Coffee, Books, and Snowfall: A Cozy Spring Weekend in Duluth, MN

If coffee shop mornings, bookstore finds, and sweater weather are your kind of sublime, a weekend getaway to Duluth, Minnesota, is sure to delight. During our spring stay, the first of the salties* arrived, snow fell from the sky, and melted more than it stayed. We didn’t mind the weather we were unprepared for; it gave us an excuse to stay cozy inside, drink coffee, and shop for books. 

Zenith Bookstore and Wussow’s Concert Café

Wussow’s Concert Café and Zenith Bookstore are next door to one another. If you’re going to visit one, we highly recommend visiting the other. They’re both colorful, quirky, and full of kindness.

Zenith Bookstore

It’s hard to resist snapping a photo with the mural of books that covers the front of Zenith Bookstore. It features over a dozen books, including classics such as The Great Gatsby, Little House on the Prairie, and Go Tell It on the Mountain. When we visited, their sidewalk board near the front door had a hand-drawn sketch of Calvin & Hobbes walking across a log, accompanied by the Mary Oliver quote, “It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world.” They had me before I walked through the front door. 

Intriguing food memoirs like A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France by Minnesotan Steve Hoffman and cookbooks like The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen captivated me, right as I entered, along with the essay collection Endangered Eating by Sarah Lohman. Perhaps this section of the store is as compelling as it is because, according to their website, Angel, one of the owners, has been active in food, sustainability, and environmental movements for some time. 

As much as I wanted those and so many of the books in that section, I went in search of a book about Bob Dylan, recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. How could I not seek him out? Duluth is his hometown. I picked up DYLAN Goes Electric by Elijah Wald. 

Zenith Bookstore offers a diverse selection of used and new books, covering a wide range of topics, from art to true crime. They also carry a fun selection of gifts, including oven mitts with clever sayings like, “Easy as Pie is Such a Lie.”

Hours: Mon. – Sat. 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Wussow’s Concert Café

This locally owned coffeehouse has been part of West Duluth’s neighborhood since 1999. When we went, it was lunchtime on a Saturday. The crowd was a mix of college kids and retirees, those in the middle of it all. As we waited in line, I didn’t see any open tables. While we were ordering and paying at the counter, two tables opened up. We claimed one by the stage, an intimate performance space decorated with burlap-wrapped structures resembling tree branches. Swags of craft-store leaves hung above.  

“Made with love,” the server delivering our food said to us as he set down my Turkey Bacon Club and Chris’s Burrito. The sandwich was one of the best club sandwiches I’ve had. When Chris requested hot sauce, the server delivered an upcycled six-pack for beer that now held as many hot sauces. Chris was a happy man as he ate the burrito. 

There are games on shelves for patrons to play. The work of local artists decorates the walls. Wussow’s is colorful, cheerful, and cool. They serve coffee (from a full espresso bar), snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Hours: Mon. & Thurs 6:30 a.m. – 8 p.m., Tues. & Fri. 6:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m., Wed. 6:30 a.m. – 9 p.m., Sat. 7 a.m. – 6:30 p.m., and Sun. 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. 

The Bookstore at Fitger’s

Inside the historic Fitger’s Complex, home of Fitger’s Inn and a mix of shopping and dining, you’ll find The Bookstore at Fitger’s. It’s a local, independent bookstore that focuses on local authors and subjects. They also carry a curated selection of fiction and nonfiction. 

Chris spotted The Irish Girl by Ashley E. Sweeney and brought it over to where I was perusing. It was marked with a Staff Choice sticker. A bookseller nearby, witnessing our exchange, told me it was an excellent choice. Her enthusiasm felt genuine, so I purchased it along with a “Bans Off Our Books” t-shirt. 

It’s here that I picked up a Midwest Indie Bookstore Road Map. Duluth, Minnesota, has three bookstores on the 2024 version I now have: Zenith Bookstore, Bookstore at Fitger’s, and Amazing Alonzo Bookstore. We made it to two of the three.

The Bookstore at Fitger’s Hours: Mon. – Sat. 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

More about Fitger’s

It dates back to 1857 and was the site of Duluth’s first brewery. In 1881, the brewery moved to Fitger’s present location and was called Lake Superior Brewing. Parking is abundant. You can eat, shop, and sleep there. Buy books. Shop boutiques. Get outfitted. 

190° Coffee and Tea

On a Sunday morning, at 190° Coffee + Tea in Duluth, I journaled: 

A folksy tune drifts through the air, interrupted now and then by a dog’s whine. The space is large, housed within a brick building that also holds apartments and businesses. I sip an oat latte with maple syrup, while Chris enjoys a light roast coffee. He’s designing t-shirts on his laptop. I’m writing. As eight turns close to nine there’s a line at the counter.

It’s a great space to ease into a day. Drink some coffee, maybe some tea. Enjoy a pastry. You can also admire the work of local artists.

Hours: 6 a.m. – 6 p.m. Daily

Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum

The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum presents rotating exhibitions featuring notable manuscripts. During our visit, we saw their ‘Man’s Inhumanity Towards Man’ exhibit. It included a letter from cult leader Charles Manson, a letter from Clarence Darrow, the lawyer who defended the teaching of evolution in the 1925 Scopes Trial, documents related to the guillotine’s history, and so much more. 

In the guillotine portion of the exhibit, I learned that when it came to executions, poor folks were hanged, while beheadings were reserved for the executions of nobility. Watching beheadings became such a popular Parisian pastime that there was a Café Guillotine near Paris’s most prominent one. It was dark, but interesting.  

The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum is free to visit. 

Hours: Tues. – Fri. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. 

There’s more to Duluth than its coffee shops and bookstores, though they are reason enough for a book and/or coffee lover to visit the Zenith City. Duluth has fabulous boutiques, too: Where to Shop in Duluth: 3 Stylish Local Boutiques. A post on some of the city’s tasty restaurants will be coming soon!

Looking for more bookish escapes? You might want to read:

Minneapolis’s Mill District: A Bookish, Artsy, City Escape

Visiting Livraria Lello in Porto: A Book Lover’s Dream

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*salties: ocean-going ships that travel through the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway.