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Dishing with Stephanie's DishHost of Emmy award-winning TV show Taste Buds with Stephanie, Author of "True North Cabin Cookbook," blogger at stephaniesdish.com, radio host of "The Weekly Dish", podcaster at "Dishing with Stephanies Dish" and contributor on Fox 9s The Jason Show. Author: Stephanie Hansen - @StephaniesDish
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Dishing With @StephaniesDish
Friday, 24 July, 2026
Visit Ely, Minnesota for fun things to do year-round! Whether you are looking for a place to stay, a delicious meal, a hiking trail, or an immersion experience, we have businesses ready to meet your needs.Stephanie Hansen (00:00:00)Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie’s Dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space typically, but also in the wellness spaces and all the beautiful spaces. I’m here today with Kate Kalan and she is with Etoile du Nord, which is a new spa that is located in Ely, Minnesota. And many of you know Ely is my second home. it is the home of the True North Cabin Cookbook where I wrote the books. And also I have a cabin here.And it’s been kind of a summer. So I typically go back and forth between the twin cities and here. And Kate, you and I have never met, but I’m really excited about your new spa. You guys opened, was it last summer?Kate (00:00:43)Last spring, yeah, Earth Day we opened. So we’re on summer number two now. ⁓Stephanie Hansen (00:00:46)So so Kate, tell me about how you found yourself in Ely.Kate (00:01:40)So I was born and raised here. ⁓ I left to go to school, work in the cities for many, many years. ⁓ and then COVID happened ⁓ and I decided to come home. ⁓ So ⁓ I work remotely ⁓ up here ⁓ and I don’t know, I think it was about a year ⁓ working remotely that I ⁓Don’t know Stephanie decided to do something different. ⁓ And ⁓ it was yeah, it was one summer my mom and I were were I was trying to get us a pedicure appointment and it was impossible. So ⁓ I was like, I I don’t know, let’s do this. I don’t know what sparked it. I think you know, my parents ran small businesses here when I grew up andStephanie Hansen (00:02:10)Ha ha ha ⁓Stephanie Hansen (00:02:32)Yeah.Kate (00:02:35)I think I had just been talking to like a lot of entrepreneurs at the time. I don’t I don’t even know, but ⁓Stephanie Hansen (00:02:40)It it it makes sense though, because ⁓ what I noticed during COVID, we would come up in the winter and stay ⁓ we actually spent kind of a lot of time up here that winter ⁓ of the first year of COVID, just probably out of boredom more than anything else. ⁓ And we had free time. So, you know, the Northwoods was so gorgeous and so beautiful. I think that a lot of people came to this area.Kate (00:02:48)Yeah.Stephanie Hansen (00:03:08)In the COVID times, people came from other parts of the country. There were a lot of houses that were purchased. A lot of entrepreneurs came in. And for a town like Ely that has so much of its historical roots in mining, it was pretty neat to see all these entrepreneurs coming to town. So I when you opened your spa, I was like, hooray. And at that time too, another spa, the pebble spa, that was here closed. So people really, I think, appreciated that. opportunity to ⁓ welcome you in. And it started just primarily as nails, but I’ve noticed you’re doing more things now.Kate (00:03:45)Yeah. ⁓ we do manicures, pedicures. ⁓ this summer we brought on an esthetician. So she’s doing facials and like light chemical peels. ⁓ and then just recently this month we welcomed ⁓ massage therapists. So Jessie Brooks massage is working out of our our cozy little space. ⁓ so yeah, people are people are excited and so that makes me excited.Stephanie Hansen (00:04:12)So in the summer the population here swells, ⁓ up to like six thousand people. So it grows by like six to sevenfold really. ⁓ is ⁓ like if you and you’ve only been doing this this is your second year, I would imagine summer is a big part of the business or not.Kate (00:04:25)yeah. ⁓ we made it through ⁓ the winter, ⁓ but summer’s a completely different animal. I mean, the girls are are pretty booked and it’s wonderful. You know, we have so many seasonal people, just even from last summer who are excited to come back, which is ⁓ awesome to see. ⁓ you know, and then just the regular tourists and visitors, obviously this summer’s a little bit different. ⁓ but happy to say we’re we’re pretty steady, which has been awesome.Stephanie Hansen (00:04:59)It’s pretty interesting. I mean, I feel like the city of Ely and the folks in Ely have done a lot to spur winter tourism. I mean, snowmobiling is a big thing. We’ve got great cross-country ski trails. I mean, there’s things like Beard Fest ⁓ and they have the movie festival now. There’s also a winter festival, ⁓ ice sculptures, snow sculptures. ⁓ What do you think it would take in your opinion to get more people interested in Ely in the winter?Kate (00:05:31)I mean, I keep saying they should film a Hallmark movie up here. Like ⁓ it’s so, you know, it’s so cozy in the winter and it’s such ⁓ a special place to spend Christmas. ⁓ I just I always say this town has Hallmark vibes and so I really think they should come up here. But ⁓ you know, like you said, there’s stuff going on throughout the year. Fall is a beautiful time to visit. We’ll have the harvest moon hopefully this year, which will hopefully be bigger than ever. ⁓ they’ll have the art walk during that time. Like you said, we have the winter festival, the film festival. We have a new dark sky festival. I mean, they’re, you know, we’re really trying to get people up here year round. ⁓ obviously it’s beautiful right now and and wonderful. So I hope people still ⁓ you know, with respect to the firefighters and everything. ⁓ Yeah.Stephanie Hansen (00:06:20)Yeah, let’s talk about that for a second because this will air in the next couple of weeks. And ⁓ on July, what was it, 7th, I believe, ⁓ there was a reignition of an older fire that had started through lightning called the campfire. But also concurrently, there were 14 other fires that were going in the Boundary Waters Canoe area has been really impacted. The small business in particular, they closed the boundary waters for it looks like it’ll be a minimum of two weeks and probably a little bit longer. They are starting to open for single day permits near kind of the Tofty Lutzen area, which is ⁓ pretty far from us, about 90 minutes. ⁓ when it it’s so hard to balance because I know you live here. I have a home here we have people that are friends we have that are evacuated and then are waiting to get back to their cabin spaces. And yet it’s like you’re living in this weird universe because I look outside. It’s a gorgeous, beautiful day. It feels fine. This is supposed to be the start of the blueberry festival. But I also as I promoted art festivals myself for 25 years. And I know, you know, to bring 40,000 people to town during this whole crisis when you’ve got 850 fire people on the line trying to protect the town could be seen as irresponsible. It’s a very mixed soup of feelings. What are your feelings as we’re going into week two of this? ⁓ basically evacuation all around the town of Ely.Kate (00:07:58)Yeah, it’s hard. Like you said, I mean, there were a few days where it has never felt like that here with the smoke and ⁓ it it was eerie. ⁓ but it it’s beautiful now. The sky is clear. That’s not to say we don’t still have wildfires happening up there. Like you said, there’s like 800 firefighters in town. We have to respect their space, ⁓ we have to respect, you know, the officials’ orders.⁓ we have to make sure they have lodging and all of that. And it’s it’s a shame that Blueberry had to be canceled. But, you know, like you said, bringing thirty, forty thousand people into town on top of that. ⁓ just I understand why that decision was made. ⁓ I just hope we can make up for it, you know, like like you can visit Ely now. ⁓ I mean, the town the town is welcoming you very much so. ⁓And and I hope like I said in the fall and just when things calm down a little bit, ⁓ people will kind of make more of an effort and and think to to come up here and enjoy the leaves and ⁓ and plan some fall activities up here.Stephanie Hansen (00:09:13)We’re getting good vibes, I think, from the city folks and the people in the surrounding areas. A lot of people wanna know what they can do to help. Is there something specific to you and your business that people could do to help?Kate (00:09:26)Come visit us, come make appointments. ⁓ yeah, our nail girls are are booking out and we’re trying to fill up our esthetician schedule. ⁓ but yeah, we’re lucky to have a lot of local clients ⁓ who are very loyal and and just summer visitors who haven’t had to evacuate, thankfully. ⁓ but there’s a lot of stuff going on in town. The Ely Community Response has a growing list of ways to help. I just saw right before we hopped on actually, ⁓ there’s like a fund that that people are working on United Way, I think. ⁓ Yeah.Stephanie Hansen (00:10:03)Yeah, the United Way of the Northeast has established a fund that is accepting donations. I’ll put a link to it in the show notes. There’s three kind of pillars, and you can ⁓ sp specify your donation to go to one of the pillars, one being the small businesses in Ely, one being ⁓ nonprofits, and then the other one to wildfire fighting in the area. So that’s pretty cool that they’ve established a line directly to small businesses.I know a lot of people are ⁓ encouraging gift cards. Do you have gift cards that people can purchase too?Kate (00:10:34)Yep. Yep. Yep. Online a lot of businesses do.Stephanie Hansen (00:10:38)Can you tell me three businesses ⁓ in Ely that you feel like you’d like people to know about?Kate (00:10:47)man, Stephanie, that’s hard. ⁓ shoot. ⁓ let’s see. I I love Insula. I I that’s yeah, I figured you would. ⁓ I love Burnside Lodge. I think you would probably love that too. ⁓ I yes.Stephanie Hansen (00:10:48)⁓ I know it’s like saying here, pick three of your friends.Stephanie Hansen (00:10:57)I do too.Stephanie Hansen (00:11:05)I do. Burntside Lodge is a historic lodge and you can eat there for dinner. They have a walk in bar area, gifts, and you can lodge there. It’s historic lodges, they’re very beautiful. Insula is a restaurant right in town.Kate (00:11:20)Yeah. ⁓ I have a friend who owns Five Pines Candle Company. She just moved into the new carbonation Ely space, which was the old pebble space. ⁓ I love this. ⁓ They are they have like arcade games, they have a co-working space, they are eventually gonna have, I think, like dirty sodas, which are all the rage. ⁓Stephanie Hansen (00:11:32)What is carbonation ely?Kate (00:11:45)The state theater I love. That’s newly renovated. We have current movies playing, you know. I mean, just take a walk down Sheridan and Chapman Street. Like we’re open and and everyone would be very thrilled ⁓ to see you. ⁓ So ⁓Stephanie Hansen (00:12:00)Yeah.Well, I’m looking forward to see you. If I showed you my ⁓ toenails or my nails right now, you’d be horrified. ⁓Kate (00:12:10)No. Me too. I tell my girls like I am a horrible spokesperson because I’m I talk like this. ⁓Stephanie Hansen (00:12:17)Yeah, ⁓ same. Like, please do not look. And I have a TV show that I do and I’m holding food all the time. So I really have to have my nails done. So like in this two week reprieve where I haven’t had to do it, it’s like, ⁓ it’s so great. But they just look terrible. So ⁓ I appreciate you. And I also appreciate massage. ⁓ I am someone that really believes in the power of massage. I get massage every week when I’m home.And I just feel for like lymphatic purposes and just overall stress and well being it’s really important. ⁓ And so I’m looking forward to visit with Jesse at some point.Kate (00:12:55)Yes, yes. And same with facials. I just, ⁓ you know, and I don’t we try and take a really just kind of like holistic self-care approach. Like all of our products are non toxic, cruelty free, nearly everything is vegan. ⁓Our space is just like cozy and welcoming. Like we just want people to take a little bit of time for themselves. Obviously, there’s crazy, crazy things going on in the world. And it’s just like you said, that is ⁓ really important ⁓ just to kind of level set and and take an hour for yourself or whatever it may be. So yeah. ⁓Stephanie Hansen (00:13:33)Yeah, I love it. Well, I am a huge fan of what you’re doing. I’m a huge fan of Ely and all the new small businesses that have opened up in the last five years since COVID. Can you believe it? ⁓ and there’s just so many there’s so many great things about Ely. I’m a I’m a big supporter and I’m hopeful that I in some ways I wonder if kind of looking at the positive side of things, that all of this wildfire activity will sign will bring a shine a light.on the community and how amazing it’s been, how supportive of the firefighters, how the Ely community’s response really mobilized. There what impressed me about them so much is everybody talks about like, let me know what I can do or how can we help. And they just like got a Google spreadsheet, got a substack going, got a Facebook page, like people just started matching literal needs with people that needed them. So if someone needed a place to stay, they found it. If someone needed a mattress for the back of a truck, because that’s where they were going to be, they found it. They really talked about how you can build an inexpensive air filter for your home. It it was so just impressive how fast and how real the response and help was.Kate (00:14:50)Yeah, and social media, man, our WhatsApp Ely Facebook group is like ⁓ it’s a godsend in in some ways, you know. ⁓ but yeah, so there’s there’s a lot available for people to do in town right now. And and I think that’s important for for everyone to know. Yeah.Stephanie Hansen (00:15:10)Yeah, come visit Ely. There’s whether you come spring, summer, winter, or fall, outside of there’s beautiful lakes, ⁓ lots of lodging. ⁓ there’s pickleball, there’s gonna be a new brewery in town, there’s entertainment in the park, ⁓ there is the big festivals, there’s just so much happening all the time. So thanks for talking to me, Kate. I will come in and see you soon next time I swing through town. Okay.Kate (00:14:50)Thank you, it was great to finally meet you. Okay. Okay. Bye.Stephanie Hansen (00:15:39)Yes, you too, and we’ll talk soon. Okay. Bye bye.Stephanie Hansen's @StephaniesDish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
