After a few weeks in beautiful Scandinavia, it’s back to work for me!

This week’s Dining Diary is all about pre- and post-event dining.

I visited one of my favorite quick spots for dinner before a concert at the Palace Theatre, had dinner on a super cute patio before trivia with friends and had a few excellent brunches in Duluth while there for Trampled by Turtles’ annual Bayfront Festival Park show.

Amsterdam Bar & Hall

A ham and Gouda sandwich at Amsterdam Bar & Hall in downtown St. Paul.

There is absolutely nothing fancy about this bar/music venue around the corner from the Palace, but sometimes that’s exactly what I want. It also tends to be less busy than other popular, pre-event dining destinations downtown, so if we are running late (which is often the case), it’s the perfect choice.

You order at the bar and pick up your own food (remember, I said not fancy), but the sandwiches hit the spot, especially when you pair them with the restaurant’s excellent, hand-cut, deep-golden fries. My favorite is the ham and Gouda sandwich, but my husband’s shawarma burger, coated with Middle Eastern spices, was also delicious.

The sandwiches here are not humongous, but they’re also priced right at less than $10 apiece.

They also have a great gin selection, so when I’m missing Europe’s fancy gin and tonics, this is where I’m going. (Try the Nolet’s gin with soda, a splash of tonic and a lemon wedge. You’re welcome.)

Amsterdam Bar & Hall: 6 W. Sixth St., St. Paul; amsterdambarandhall.com

Em Que Viet

Egg rolls at Em Que Viet on Grand Avenue. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

It was hot outside, and I was craving a Vietnamese noodle salad, so we hit the cute patio behind this Grand Avenue restaurant for a few cocktails and some tasty Asian fare.

I got my bun salad with tender mock duck, and my husband opted for the restaurant’s excellent lo mein with chicken. Our friend ordered the Vietnamese curry chicken without realizing it was a soup, but I reminded her that soup is definitely a thing in tropical locations, so she went with it and found the spice cooling in the end.

We also split some of the restaurant’s excellent, super crisp egg rolls (they’re the family behind the eggroll-on-a-stick stand at the Minnesota State Fair).

Our cocktails ended up being a very Minnesotan purple (and gold), much to the chagrin of this Packer fan, but they were delicious, especially mine, a spicy (and gold) mezcal number.

Em Que Viet: 1332 Grand Ave., St. Paul; 651-330-4363; emqueviet.com

New Scenic Cafe

Norwegian salmon smørrebrød at the New Scenic Cafe in Duluth, Minn. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

A friend of mine who grew up in the area told me this was his favorite restaurant in Duluth, which confused me!

I had always assumed it was farther up the North Shore, but it turns out it is a quick 15-minute drive from the city center. So we decided to get some lunch before checking into our hotel.

Having just been in Scandinavia on a reader trip, I was excited to check out the very Swedish menu at this gorgeous restaurant with an excellent view of Lake Superior.

We started with some strong French-press coffee and the restaurant’s version of a bloody Mary, which is more beet juice than tomato, and spiked with aquavit. I was the only beet lover at our table, so the rest of the party eschewed it, but I loved the sweet, earthy, caraway flavor.

And because I had a hard time finding fresh lefse in Norway (I did pick up a packaged version at a grocery store), I had to order the lefse here so my daughter could taste the snack my grandmother used to make for me. It was just as I remembered it, even down to the cinnamon-sugar butter it was served with. My daughter loved it, too.

One of the first meals we had in Stockholm started with Skagen toast, so I was excited to see a version of it at the New Scenic. Their snack-sized, creamy, light skagenröra salad is served atop buttery brioche toast, and I’m happy to report that it was as delicious (if a bit smaller) than the version I had in Sweden.

We also shared a plate of burrata, served with thinly sliced prosciutto and compressed melon. It was good, but a bit unimaginative and probably my least favorite of what we tried.

My husband and I both ordered smørrebrød, traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches. Though they were not quite as big as the ones I was served in Copenhagen, they were the perfect size after all the snacks we started with. Mine, topped with a sweet-salty rutabaga puree and a filet of flaky cooked salmon, was light, flavorful and filling all at the same time. My husband’s smoked pork loin and potato was more hearty and robust. Both were worth returning for, and since my daughter goes to college in Duluth, I’m sure I’ll be back frequently.

My daughter ordered a BLT on an airy, buttery croissant that was bigger than her head, and it was so good she almost finished it. Her boyfriend got a crispy grouper sandwich that he declared the best fish sandwich he’d ever eaten.

Because my daughter is a baker and had been obsessed with the chocolate cake from the TV show “The Bear,” we had to order the restaurant’s version. The cake consists of dense, rich, chocolatey layers with a chocolate mousse filling and a ganache frosting, and not a morsel remained. The slice was huge, so perfect for sharing among the four of us.

New Scenic Cafe: 5461 North Shore Drive, Duluth; 218-525-6274; newsceniccafe.com

Duluth Grill

The C.U. Tamago sandwich at Duluth Grill in Duluth, Minn. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

No trip to Duluth is complete without stopping at this excellent brunch spot on the way out of town.

Pro tip: There’s always a huge wait, but you can put your name on the list online before you ever leave the house. We were seated shortly after we arrived, but when we signed up there were 53 parties ahead of us.

It’s popular for a reason. I can never decide what to order, because every single thing on the menu sounds amazing. This time, I settled on an egg sandwich, playfully named C.U. Tamago, after the Japanese pan used to cook custardy square omelettes. The egg was light and silky, and some crisp bacon and tart pickled onions provided contrast, with crushed-up potato chips adding some extra salty crunch. As if the sandwich wasn’t enough on its own (it was), the sandwich comes with a side, and the Korean Brussels sprouts did not disappoint. They are given a long bath in a deep fryer, rendering them deep brown and crisp, yet somehow light, and the super-umami Korean flavor on them is positively addictive.

My husband ordered the hash-brown version of huevos rancheros, which was loaded with house-made chorizo, grilled corn, black beans, pico de gallo and eggs with some Tajin-spiked potato chips for texture.

My daughter was delighted to learn that she could combine her savory Brekkie-dilla (a quesadilla with chorizo-seasoned pork belly and eggs) with a sweet side (fluffy French toast) and her more adventurous boyfriend cleaned his plate of lamb eggs Benedict, which was slathered in a dilly tzatziki sauce.

Because there are about 20 other dishes I want to try here, I’m sure we’ll stop again on our way out of town.

Duluth Grill: 118 S. 27th Ave. W., Duluth, Minn.; 218-726-1150; duluthgrill.com

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Within the hearts and faces of the Class of 2025 is a mixture of anticipation and apprehension — on the edge of a world that is, by turns, irreverent and weary, defiant and desperate for something more. These are not gentle times. Our society, economy, and politics all feel stretched and fraying, sometimes broken. But that, my friends, is precisely why you are yet alive and must live free!

Every generation is confronted and confounded by choice. Some choose complacency — seduced by comfort and the illusion that someone else will do the hard work of changing things.

Others, the rare ones, decide to become prophets and revolutionaries. Not the kind who burn it all down for the sake of spectacle but those who dare to see what isn’t yet and speak it into being. Those brave enough to confront the world’s irreverence with a stubborn, civil audacity.

Leadership, in these times, demands a prophetic imagination. That means you must learn to see beyond what’s obvious or easy. It means naming the wounds no one wants to touch and calling out the truths that make the comfortable squirm. It means refusing to settle for the world as it is — a world blighted by division, distraction and cheap cynicism. Instead, you must insist on the world as it could be and start living out that vision now, even when it isn’t popular or costs you something.

Don’t get it twisted. Prophecy absent of civility is just noise. It’s too easy — far too easy — to allow righteous anger to curdle into bitterness, to imagine that because you are right, you are justified in scorning, shaming, or silencing those who differ. That is not the way of moral leadership. To start a revolution that endures, you must learn to build bridges and barricades. Each of us must master the art of disagreeing without dehumanizing. Humane practice is radical empathy that listens even when you long to shout and to forgive when you are aching to rage.

Undeniably, you’ve come of age when the air is thick with suspicion and contempt. Your generation has been confined from quarantine and by the glare of your screens as a pandemic exposed the cracks in our society. You’ve endured leaders bickering over scraps of power while real people suffered — hungry, scared, unseen.

Likewise, your peers and you marched, maybe mourned, or wondered whether this could change. However, the world is not waiting for someone else. We are waiting for you. And we do not need you to fall in line nor mimic the failings of those who’ve come before. The world is waiting for leaders like you to be bold enough to speak with your voice — sharpened by truth, softened by grace, and animated by the unyielding conviction that we can do better and are destined to do better.

The American project is a patchwork of dreamers and doers, saints and sinners, stitched together by the thread of promise that stretches across generations. What began as a wild experiment — equal parts hope and hubris — has always depended on the willingness of ordinary people to imagine something better and then actually try to build it.

Each generation inherits the job half-finished, with frayed edges and glaring mistakes. Approach the task with a stubborn sense that it’s worth mending. Now, that group project lands in your lap. Your generation gets to decide if democracy is still alive, still pulsing with possibility, or if it’s just a story people tell themselves — something dusty and ceremonial, trotted out for parades but hollow at the core. The choice isn’t abstract. It’s the lived reality of who speaks, listens, and gets heard.

So, what will moral and democratic revival look like when the ground beneath is unsteady?

Even when your voice shakes and courage escapes you to name injustice, genuine humility allows you to learn from challenges to your assumptions. Refuse the seduction of easy answers and shallow applause. May the love of neighbor inform your every thought, action, innovation, vote, and prayer. I implore you: Do not wait for perfect conditions, unanimous approval, or the blessing of the powerful.

Take up your duty. Build a beloved community not by shouting down your adversaries but by calling them in and insisting that their humanity is tangled up with yours, whether they like it or not.

Help heal the nation by holding up your corner and mending your block. Bring about justice by treating the most overlooked preferentially. Model peace through the endurance of discomfort and earnest engagement in reconciliation. Lead by showing up, standing firm, getting up, and trying again when falling short.

The world is crowded, noisy, and sometimes hostile. Yet, it remains open for the kind of distinct light only you possess. I encourage you to write your name in ink so it won’t fade in this chapter of history. Go forth with leadership that is sermon and song. Be bold! Be compassionate! Be prophetic! Be civil! Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got. Moreover, it is your duty.

The Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson is a spiritual entrepreneur, author, scholar-practioner whose leadership and strategies around social and racial justice issues are nationally recognized and applied. He wrote this for The Fulcrum, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news platform covering efforts to fix our governing systems.

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Today is Thursday, July 10, the 191st day of 2024. There are 174 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On July 10, 1940, during World War II, the Battle of Britain began as the German Luftwaffe launched attacks on southern England. (The Royal Air Force was ultimately victorious.)

Also on this date:

In 1509, theologian John Calvin, a key figure of the Protestant Reformation, was born in Noyon, Picardy, France.

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In 1890, Wyoming was admitted as the 44th US state.

In 1925, jury selection began in Dayton, Tennessee, in the trial of John T. Scopes, charged with violating the law by teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (Scopes was convicted and fined, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality.)

In 1929, American paper currency was reduced in size as the government began issuing bills that were approximately 25 percent smaller.

In 1951, armistice talks aimed at ending the Korean War began at Kaesong.

In 1962, the first active communications satellite, Telstar 1, was launched by NASA.

In 1985, the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior was sunk with explosives in Auckland, New Zealand, by French intelligence agents; one activist was killed.

In 1991, Boris N. Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush lifted U.S. economic sanctions against South Africa.

In 2002, the U.S. House approved a measure to allow airline pilots to carry guns in the cockpit to defend their planes against terrorists (President George W. Bush later signed the measure into law).

In 2015, South Carolina pulled the Confederate battle flag from its place of honor at the Statehouse after more than 50 years.

Today’s Birthdays:

Singer Mavis Staples is 86.
Actor Robert Pine is 84.
International Tennis Hall of Famer Virginia Wade is 80.
Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 78.
Baseball Hall of Famer Andre Dawson is 71.
Rock singer Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) is 71.
Banjo player Bela Fleck is 67.
Actor Fiona Shaw is 67.
Singer/actor Jacky Cheung is 64.
Actor Alec Mapa is 60.
Country singer Gary LeVox (leh-VOH’) (Rascal Flatts) is 55.
Actor Sofia Vergara is 53.
Actor Adrian Grenier (grehn-YAY’) is 49.
Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (CHOO’-ih-tehl EHJ’-ee-oh-for) is 48.
Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas is 45.
Singer/actor Jessica Simpson is 45.
Actor Emily Skeggs is 35.
Pop singer Perrie Edwards (Little Mix) is 32.
Actor Isabela Merced is 24.

The state of Minnesota will now hold its collective breath as the immediate future of star center fielder Byron Buxton is suddenly unclear.

As the man leading off for the Twins on Wednesday night at Target Field, Buxton was hit by a pitch from Chicago Cubs pitcher Cade Horton. Though he initially stayed in the game, stole second base, and scored a run, Buxton was replaced by infielder Brooks Lee his next time at the plate.

It’s officially a left-hand contusion for Buxton, according to the Twins, and it doesn’t sound like this is something that will keep him out for an extended period of time.

It’d be a shame if it does.

Not only has he been otherworldly for the Twins this season both at the plate and in the field, Buxton was set to compete in the Home Run Derby, as well as the All-Star Game next week in Atlanta.

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