a disgrace to urban planning," Wojcik said, noting that surrounding neighborhoods strongly endorsed the moratorium. "I think we owe the neighborhoods better." Wojcik said Rochester-Olmsted Planning Director Phil Wheeler e-mailed the plans to council members on Monday.

Wheeler said the plans include a fast-food restaurant and a hotel on the northeast corner of U.S. 52 and Second Street Southwest, a site where an upscale mall, Shoppes on Second, had once been proposed.