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[ # ] My Visit to LoFo
January 18th, 2007 under Aromas, Food, Longfellow


Earlier tonight, I spent some time in LoFo, aka. Lower Longfellow. Or, as the city of Minneapolis tries to call it, Hiawatha or Howe or something.

It took me a while to pin down the differences between LoFo and Lake8, but I think figured it out.

Driving through, a person with untrained inner-city senses may not be able to pick up on the subtle differences. Both areas are dominated by bungalow style homes. Both share the exact same avenues. Both have nice parks, easy access to West River Road, and fast commutes to downtown.

The difference I found . . . is the aroma.

The fast pace of Lake8 comes with a price. Families have no time to cook, and are forced to stop at one of the two fast food restaurants along E Lake Street on their way home from their white collar jobs: McDonald’s or Taco Bell. The area wreaks of unfinished happy meals and half-eaten 7-Later Burritos.

LoFo, on the other hand, has a potpourri of home-cooked freshly chopped herbs, slow cooked stews & chili, and non-microwaved popcorn filling the air. It reminded my of a simpler time. Wobegone like, where the meals are all above average.

It’s Leave it to Beaver vs. American Beauty wrapped up in one sense: smell.


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    Read the Comments

    [ # 294 ] Comment from Mike N. [January 20, 2007, 7:05 am]

    The allfourseasons guy came to LoFo for a run on Thursday night. And really that night was all about me being a 35 year-old child and locking myself out of my own house, but that is not what this comment is about. So when I could finally let people into our house, Kirk was all like “What smells so good in here?” You see, Emily was making enchiladas for dinner, hence the smell.

    Sure we have Sea Salt and DQ, but only it is in the LoFo kitchens where the magic happens. That is where the #1 secret ingredient to great meals can be found: love.

    [ # 297 ] Comment from kohler [January 20, 2007, 10:23 am]

    I’m confused. You locked yourself out of the house while Emily was making enchiladas? Does she make you take your own key when running and refuse to unlock the door if you forget it?

    [ # 301 ] Comment from Mike N. [January 20, 2007, 3:55 pm]

    You didn’t read closely enough damnit, my being locked out wasn’t the point of my comment! But since you asked…

    1. Wednesday I went for an evening run and used the house key from off my car key chain as I am wont to do.
    2. I got back from said run and forgot to put my key back on my key chain, as I am also wont to do.
    3. I could not find the key Thursday morning when I left for work. Believe it or not, this is unusual. Emily had already left, so the house was unlocked all day, which is fine because Pancho the dog is a pretty amazing deterent to crime.
    4. Emily got home before me Thursday afternoon and went for a run and locked the doors. Because I am a dumb ass, I forgot to call her at work that day and tell NOT TO DO THAT!! I got home and was then locked out.
    5. Kirk and another crazed runner met at my house on Thursday evening so we could all go for a run. I opted not to do this because I did not want to run in my work clothes. So they went for a run and I sat in my garage and froze my ass off in my car, cursed myself, and listened to KFAN until Emily got back from her run. Good times all around.
    6. Emily let me in. I was all pissed at myself and chose not to run but to walk the dog instead.
    7. I walked Pancho McGruff and Emily made enchiladas for dinner.
    8. I got back from the walk. Kirk returned from his run and came into our house 20 minutes later and said, “What smells so good in here…”

    And you know the rest.

    [ # 303 ] Comment from kohler [January 20, 2007, 4:07 pm]

    I got the point of your comment, but found the digression more worthy of a reply. :-)

    I’ve had my share of lock-outs too. The saddest being when I knew as soon as I shut the door that I didn’t have my car keys . . . or house key, so I was feeling pretty dumb on my front steps. Being in Lake8, I hoofed it to Dunn Bros to work for a few hours until I could get in touch with a friend capable of helping me break into the house.

    Carly was traveling for work and offered little sympathy.

    [ # 309 ] Comment from Mike N. [January 21, 2007, 7:18 am]

    I had a friend (another Lake8er actually) help me break into my house one time, too. He was remarkably good at it. Of course this is because his house was broken into and knew how the robbers did it, and applied that knowledge to my house.

    By the way (this is about to get convoluted), I know you knew my original point. My tone of voice was meant to mock-mad. People always say in times like that to use an emoticon. I feel I am above such things. I feel that my tone should be obvious and no emoticon is needed. And time and time again, I prove that is not true.

    [ # 323 ] Comment from kohler [January 21, 2007, 12:41 pm]

    By the way, I have some sort of auto-emoticon thing on this site, so typical combinations of colons, parentheses and dashes with be converted to an appropriate smilie. However, I don’t know if their is an emoticon for mock-mad.

    [ # 325 ] Comment from Mike N. [January 21, 2007, 12:57 pm]

    I think it would be a semi-colon with a tilde, or whatever you call that thing that makes a n have a “y” quality in Spanish, like in manana. I think it’s called a tilde, but I could be wrong.

    Word. I was right. Al Gore and the internets just told me so.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tilde.svg

    [ # 326 ] Comment from kohler [January 21, 2007, 2:32 pm]

    That’s one awesome tilde.

    [ # 328 ] Comment from Mike N. [January 21, 2007, 10:36 pm]

    Overcompensation for a small, you know, /n/.

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