Read Ann Kim’s anti-union messages to staff

WWelcome to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked and/or interesting Minnesota news.

Ann Kim wins NYT pizza award, but loses points to workers

Earlier today, Ann Kim’s northeast Minneapolis pizzeria, Young Joni, was named one of the “22 Best Pizzerias in America,” according to the New York Times. Well done.

Moving on to much more interesting and important matters, Joe Rosenthal, a popular Minnesota-based restaurant industry observer, on Tuesday published leaked messages from Ann Kim and her team that were sent to unionized employees at Kim’s, the local restaurateur’s namesake in Minneapolis. Their tone could be described as explicitly, if not frantically, anti-union.

• “Union activity can make access to work difficult,” one message reads.
• “It’s stressful to see us divided in ways we’ve never seen before (could get worse if union is voted out),” read another.
• “During this chaotic time, we still see many of you working incredibly hard to provide a great experience for our customers,” reads yet another. “Honestly, it’s been tough being a manager at Kim’s during this time. We’re also seeing how hard it is to be a non-union supporter and show up every day ready to work.”

About 60 cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and employees at the Uptown hotspot are scheduled to vote Thursday in an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, necessitated by Kim’s refusal to voluntarily recognize the local’s affiliated union 17 of Unite Here since late. Can. If worker yeses outweigh worker noes, then blame: Kim’s will officially be a union-powered workplace.

Over the past two weeks, including twice yesterday, I have contacted several public relations representatives employed by Kim. I haven’t heard back. But we have an in-depth story in the works featuring the workers at Kim’s; they were more than happy to express their motivations, their grievances and, as a common thread, their desire for fairer treatment in the jobs they love.

Bar 19 owner commits to reopening

In Racket’s recent feature on LGBTQ+ nightlife, tears were shed for 19 Bar, the beloved Minneapolis gay bar that caught fire last March. Today, MPR News’ Estelle Timar-Wilcox provided the most substantial update on the fate of the 19th yet. We learn that after a garbage truck crashed into a utility pole, live wires started a fire fueled by the gas supply at 19 W. 15th St. Fortunately, no one was injured, although the damage caused by flames bursting from the basement was found to be significant. “Everything had to be gutted,” manager Craig Wilson told MPR. “The bar itself, the top of the bar. It was gutted to the posts.

Wilson promises that 19 Bar will be rebuilt and insurance will cover the cost; no timetable for reopening has been established, which is even more disappointing considering the commercial activity Pride activities would have brought this week. “I want to open the bar again and bring everyone back, and I want to give everyone a big hug to keep them safe until we get there,” Wilson said, adding that the rebuilt 19th will retain its ambiance warm and plunging. We encourage you to read Timar-Wilcox’s full story, which chronicles over 70 years of the bar’s history and various fundraising efforts for its unemployed staff.

Carl Marx: potato chip tycoon, enemy of Minnesota workers

Carl Marx with a “C”, of course. Stribber Abby Sliva went viral this morning when she revealed that the familiarly named Marx created Old Dutch Foods from inside her St. Paul home at 1911 Grand Avenue. (born in Germany KArl Marx popularized class-conscious struggle for material economic gains with his 1848 pamphlet. The Communist Manifestowhich we must assume was also created inside a house.) Anyway, take a look at this plaque:

Determined to learn more about our less famous and probably less bearded Marx, I delved into the depths of local newspaper archives, but mostly found obituary information from 1970; Marx sold Old Dutch in 1952 to the Aanenson family, who still run the snack maker today. Ironically, the only mentions of Carl J. Marx apply to his failure to compensate the working class, this first from the 1940 Minneapolis Star and the second from the 1946 Minneapolis Morning Tribune: Mr. Marx, come on!

Elsewhere in flea-adjacent news, the Star Tribune’s Rachel Hutton has a fun, in-depth (in-depth?) story today about Minnesotans’ love of Top the Tater, though you might prefer this very feature similar from 2020 by Em Cassel de Racket. Why are we talking about this? Because the only chip suitable for eating Top the Tater is, of course, Old Dutch Rip-L.

Dire Dam Disaster Dispatches: Pie Owners’ Notepad Collapses

The Dam Store in Rapidan, Minnesota has been around since 1910 and the Barnes family has run it for 50 years, offering famous pies and burgers. As the Blue Earth River eats away at the nearby Rapidan Dam, the family tells NBC News they hope their beloved, quaint cafe escapes much damage.

The Barns also own the White House (an iconic house, at least for chronic overusers of “iconic”) which has been seen teetering alongside the failing 114-year-old dam. And today, as they expected, their house fell into the raging waters below. “We don’t really know what’s going to happen or what the future holds, but we’re holding on to save our Dam Store,” Jenny Barnes told NBC News. On Wednesday evening, the family told Fox 9 they feared the dam store could also soon fall into the river.

Let’s say it here: this is all tragic, and we wish the Barns all the best; such a rich country should not have such crumbling infrastructure, and dams, from an environmental point of view, look bad. That said, we have to share the following clip of their property being swallowed up by the rapids, mainly because of the toddler with an aggressive Minnesota accent watching who shouts “Awesome, buddy!”