Trotter's Cafe

There's still time for a blog post in 2012, so here I go. Trotter's is at the hub of Merrium Park's "business block" at Cleveland and Marshall. It serves as the middle ground lunch location for a friend who lives in Highland and myself in the Mac/Groveland neighborhood. In the summer we like to sit at one of the few curbside tables and soak up the sun while we visit. This friend tends to be very particular about what she eats with various dietary restrictions and she is undoubtably the one who introduced me to Trotter's with their tradition for local, fresh, healthful fare. When I'm in need of some omega's I will order their grilled tuna sandwich and I'll feel energetic for the rest of the day.

 The food is less interesting to me than the commitment to a local establishment run for 20 years by a husband and wife team who clearly care deeply about the mission behind their work. To the immediate left of the front door is a map which shows the local organic food sources they buy from and their employees give a portion of their wages to causes of their choosing which are listed on the website. Trotter's also provides monthly food donations to Keystone Food shelf! To top it off they encourage walking/biking on locals night with a 10% discount to locals within 2 miles of the cafe and an additional 5% off if you walked or biked to the restaurant! Live music is another offering on Saturday nights and once a month they host a reading night for local writer's to share their work. This year a collection of poetry from the year is available for purchase($7) with the proceeds going to the food shelf. They have a monthly newsletter posted on the front door which tells of the various happenings including mention of the monthly artist whose work is on display. FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER- UNTIL JAN 6TH- THAT ARTIST IS ME! I put up my photography series called Hands at Work as well as an eclectic mix of watercolors to fill out the display space. It is fun to share my work, but as with this blog I'm not much interested in the promotional aspect of showing my work; it's just nice to know that people will enjoy it during their time at Trotter's this month.

Besides supporting a great local business and getting to see or hear local artists, you might run into the mayor of Minneapolis who tends to drop in to get some work done on the fly. I've seen him twice, once last week as I finished putting up my work. He was rather focused on his laptop so I don't think he noticed the display on the walls. If you find this blog because of my sign at Trotter's - thanks for taking a moment to check out the musings of a fellow "Third Place" frequenter, feel free to share your own words if so moved.

Photo from my Christmas tree- Happy Holidays!