Musings in Calhoun Square

Calhoun Square is located in the bustling Uptown intersection of Hennepin, Lake, and Lagoon. It houses Dogwood Coffee, Kitchen Window, about a dozen other awesome stores/restaurants, and is often hosting some sort of celebration or fair. My gym, LA Fitness, is inside Calhoun Square, and on my way there yesterday morning I really noticed how much the shopping center has grown since I moved here three years ago.

I took an extra moment to notice all the glitz and glamor that has come into Calhoun Square, and this lead to a lot of wonderings.

Such as….

Were these eggs bought specifically for this shoe display?

Was the full impact of this shirt understood during design?

Would my life be better if I owned bejeweled capri pants?

How many people own an angry birds phone case?

Or proudly wear this Hello Kitty necklace?

Are there any human beings that look better in this dress than this mannequin? 

And, finally, would the world be a better place if we were constantly asking one another this question?

Calhoun Square. Check it out. Learn about yourself.

 

Haute Dog

In addition to being a nice shopping/eating venue, Calhoun Square in Uptown often has weekend events open to anyone interested. The events are usually themed (coffee, fashion, motorcycles, etc.) and feature related vendors and activities. This past weekend, Calhoun Square hosted, quite-possibly, its best event yet.

Haute Dog: Urban. Fashion. Lifestyle.

 

The photo above was taken of a poster advertising the event on Monday – so there were six agonizing days of anticipation. As described on the poster, the event would feature:

– Free Animal Communication (Pet Psychic)
– PETicures
– Doggie Fashion Show
– Free Doggie Treat Buffet
– PAWparazzi – Free Dog Photos with Celebs

Vendors were advertised to include: JimmyCHEW, BONE Appetite, and So FETCHing.

I know, right?!

Naturally, priority #1 was finding a dog to bring with me. That proved not be too difficult since I found someone through work who would come with their dog.

When Sunday finally came and it was time for Haute Dog, I was beyond excited. We could tell as soon as we walked in that we were in the right place:

 

 

The dogs pictured above were huge! And slobbery. And their hair was super matted. Possibly a result of the aforementioned slobbering.

Dog watching continued as we met these two poodles:

 

The owner said she uses only natural dyes and bleaches so she doesn’t damage the dogs hair or skin at all. I wonder if they know how crazy they look?!

The flier was accurate in saying there would be a free doggie treat buffet. There were tons of different treats to sample, and some vendors were even giving away small bags of treats for people to take home! Some of the fancier treats were available for purchase:

 

These look good enough for me to eat (and the woman behind the counter assured me that they would be completely edible and safe for humans!). The treats above are made by Posh Pooch, and they are decorated dog cookies in a variety of bright colors and fun shapes (the squirrel shaped cookie was my favorite). We bought a peanut butter cup and a bone shaped cookie:

 

Although the poster’s teasers for free treats was accurate, I was a bit disappointed by the ‘photos with celebs’:

 

A little misleading, no?

Nonetheless, it was fun watching people try to get their dog’s heads aligned with the hole.

Several pet service businesses had small advertising booths. I thought this one was funny since it advertised a Pet Taxi:

 

Whose pet needs a taxi?!

After all the excitement:

 

Our doggie was pooped:

 

So pooped in fact, we couldn’t get her to move. Good thing Haute Dog thought of everything:

 

harhar 🙂

Girls Night and Dogwood Coffee

Girls’ nights are the best. The absolute best. I am so lucky that I have wonderful female friends who I can hole up with on a weekend night and do things like paint our toenails:

And make friendship bracelets:

Yesss. In other news….

We also ventured to Dogwood Coffee. Dogwood is located in Calhoun Square in Uptown. It’s set up in the lobby area just inside the entrance on Hennepin.

They have a simple menu of coffee, teas, and specialty drinks:

And a small seating area with some funky art:

Dogwood places a lot of importance on building relationships with the people/producers/groups that source their products. They have coffee that comes from Burundi, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Colombia. Not being coffee drinkers, we got a hot chocolate:

Dogwood is definitely a cute coffee stop, but it’s pretty pricey for an everyday joe. I got tea here once a few months ago. They brewed it loose leaf – which is probably higher quality – but I would have preferred to just have a tea bag so I could refill the cup with hot water later. I don’t love paying nearly $3 for a cup of tea – especially if I can’t reuse the bag!

While at Dogwood, I learned about the first annual Minneapolis coffee crawl that just began:

From the poster, I gather that you can purchase a $15 coffee crawl card that will earn you discounts at all participating locations for two weeks. Seems like a neat idea! If I were a frequent coffee drinker I would definitely consider buying one since this seems like a fun community event. Alas, I am not a coffee drinker, so I’ll put my money towards other events. 🙂