(light music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(upbeat music) - [Host] Coming to you from Rochester, Minnesota, (upbeat music) R-Town.

(upbeat music) So word on the street, is Fiddlehead Coffee is expanding to a new downtown location, which we're super excited.

And here to give us the scoop and share more about the indie coffee shop's growth, are owners Sarah and Patrick Phalen.

Welcome to R-Town both of you.

- Hi, thank you for having us.

- So true confession, one of my favorite things to do on a warmer day is to take a walk from my house through Slatterly Park, to your Government Center location on Third Avenue.

And of course, in addition to that location, you've already expanded to Miracle Mile, near St. Marys Hospital, and then even to Bloomington, Minnesota, where you are today, Patrick.

Can you tell us where the next location in downtown Rochester will be and why this expansion is so significant?

- Sarah, you go ahead and start.

- Okay yeah, so we're moving into the Kahler Grand Hotel, it was on the first floor, right on the corner of the Gonda building in the hospital there near Peace Plaza.

We're super excited to be moving into the old Starbucks location on the first floor.

- And is there a timeline for the expansion and when can we expect to be, sort of able to go to the Fiddlehead.

location at the time?

- Yeah, we should be opening in March pending any, we've having a lot of normal supply chain issues and COVID issues to deal with.

- COVID timeline.

- It's a COVID timeline.

So whatever you say, it will be the right thing.

(Sarah laughs) - It's aspirational for sure.

- Hoping for the first week of March.

- Great and I guess, I mean, what have people come to expect about Fiddlehead Coffee and sort of what it is gonna be maintained in this location and what are some new things that you're sort of exploring in this new space?

- So the things that people come to expect, we have award-winning coffee roasted right here in Rochester and a really fantastic beverage program, doing craft lattes, kind of approaching what a latte can be a little bit differently, using local dairy using Minnesota Beet Sugar for syrups and really just a sensational beverage program.

And then we have an awesome in house pastry program doing primarily French pastry, really classical stuff.

And then also kind of pushing the envelope with various ingredients we're using.

Always trying to keep a mind for what is local, what is fresh and kind of what is an expression of this place.

And then we took inspiration from my grandmother and we have a Southern Italian style sandwich program doing a really amazing house-made focaccia, really awesome salads, soups, and a lot of that will be seen at the new location with additional grab and go options for a crowd on the run.

- That sounds really exciting.

And I know, you've said it in terms of the COVID timeline, of course, it's been a really tough couple of years for the planet and our community and our city and of course, for vital businesses and business owners, we've got about a minute left.

So this is a big question, what would you say has been one of the biggest challenges you've had to overcome over this pandemic and what hope are you holding onto for the future of the coffee shop and the community?

- I don't know, we maybe both answer, but we'd have some, there's so many things, it's hard to pick the hardest one.

I don't know, I think it's just been the constant change, you know, just the constant, not knowing what's coming up, shutdowns, opening, somebody out with COVID, somebody might be out with COVID somebody, and then all the supply issues and just the change in prices too.

We've got, everything is very much a moving target and so it makes, we've tried to build the business to be agile anyway, but this has kind of pushed us to the limit of agility, I think.

But we have a really great team that has totally rolled with the punches and been super supportive.

So we would be kind of nowhere without them.

- Well, thank you both so much for joining us.

We are super excited as (indistinct) and congratulations, of course, and we look forward to the opening.

Thanks so much.

- Thank you.

- Thank you have a good day.

(upbeat music) - Be sure to stick around, we have much more coming your way on R-Town.

This week's walk about is part one of a double feature, as you visit the newly open Garden Party Books.

We also discussed the Bloomberg philanthropies Global Managed Challenge, with Chao Mwatela and Wafa Elkhalifa.

But at first we meet Sarge, a canine who competed in a national police dog competition in this week's R-Culture segment.

(serene music) - [Brian] His main purpose is about to keep our community safe.

And we wanna find the object before it goes boom, and causes the catastrophic injuries that could happen with an explosion.

Sarge is much more discipline than any other dog of his breed.

He's always happy.

You get him in the car, he's ready to go.

You open up that door and he's just ready to do whatever we need to do.

We're looking around for different types of breeds, we knew we wanted a game dog, my counterpart, he had just bought his own personal game dog from a game from over in New London, Minnesota.

And so he called them up and said, hey, this is what we're doing and the guy's like, "Yep, I've got two dogs that are just too much energy and wild for us to turn them into game dogs."

And we said, "Perfect that's what we need for our job."

We get requests all the time from Secret Service, State Department, cause we have Mayo Clinic here.

We have a lot of dignitaries and VIP's that come here.

So it was something where we had a need for it.

(serene music) He was definitely more of the, shier one.

Sarge was just more methodical and just, I'm gonna take my time doing things.

When you're dealing with explosives, we have 30 different odors that the dog learns with each of those explosive odors, there's a base odor that is used in that compound.

So we train on those base odors at first to really imprint that odor into the dog to say this is what you want.

We don't just always look for a bomb.

We also go to a shooting scene, because our dogs are better at finding a gun, a casing, because that's all they care about.

They care about the odor itself.

(serene music) Or as a kind of training thing that we do where, we just keep walking around in an area and we just dropped bags and they just go check and we look for that behavior change.

One of them had an odor and inside that odor was an explosive component.

So we used ammonium nitrate.

Ammonium nitrate is a very common ingredient that's used in a lot of different mixtures of explosives.

So it's something that no matter what the explosive compound could be, if there's ammonium nitrate in it, he's gonna alert to us.

We did the agility course.

Again, he's not trained for that, to do that for any type of certification, it's just more of a confidence booster for him for one and two, it's just something to break it up.

We try to push the progression to again, build that obedience and just confidence.

They need to be obedient especially when we're dealing with explosives.

(serene music) Just because we're at work, doesn't mean we're not training the dog.

When we're at home, we're still training the dog, there's no off days when you're in the Canine Unit.

You're on vacation and the dog's not with you, then Yeah, you have an off day, but otherwise every day is a training day.

We take our training very serious because the city and the department put us in responsibility of this creature and expects us to do what we're supposed to do and get their money's worth.

He's an officer, he's part of the police department.

This is just one job in my 18 years, that has been the most fulfilling and everything's new.

And so having him in the car with me, I mean that's just my bond.

It's that's my partner, that's my family, that's that's everything, when I come to work, I mean, he's always with me.

I spend more time with him than I do with my own family.

(serene music) - For more information about this story and other R-Town features, connect with us on Facebook, twitter, @KSMQ#RTown or ksmq.org/rtown.

(upbeat rock music) - Hello.

I'm Danielle Teal, your moderator for R-Town, the Spotlight.

This segment covers organizations, events and happenings across Rochester.

And we'd like to thank 125 Live, for hosting today's segment.

Today we have Sheila Buehler, with Foot Care Professionals and she's here to share a little bit more about this business.

So go ahead and share what are the services that are provided.

- Very good, Danielle, thank you for this opportunity.

This is a brand new business, I started just a few weeks ago literally.

Started as with a goal of providing in-home foot care, specifically, trimming of toenails, thinning of toenails and calluses.

Because over time it becomes very hard to reach the feet and we all need help at some point and getting help is often hard to come by.

So I am a nurse practitioner and I have had several years of training with foot care from various sources, both locally and nationally.

I'm part of a national Foot Care Nurse Association.

And my goal is to increase access for Rochester and surrounding area for foot care, to prevent complications of pain, ulcers, and anyone who has had callouses knows it makes it very difficult to walk.

- Oh yes, I've had callouses before, so I definitely, (laughs) This is a service that I'm sure is definitely sad after.

So what is your clients usually, demographic wise?

- Yeah, so most of them are 60 and over.

However, I definitely see folks down into their forties and it's just, like you said, it's that callous and you know, these things, when they hurt bad enough, it keeps you from walking, it impairs your mobility.

And it can also, we've had falls.

I've heard stories, oh yes ones who broke their hip.

It really does affect quality of life when your mobility is affected.

So the other issue is big time all cure prevention and ingrown toenail prevention.

- Which is reality for a lot people.

- A lot of people of all ages.

And my hope is to grow the business, to expand into day, evening and weekend hours, so that it's accessible for people who need it.

Either onsite here at 125 Live, I'm located in room 112 downstairs, and I posted my hours.

And then I'm also doing in-home care for those that need that.

Keen to start training more nurses too.

So we're gonna get this done.

- That's so awesome.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

- Thanks Danielle.

(upbeat rock music) - It's time for your R-Town Rundown, Mayo Clinic has said that we are past the peak for Omicron here in Minnesota, and we certainly hope that's the case.

We hope to see this pandemic wind down and our incredibly grateful for people who are helping to make that happen.

The Chateau Theatre in the heart of beautiful downtown Rochester, has a new operator.

Threshold Arts has been selected by the Rochester City Council as a new operator and absolute theater will also be moving over there.

It is a beautiful historic space and I look forward to seeing some more activation and activities going on there in the future.

Wit, wisdom and wine, is an annual fundraiser for the Rochester public library foundation, that is going on this weekend, Friday and Saturday.

And that is a virtual event.

So there's a lot of different activities that you can participate in.

You can go to their website and choose to participate in the events that you like.

I recommend it, I've been there, it's been a lot of fun in the past.

Utica Queen, which is a really cool exhibit at the art center right now, is going on through April 3rd.

In addition to that, I looked at the website and there's a virtual attendance option as well.

And if you're looking for something to do from the safety of your own home, that is a fantastic option.

You wanna get out and about this weekend, Ben and Noel Haggard, the sons of Merle Haggard, will be playing at the Mayo Civic Center, this Saturday.

Also going on a it's coming into a late winter, that means people are thinking about their weddings and Unveiled Rochester, is going on Saturday from 10 to three.

And that includes, the Transport Fashion Show.

Finally, activities continue to go on at Rochester Civic Theatre.

I had a brief exchange with the executive director there and she informed me that everyone who was in the productions and on staff there, is fully vaccinated and they are requiring masking at all of their events.

So that's one more option.

The show that's going on now is "The Secret Comedy Of Women."

And that's been going on from the third to 13, a lot of options for getting out there, hope you get out and enjoy, and I'll catch you next time.

(tranquil music) - Hello, I'm Danielle Teal with R-Town Walkabout, and we're talking with our guest remotely.

Today we have Andy Smith and he's gonna talk about Garden Party Books.

Hi, Andy, welcome.

- Hello, thanks for having me on the show.

Well, we're very excited because I'm a book fanatic and I cannot wait to check out the space.

You came from California, what made you make this decision to trek to Minnesota, open up a bookstore and a theater.

- Yeah, so there are two reasons behind that.

The first, I think a lot of people have heard, is that I fell in love with a Minnesotan.

My wife is from the Twin Cities.

The way we ended up here in Rochester is that desire to start a movie theater that really is built on community and talking to one another, we got connected with some great people to help us make our dream happen at Gray Duck theater and Coffee House, and really where I am right now at Garden Party Books is an extension of that vision, just in another art form.

- Right, in the midst of a pandemic, you decide to open a bookstore.

- We sort of had a great opportunity, sort of fall into our lap accidentally.

This beautiful property next to us, really had been empty for most of the pandemic.

And then at the same time, if you remember, there was a bookstore called The Collective and The Castles, that had to close down.

- Well, that was serendipitous.

- It's really a lot of like small nooks and crannies and closets.

So what we do is we divide genres into different rooms.

So we have our sci-fi fantasy room.

I'm sitting in the children's room right now, the romance closet as we call it is over there.

We are passionate about books, but we're also passionate about places and how they create community and connection.

And it's just a joy to work in a bookstore to be honest.

So I'm just happy to be here.

- Awesome Andy, thank you so much for being on the show.

- Absolutely, thanks for having me.

And we'll see you at Garden Party Books real soon.

- This is Danielle Teal with R-Town Walkabout.

(upbeat music) - On January 18th, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the 15 winning cities of the 2021, 2022 Global Mayors Challenge.

Now this is a worldwide innovation competition that supports and spread city's most promising ideas and Rochester was named one of those winning cities.

Here to talk to us about what this award will allow the city to do, are Chao Mwatela, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Director for the city of Rochester, and Wafa Elkhalifa, Community Co-Designer and Equitable Development Coordinator for Destination Medical Center.

Welcome both of you to R-Town.

- Thank you.

- So of course, congratulations.

And thank you both so much for your work and leadership.

To start us off, what was the city's vision for this Bloomberg 2021 Global Mayors Challenge and what were the specific barriers that you were working to address through this project puzzle?

- I would say the Genesis of the project itself was around February, March of 2021.

So that's when the Global Mayors Challenge put out the notification to cities around the world.

That they were looking for new, innovative ideas, from all over the globe that would address specific disparities and in particular because of the pandemic.

So looking for communities, old folks, all communities, were more severely impacted and then coming up with really good and innovative ideas to meet those challenges.

Repeat the second part of the question.

- It was just, yeah, in terms of that.

So that was the call and here in our community, what were some of the specific barriers that you were seeking to address?

- Well, I think we were really conscious about trying to figure out what communities were most severely impacted by the pandemic.

And in doing so, when pulling data that was current, but even past, right?

Recognizing that BIPOC women historically, right?

have had disparities in all areas, whether it's healthcare access, et cetera, but specifically in economic mobility.

And when we were looking at what the pandemic had had a great impact on, that was a specific area when it came to BIPOC women.

And then at the same time, our communities really fast and vastly growing, right?

And recognizing that there is a lot of money coming in in the built environment and construction industry in general, right?

And then looking at that data and realizing that BIPOC women only represent 1% of the folks represented in the built environment.

And so this would be something that is a career, not just a job, with living wage or even above that, right?

And a trajectory for 20, 30 years.

And then realizing that those two have no connection and thinking here is a group that would love to have those career options.

And here is an industry that is really saying, we really need folks to get engaged, right?

And how do we get those two together?

- So that's awesome.

So that bridging work was really sort of where the magic was happening with this proposal.

- Yes.

- So what are the newly awarded funds going to allow the city to do over this now, three year implementation period?

- So Bloomberg Philanthropies when they are worth a million dollars, certain needs of a three years, but they also offer technical assistance, right?

So folks who would allow us with budgeting, project management, et cetera.

And what we are hoping to, and as we submit it in our application, that we want a large number of those dollars to go to BIPOC women and to spaces and places that would allow them to have career pathways into the built environment.

And a lot of, well, if I talk about it a bit more, but as the co-designers worked through the process, we thought about not having this as like a quick and short term fix, right?

But creating a prototype that had longevity.

So prototype has three distinct areas.

There's an immediate industry prototype, where we have women who are already trained, but haven't been able to get into the built environment.

How do we get them into that right away with mentorship support, et cetera.

That is a training component and higher education, right?

Which then allows folks who are ready to make decisions about careers now to get trained and then get into the built environment.

And then a third component that's K-12, recognizing and realizing that most young women are making decisions about careers as early as third grade, right?

So how do we get into that space early enough to let that population specifically know these are viable options, right?

And so that we have that trajectory over the next 20, 30, 40 years, hopefully seeing a community change drastically in that built environment space.

- I would just say that in the process of including the co-designers from the beginning was amazing.

Because usually there is a misunderstanding around co-design, where the designers abroad towards the end, kind of like a survey process of what do you think of what we already planned and created here.

And so it was really awesome from the beginning with all the steps that Chao chair, they have done a lot of research and bringing a lot of background information to us, where it helped us as co-designers to find the targeted communities that we wanna go and connect with them and finding information that would be relevant to this project.

- I think so.

The community engagement in that co-design process, I mean, it sounds like it's been really instrumental to this project and how are you thinking about continuing to center those voices, continuing to do that engagement?

How is that going to remain sort of the center of the work?

- Well, I would say it is very important in the various central part of any project that's going to be happening in our community, is to include these voices in every step of the project.

Even after the completion of the project is to include the co-designers connect with them, as any updates regarding the project, any modifications that the project is looking from me, me and Chao met as co-designers for the Discovery Walk Project.

And so it's been really good even that our involvement at that time, was more consistent, but right now we are still included in (garbled) from board, presentations, sharing information and update with us regarding the project.

So it's always good to stay connected with your co-designers because they are the voice, they're representing the underrepresented voices that we have in the community.

- And I think it's wonderful, it's really exciting as well, and such a shift too, in terms of thinking about how processes happen in communities and in cities and so that's really exciting as well.

I know construction is a big part of this, as you mentioned, Chao earlier, and sort of meeting that construction need and bridging that with the staggering facts around the impact, the economic impact of obviously the pandemic, but even before that, the situation within our BIPOC communities.

Do you see, well, first things, first construction?

I don't want many of us think about construction.

We have a really narrow conception of what construction is, right?

And what opportunities there are.

Can you speak really just briefly about some of the different opportunities that you have that are part of this, that this project will help facilitate and what BIPOC women have already expressed interest in as you've engaged them?

- Good question.

And I know there's right, great conceptions and misconceptions right, about construction.

And that was one of the barriers that we identified, was the scope or the perspectives that BIPOC communities in general had about construction.

And we often think about construction in terms of what we see on TV, right?

The men with a head hats and very few women in the space that being a concern, am I going to be alone in that space, right?

And so when we're thinking about construction, a lot of women pointed to landscape design, project management, architecture, CAD work, for example, right?

And even things that happen after the construction is done, right?

So there are folks who come in, whether they're doing a little bit of painting, they're doing interior design, et cetera.

But we also had a lot of women who said, they would be interested in being carpenters or putting down flooring, right?

Who would like to be electricians, but not really understanding or knowing how to navigate that process, because we learned from the industry experts that were there, who are also co-designers that a lot of times that's a generational and passed down within families, as if you haven't had anybody in your own family to help you do that, then you don't really have a way to get into that space.

And then another layer to it, we had some BIPOC women who really express an interest in entrepreneurship, right?

How do I become a supplier to, for materials, et cetera, et cetera, right?

Some of them thought about, well, could we possibly offer childcare close to say a construction site, for folks who need to be at work as early as 5:00 AM in the morning.

And so it generated a lot of different ideas, but more so kind of expanded the breadth of what we would typically think of as construction into what it actually is, right?

When we think about it holistically.

- And how exciting.

We we're out of time here, but I wanna thank you both so much for joining us today.

Thank you for the work that you're doing.

We're definitely going to be staying on top of the work and the progress over the span of this time and certainly beyond.

So thank you so much.

And thank you all for joining us today from a wonderful content produced right here in Rochester.

Please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter, on #RTown, I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara for R-Town, be well and stay safe, bye and see you next week.

(upbeat music) ♪ No one ♪ ♪ No one ♪ ♪ No one ♪ ♪ Oh, no one does it better ♪ (light music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.