1 week Ago By Brielle Bredsten
DULUTH — Since purchasing the historic Cartier Building on July 1, 2022, Justin and Sarah Steinbach have transformed the space into the culmination of their outdoor business portfolio. In the early 1900s, the three-story building at 2631 W. Superior St.
functioned as the center for Duluth's streetcar and railway authority. It later became office space for Park State Bank. ADVERTISEMENT Now, it serves as a launching pad for Duluth adventure seekers.
The Lincoln Park Craft District property is home to the new Zenith Basecamp hostel-style lodging, Altitude Cocktails bar and lounge, as well as Free Air Life Co. an eco-friendly retail shop that relocated and reopened in January. A basecamp for outdoor excursions From June 13-16, Zenith Basecamp will host an open-door sauna event in partnership with Sauna du Nord.
Free Air Life Co. will host a sidewalk sale and food truck to celebrate the soft opening of the adventure center. The first floor houses the retail and bar spaces, in addition to a restroom and an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bedroom suite.
The hostel’s private upper-level rooms sleep up to 30 guests. While there are no televisions, each room is equipped with a cooler to take along on adventures. “We're assuming you're here to sleep, then get up and go on an adventure,” Justin said.
“Whether you're going to go up the shore, go hiking, biking –all those outdoor recreations that we have.” Other amenities include a furnished living room stocked with board games, where guests can share travel stories. “Having that conversation with other people then triggers you to want to explore the area more,” Justin said.
“It's a whole other level of adventure and experience.” ADVERTISEMENT An entire area in the hostel is dedicated to adventure planning, with trail maps detailing the area’s hiking, biking, skiing and paddling trails spanning the walls. Inflatable Paddle North double and single kayaks and inflatable paddleboards are available for rent.
Rentable e-bikes are available on-site through Basecamp’s partnership with Traverse Duluth. “We've set it up in a way where you just click that QR code and it'll bring you right to All Trails app, so you can load it and go,” Justin said. “You can e-bike, say to Park Point for the day, paddle around, hit a restaurant on the way back, come back.
Check them in and sleep for the night and then go. So it's all about the adventure.” The hostel also features a coffee bar, a large dining table, three restrooms, showers and a balcony.
The former upper-level vault room will soon serve as a full kitchenette following the next phase of construction. Following a 15-year career in the hotel hospitality industry, Justin and his wife purchased Vista Fleet, where they operate Zenith Adventure rentals and guided kayak, paddleboard and hiking tours in Duluth. “Duluth lodging market in particular, the rates just keep going up year over year,” Justin said.
“You have middle-class income folks who it might not necessarily be affordable for anymore. Our goal with this project was to keep this affordable.” Zenith Basecamp rates range from $75 per night for a single occupancy room to $125 a night for double and triple occupancy rooms.
ADVERTISEMENT Sarah Steinbach and Sarah Pohl own Free Air Life Co., a retail company focused on providing eco-friendly clothing and accessories that support sustainable initiatives. Additionally, Pohl manages the social media sites for Vista Fleet and Zenith Basecamp.
The Steinbachs initially launched Lake It, their first retail venture, formerly located at the Miller Hill Mall, as part of the Vista Fleet purchase in 2012. Altitude Cocktails offers high-end experience Justin Steinbach and his friend, Alex Taray, own Altitude Cocktails, which opens Saturday. The 1,800-square-foot bar and lounge has seating for up to 25 people.
Parking is located across the street at Park State Bank. Altitude Cocktails will be open Mondays through Thursdays from 4-10 p.m.
and Fridays and Saturdays until midnight, with daytime hours to be determined Sundays. With original exposed brick walls and black trim, butcher’s block bar top and backlit liquor shelving, Taray and Justin have created a moody, speakeasy atmosphere in their new business. “The hostel has expanded seating upstairs,” Justin said.
“If you're staying here, you come down to get a drink and you can go right back up.” The bar will open a deck to patrons and a portion of the property will be fenced in. Fire pits will be available on the pavilion.
ADVERTISEMENT There were two and a half years of project delays to bring the building up to code for fire ratings. This enabled Justin and Taray the time to complete the interior demolition and restoration themselves. For the past 12 years, Taray has worked at CrossFit, where he and Justin would later meet.
“When you're really involved in fitness, you want to feel good and you want every calorie to count,” Taray said. “You don't want to waste any of those meals on something that's not perfect, or waste any of those drinks on something that's not perfect.” But when the gym shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, Taray spent his newfound free time on a new hobby.
Taking inspiration from YouTube influencers like Vlad SlickBartender and Anders Erickson, Taray became somewhat of a cocktail connoisseur. While traveling with his wife to various destinations, Taray began studying the adult beverage market and taking note of nationwide cocktail trends. “Our first big cocktail trip was to New York,” Taray said.
“I felt like we could bring it back to Duluth, but at a price point that the neighborhood could enjoy.” Justin and Taray bonded over an appreciation for high-end cocktails, and recognized a gap in the Lincoln Park hospitality market. ADVERTISEMENT “He approaches it from almost a scientific background,” Justin said.
“This is really an art form, and it’s not in the Duluth Market.” The evolving menu features handcrafted, artisan cocktails ranging from $10-$14. “We're trying to pay respect to the classics, take our classics and elevate them,” Taray said.
For example, Altitude’s chai daiquiri is made with house-crafted syrup, Jamaican rum and fresh lime juice. Another menu item features butterfly pea flower-infused gin. Handcrafted zero-proof mocktails, canned THC beverages, and charcuterie options are also on the menu.
“The perfect experience is almost like a three-course meal,” Justin explained. After an appetizer, Taray recommends sipping an Amaros, either an aperitif or a digestif, to wake up the palate before or after ordering a classic cocktail. ADVERTISEMENT “They're incredibly intense.
They can also be warming,” Taray said. “There's so much variety on them. They can range from low-proof, like we have a 12% down there, and they can be all the way up to like 46%, and it really gives you this large span of flavor to get into.
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