Star Tribune
John Rimarcik, restaurateur who shaped Twin Cities dining, dies at 84
When John Rimarcik was a student at DeLaSalle High School in the 1950s, he walked home among warehouses long past their manufacturing heydays.
“It was nothing. Vacant, windowless buildings,” he told the Business Journal in a 2016 interview.
He eventually acquired and invested in many of those buildings — and some of the restaurants within them, instigating a renaissance of what today are the thriving North Loop and St. Anthony Main areas of Minneapolis.
Rimarcik, a visionary restaurateur and commercial real estate investor who owned and operated some 50 restaurants during a career that spanned 60 years, died Dec. 11 at his home in Minneapolis, from brain cancer. He was 84.
Rimarcik bought his first restaurant in 1964 when he was 25, the Peacock Cafe, and went on to launch or revitalize eateries in Minneapolis, such as Waters, Rachel’s, Dante, Dirty Face Hamburgers, Cafe Havana, Tubby’s and more.
He later leaned into preserving landmark restaurants that struck a nostalgic chord with diners. In 1974, he acquired the then-40-year-old Convention Grill in Edina. Through the years, he added restaurants in Rochester, La Crosse, Wis., and Duluth to his portfolio.
But he did most of his business in Minneapolis. He owned Dinkytown’s Annie’s Parlour; the 1906 saloon Monte Carlo; Pracna on Main, then the oldest bar in Minneapolis; the Art Deco gem Paramount Cafe; the St. Anthony Main Theatre; former burlesque house Runyon’s; and the Kitty Cat Klub.
“Along with being a skilled and tenacious restaurateur, John was an urban visionary,” said former Star Tribune restaurant critic Rick Nelson. “He was investing in the North Loop before anyone thought to call it the North Loop. With the Monte Carlo, Runyon’s and other properties, John laid the foundation for the neighborhood’s role as the Twin Cities dining epicenter.”
He also collected remnants from restaurants that had closed, including the bar and wood-carved frieze from the legendary Charlie’s Cafe Exceptionale, which was demolished in the 1980s. He kept that piece in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse of restaurant artifacts until 2022, when it was reinstalled at the Minneapolis Club, where he had been a member since he was 18.
“We had 31 meat slicers,” said Tony Rimarcik, John’s son and business partner. “He likes to buy things. He doesn’t like to sell things. That includes the real estate. And it’s proved incredibly successful.”
Born March 27, 1939, in Chicago, Rimarcik was adopted by Charles and Angela Rimarcik, and raised in Minneapolis. He graduated from DeLaSalle High School in 1957 and studied journalism at the University of Minnesota, working as a copy boy for both the Minneapolis Star and Minneapolis Tribune newspapers.
He had worked in restaurants since he was 12, but as an extrovert, Rimarcik pursued a career as a showman when he was in his teens and 20s, first in stage magic and comedy, then in broadcast as a Top 40 disc jockey under the pseudonym DJ Johnny Vincent.
“Hope, Crosby, Berle and Como all have characteristics that I admire,” he told the Star Tribune in 1957. “Maybe I could adopt some of the best from each of them.”
As a businessman, Rimarcik was known for his doggedness.
“His biggest phrase may be, ‘Time is everything,’ ” his son said. “I would say he’s a little bit on the undiagnosed ADHD spectrum. When he thinks of something and it gets in there, then it starts to recur.”
As a restaurateur, he was a preservationist who also put his own stamp on places Minneapolitans already knew and loved. The Monte Carlo, which was around 75 years old when he acquired it in 1982, was in a remote part of the warehouse and light manufacturing district. During Rimarcik’s tenure, the area roared back to life.
Rimarcik added the now-famous dry rub wings to the menu. He said he devised the recipe as an alternative to messy Buffalo sauce, which was rising in popularity in the early 1980s.
The Convention Grill, which was founded by a pair of metalworking brothers in 1934, was a one-room old-fashioned burger and malt shop. After Rimarcik took over in 1974, he gradually acquired the neighboring businesses, expanding it into a full-fledged diner known for its chicken soup, coleslaw, Plazaburger and tulip-glass malts.
The Convention Grill has remained closed since the first restaurant shutdown of the pandemic, undergoing extensive structural renovations over the past three years.
During the closure, the family has fielded intense interest from regulars about a reopening date. Rimarcik understood that customers had deep connections to his longtime restaurants, which were there for generations of celebrations and traditions.
“It’s hard to estimate that sense of nostalgia and ownership and belonging. It’s really humbling,” said Tony Rimarcik.
Construction was completed, and in recent weeks, Rimarcik was urging his son to reopen Convention Grill, along with Annie’s Parlour, as soon as possible. They made plans to launch a limited takeout menu of just shakes and malts before the end of the year.
Last week, with Rimarcik’s health failing, Tony Rimarcik explained why he was pushing to reopen a malt shop in December.
“Dad will never see these places,” he said, tearing up. “But I’d like to be able to tell him that they’re open.”
Rimarcik is preceded in death by his first wife, Adele, and son, Jeffrey. Survivors include his wife, JuLee, and sons Tony (Marta Bowman), Tom (Colleen), all of Minneapolis, and Charlie (Jessica) Egan, as well as grandchildren, Griffin and Harrison all of St. Charles, Ill. Services will be held Dec. 21 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.
Star Tribune
Biden calls out Musk over a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked in the US illegally
NEW YORK — President Joe Biden slammed Elon Musk for hypocrisy on immigration after a published report that the Tesla CEO once worked illegally in the United States. The South Africa-born Musk denies the allegation.
”That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be an illegal worker here. No, I’m serious. He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. And he’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?” Biden said while campaigning on Saturday in Pittsburgh at a union hall.
The Washington Post reported that Musk worked illegally in the country while on a student visa. The newspaper, citing company documents, former business associates and court documents, said Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California in 1995 for a graduate program at Stanford University “but never enrolled in courses, working instead on his startup. ”
Musk wrote on X in reply to a video post of Biden’s comments: ”I was in fact allowed to work in the US.” Musk added, ”The Biden puppet is lying.”
Investors in Musk’s company, Zip2, were concerned about the possibility of their founder being deported, according to the report, and gave him a deadline for obtaining a work visa. The newspaper also cited a 2005 email from Musk to his Tesla co-founders acknowledging that he did not have authorization to be in the U.S. when he started Zip2.
According to the account, that email was submitted as evidence in a now-closed California defamation lawsuit and said that Musk had apllied to Stanford so he could stay in the country legally.
Musk is today the world’s richest man. He has committed more than $70 million to help Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other GOP candidates win on Nov. 5, and is one of the party’s biggest donors this campaign season. He has been headlining events in the White House race’s final stretch, often echoing Trump’s dark rhetoric against immigration.
Trump has pledged to give Musk a role in his administration if he wins next month.
The only debate between DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and GOP challenger Royce White started Sunday on the street outside WCCO Radio.
As White approached the building, he loudly called some two dozen flag-waving and cheering Klobuchar supporters a “whole lot of commies.” The 33-year-old provocateur and podcaster also told them to thank Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney — who endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — because there was “no chance in hell” that Harris would defeat Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
Klobuchar, 64, had arrived moments earlier, smiling and wishing “good morning” to her supporters. Once inside, the two took questions for an hour from moderator Blois Olson. Their tone was generally polite with White often interrupting a Klobuchar response with, “rebuttal,” indicated he wanted to respond.
The senator repeatedly raised White’s claims on X, formerly Twitter, that “The bad guys won in World War II” and that there were “no good guys in that war.” She called that stance offensive to veterans.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar arrives at WCCO Radio for a debate with Royce White in Minneapolis on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii)
Klobuchar, who is seeking a fourth six-year term, portrayed herself as a pragmatist. She opened by saying that we live in “incredibly divisive times politically” but that she has listened and worked with Republicans to bring down shipping costs, drug prices for seniors and to help veterans and push for more housing and child care.
“Courage in this next few years is not going to be standing by yourself yelling at people,” she said, her opening allusion to White’s rhetoric, which she said is often vulgar.
White, a former NBA player, is a political novice, but a close ally of Steve Bannon, the jailed former chief strategist for Trump and right wing media executive. Last summer, White won the state GOP endorsement to run against Klobuchar.
“Our country’s coming undone at the seams. I think we can change that,” White said in his opening statement. He said he threatens the status quo, decried the “permanent political class” and referred to the two major parties as the “uniparty.”
Other buildings destroyed at Khojir and Parchin likely included buildings where Iran used industrial mixers to create the solid fuel needed for its extensive ballistic missile arsenal, Eveleth said.
In a statement issued immediately after the attack Saturday, the Israeli military said it targeted ”missile manufacturing facilities used to produce the missiles that Iran fired at the state of Israel over the last year.”
Destroying such sites could greatly disrupt Iran’s ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles to replenish its arsenal after the two attacks on Israel. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which oversees the country’s ballistic missile program, has been silent since Saturday’s attack.
Iran’s overall ballistic missile arsenal, which includes shorter-range missiles unable to reach Israel, was estimated to be ”over 3,000” by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, then-commander of the U.S. military’s Central Command, in testimony to the U.S. Senate in 2022. In the time since, Iran has fired hundreds of the missiles in a series of attacks.
There have been no videos or photos posted to social media of missile parts or damage in civilian neighborhoods following the recent attack — suggesting that the Israeli strikes were far more accurate that Iran’s ballistic missile barrages targeting Israel in April and October. Israel relied on aircraft-fired missiles during its attack.
However, one factory appeared to have been hit in Shamsabad Industrial City, just south of Tehran near Imam Khomeini International Airport, the country’s main gateway to the outside world. Online videos of the damaged building corresponded to an address for a firm known as TIECO, which advertises itself as building advanced machinery used in Iran’s oil and gas industry.
