
Flute and Fiddle restore local music and dance culture
Shannon and Jeff Simpso are two brothers from Birch Hills who have had a dream of creating a dance hall with a family atmosphere in their small town.
Having Donny Parenteau on stage and a dance floor packed with people Saturday night helped make that come true, but they are just getting started.
“I bought this place about three and a half years ago for a cafe,” Shannon said. “But a year later I bought the restaurant down the street (New Ground Cafe) and turned that into the Clay Oven restaurant and then Jeff and I restored this building into the dance hall we had always dreamed about.”
The dance hall is a restored building in Birch Hills that had been empty for many years and was in bad condition. However, the building had beautiful hardwood floors, a pressed tin ceiling and a strong history for the town, having been built in 1920 and previously used as a community dance hall.