 | | Downtown's vintage movie palace, the Braumart, now provides stage and seating for the Performing Arts Center. | If you look around here, you will almost surely find something surprising - like the storefront International Languages School on Stephenson Avenue teaching Italian, Spanish, and French. Contrary to first impressions, you could easily spend a morning or an afternoon browsing here and there in various small businesses downtown. Remember, there are lots of Italians here, and as Italian-Americans in Michigan will sometimes mention, la bella figura- a beautiful image - counts for a lot, and image is not at all necessarily reflected in architectural exteriors. (Donated clothes at the Goodwill in the Midtown Mall are way, way above average.)
 | | The Iron Mountain area is one of the few in the U.P. big enough to support an upscale kitchen interior shop like Cuisine Art, which sells things like $5000 refrigerators. Here you see an example of a kitchen cooking area they can create. | Thursdays at the noon hour the performing arts council sponsors Out to Lunch live music in the parking lot next to the Moose-Jackson café in the 100 block of East A Street.
Very briefly, here are some downtown places of interest- and a walk down Stephenson Avenue/U.S. 2 would surely uncover more. These streets intersect with Stephenson Avenue. Here they are arranged from west to east.
• HUGHITT STREET. The best historic architecture is on East Hughitt, which is also home to Cuisine Art, 215 E. Hughitt (774-8320), a cool kitchen cabinet/countertop/appliance showroom with appealing decorative accessories. At 101 West Hughitt, The Music Tree (774-3394) sells instruments, amps, and used CDs. It's open til 7 p.m. weekdays, to 5 p.m. Saturday.
• A STREET. The corner building on Stephenson and East A Street has an interior passageway and is home to many nonprofits, a massage studio, and other mildly alternative businesses. Yooper gag gifts are a big thing at The Wishing Well gift store on the corner. Moose-Jackson Café and The Gathering Place (see Restaurants) are both East A. At 101 West A, Vintage Sundries (774-1324) offers goofy and hip gifts. Look for the electric blue exterior with bright orange trim. Next door at 117 West A is that iconic brand name of U.P. specialty shopping, St. Vincent de Paul (774-9637), open to 3:45 weekdays, 12:45 Saturday. Great prices, good clothes, but kind of sparsely stocked on a 2003 visit.
• B STREET. Iron Mountain's 1920s picture palace at 106 West B is now the Community Performing Arts Center (774-8320). Across the way at 105 East B, Pedals and Poles (774-8262) is where to go for bicycle and ski accessories and information. Cycling groups meet there for group rides: a Sunday-morning ride most weeks, sometimes a Saturday ride, and a Wednesday-evening ride at 5:30 or so. Call to confirm times.
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 | | The spiffy Bakery Shoppe showcases wonderfully colorful goodies. A reincarnation of an Old World Italian bakery inspired by the owner's Italian aunts, it offers traditional sourdough Italian bread for dipping in sauces along with much more modern baked goods. | Other assorted destinations are more scattered.
• THE BAKERY SHOPPE (774-5000) is at 700 River between West B and West C, a block over from Stephenson. When Mary Ninomiya decided to start her Old World Italian bakery, she first investigated the building of the late, lamented Italian Maid, a fixture on the north side. But it didn't have the room she needed, for a few tables for coffee and pastries or for the stone hearth oven she wanted for good flavor and crust. This elegantly casual space next to State Farm in a strip mall has worked out beautifully. She turns out cinnamon rolls, limpa rye (the anise-flavored Swedish bread), a high-fiber bread for the South Beach diet, and a flavorful sundried tomato and asiago bread. Come by one or two for sourdough Italian bread for dipping into sauces. There are desserts like cannoli and marscapone. Mary grew up watching her Italian aunts making ravioli and baking. "They talked so much. All I did was listen. They had so many things figured out - dealing with the expectations of older Italian men. I have so much respect for their women's smarts." The interesting photos of Iron Mountain's past are there to show younger people what their town was about. Summer hours: open Tuesday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Central Time. Fall through spring hours: Tuesday through Friday 7-5, Saturday 7:30 to noon. Wheelchair accessible.
• IZZO'S SHOE HOSPITAL/TONY IZZO & SONS SHOES (774-0108) at 727 River at U.S. 2 at the east end of Downtown Iron Mountain isn't really a shoe hospital any more, the charming old sign notwithstanding. But it is a classic workingman's shoe store, with galoshes and Red Wing boots and galoshes. Extras are Tony Izzo's carvings on display, the quintessential Italian family portrait, and all sorts of memorabilia about the basketball career of family member Tom Izzo, Michigan State's composed and consistently winning coach.
• IVY MANOR INTERIORS (779-2928) on Stephenson/U.S. 2 at F Street a few blocks east of downtown. Look for the red awning. It's always fun to see decorators work their magic with fabric and color. Palettes in the room displays in these two interconnected houses are casually sophisticated and cool or cheerily laid-back. The style is loosely French country that mixes old and new, with lots of slipcovered furniture and reconditioned antiques that a local craftswoman has antiqued and distressed in contemporary colors. Cleverly painted floors and original art and prints give rooms extra personality. Owner Brenda Biallas changes things around weekly. The entrance building is wheelchair-accessible.
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