Downtown Duluth Eatery Closes After 5 Months; New Eatery Eyeing Location

DULUTH, Minn. – Blue Rock Grill in the heart of downtown Duluth has closed after five months in business. Owner Rick Lampton tells FOX 21 the business closed on March 9.

“We definitely didn’t get the volume we were expecting,” said Lampton.

Blue Rock Grill moved into the former 7 West Taphouse in early October of 2023.

7 West Taphouse, which was also owned by Lampton, had occupied the space on the corner of Lake Avenue and West Superior Street since 2012 before the change to Blue Rock.

“We do think that the downtown will make a comeback over the next couple years. We just decided we didn’t have the time to give our smallest store the attention it needed,” Lampton explained.

Lampton and his partners own two other 7 West Taphouses in the Twin Ports.  One is near the Miller Hill Mall in Duluth. The other is on Tower Avenue in Superior.  Lampton says both locations are “doing great.”

Lampton is also an owner of 310 Pub in Duluth’s Canal Park and the newly opened Boulder Taphouse in Superior, which was formally the longtime Grizzly’s Wood-Fired Grill, also formally owned by Lampton.

Lampton told FOX 21 Friday evening that he already has a “very promising candidate” — an eatery — to take over the Blue Rock space.  He was not yet able to confirm Friday what business is looking to move in.