From The Editor: Bon Appetit!

This issue celebrates the upcoming Dining Out for Life fundraising event – and more.

It is our annual celebration of dining for a cause. In our case, it is the wonderful Aliveness Project, serving our HIV/AIDS community dutifully for decades. It continues to be one of the ways our community deepens our commitment towards ending this pall that continues to shadow us for the past 40-plus years.

Dining Out for Life not only serves as a fundraiser towards keeping the services if the Aliveness project ongoing. It also serves to patronize the many restaurants that participates in this fundraiser, be it a familiar haunt or a new-to-us spot.

The restaurant business goes through some serious ebbs and flows. One minute, a place would open up and become the hottest place in town. Reservations become hard to get. The food would become legendary. The service earning top marks in online ratings.

Before we know it, they would close. Only the memories linger with the doors locked and glass papered over.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has been a tough pill to swallow in the dining business. For a time, you couldn’t patronize your favorite place like you did before the lockdowns were in place. Our friends who worked there tried to manage through the lack on income because they couldn’t work.

I wonder if the messages that the restaurant business is back is absolutely true or not. Once you think it truly, you are still hit with stories of places closing or trading hands among owners.

In this issue, we celebrate those who persevered through the healthcare storm and its effects on the restaurant industry. We also celebrate the opening of new favorite places – especially those owned and operated by our community. Bar+Cart Lounge is the newest of them all. We profile the place and its owner in this issue.

Our cover features restauranteur Ann Kim, the proprietor of places, such as Pizzeria Lola – one of our favorite places in the Twin Cities. You know, I admit to never having a meal there. I will soon enough! Save me a table, Ann!

For those if you who love to cook, we talk about a different approach to presenting seafood ingredients by looking at where they came from and how they are sourced. Believe me, this may change the way you approach seafood the next time you shop for them.

The message I present to you with this issue is to simply support your favorite places to eat. While you’re at it, try new places that spark curiosity and intrigue. More importantly, support places that support and welcome us!

Bon appetit!

EDITOR’S NOTE: The cover photo for Issue 725 was incorrectly attributed due to communication issues with the photo’s supplier. The correct attribution for that photo is The Backyard Studios. We apologize for any issues that may have caused our readers and the photographers involved.