Owners and staff at Gordy’s Hi-Hat in Cloquet, a seasonal food hotspot for 62 years, were busy last weekend removing snow from the restaurant grounds. That’s because they plan on welcoming people interested in working there 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 12. Gordy’s announced online and with its sign off Minnesota Highway 33 north of the St. Louis River the past week that opening day will be March 23.

It will be the first year of operation without founder Gordy Lundquist, who died last July. Gordy’s, open spring through late summer, last hosted customers at a memorial for Gordy in t...