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Nye's Bar & the Hideaway Cabin Bar - Minneapolis

Visited 9/8/2022

It's not the Nye's that it used to be.

In the 80s-90s (back in our youth) Nye's was both a supper club and a great bar to close out a late night visit to downtown watering holes. Lou (Snider) the piano lady could play and belt out any tune the drunk crowd could mention. On the other side of the bar, through a narrow pass-through, the "world's most dangerous polka band" cranked out non-stop tunes, with the toothless accordion lady benevolently smiling upon dancing youth crowded below her stage. Dandied-up old timers with funny hats and waxed mustaches thrilled young ladies with all their advanced polka moves.

Nye's steadily declined in quality and décor, finally closing in 2016. You can see a video of the last day of the "old Nye's" here:

Nye's now is much more sedate. The former polka area now serves as the bar space. The former supper-club and original piano area is now vacant space. We mostly had the bar and our bartender, Ashley, to ourselves during happy hour, with a couple of other regulars joining later. Nye's has been nicely redesigned and feels very posh.

Good happy hour specials at Nye's, with $2 off top tier drinks, $4 off rail drinks and tap beers until 6pm.

We enjoyed the company of a couple guest attendees for our Happy Hour, a friend named Chick who famously hates to be photographed, so I won't mention his legal name here, and Jay's wife Kristen. We chatted and swapped stories through happy hour while Ashley provided service with a smile.

Nye's is pretty far from the "dive bar" vibe that originally inspired our monthly tours. As previously mentioned, I'd describe it as "posh." A great place to bring a date for drinks and conversation before heading out to eat somewhere else. Nye's, in it's current incarnation serves no food. Disappointing to me, as I was looking forward to perogies and polish sausage. But the days of the "Polonaise" supper club are long gone.

After drinks, we walked down the river, eastbound, until we got to the "Hideaway Cabin Bar" for dinner. It's a pizza and burger bar. I had the "French Dip" pizza... interesting concept, but meh. Dousing the pizza with French dip juice sounded like a neat idea but, in fact, was off putting. The Hideaway is in a prime corner location of the (former?) St. Anthony Main area. A great view of the river and downtown while eating out.

A summary of our night in video form here, as we walked back to our vehicles.

Oh... one last thing, RIP Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories!

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Cowboy's Saloon, Pancho's Taqueria - Circle Pines, Lexington

Visited Thursday, 8/4/2022

Cowboy's Saloon has been a neighborhood fixture for many years and, not too long ago, experienced a shutdown due to mouse infestation. Since then, It's been expanded & cleaned up, now with a more family vibe in opposition (addition?) to the dirty cowboy vibe it's known for (at least by me).

The decor of Cowboy's is OK Corral via Sturgis. The outside deck on the south side is a smoker area with splinters and leathered dudes aplenty. There's a new (?) picnic table area on the opposite end, but it was in the blazing sun so we gave it a pass on this 90 degree afternoon. The inside is very rustic and now includes a family seating area I didn't remember from before. If there was hay or sawdust strewn about on the floor, it would be fitting, but they've stopped just shy of doing that.

M-F happy hour specials at Cowboy's are the best in town, or at least the best we've encountered in our travels thus far. $2 draft beers and drinks, $5 appetizers. And the beers aren't the typical, dingy-bar, Miller & Lienie choices. Bells Two Hearted, Warpigs, Surly and a handful of other craft beers are on tap and included in the happy hour special.

The $5 nachos were filling and tasty, loaded up with lots of cheese, olives, peppers & chicken. Our perky waitress Belle (3rd day at work!) was attentive, friendly and always smiling, even as she hustled from one end of the place to the other.

What's not to like about Cowboy's Saloon? A terrific north 'burbs option for happy hour.

After happy hour we walked a couple blocks north to a new(ish) Mexican place on the north side of the Festival Foods mall on Lake Drive: Pancho's Taqueria and Cafe. It was a pleasantly hot Minnesota evening, but by this time the sun was down enough to thoroughly enjoy sitting outside in their parking lot/patio area.

Service was good, food was tasty and plentiful. Our meals were varied, burritos, tamales, enchiladas with mole sauce. Again, what's not to like? A really great summer evening out with the guys. See video comments here:

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320 Brewing, Froggy's Bar and Grill, Maxwell's BBQ -Pine City MN

Visited July 14,2022

An unconventional meeting in Pine City, the location of the Jahnsen cabin. As Al says in the video, somewhat the origin of our tour of North Metro dive bars.

We started our evening with summer drinks on the Jahnsen lake house deck - Gin Smash being the light, summery drink of choice, then took a quick boat ride on Cross Lake to the Pine City public docks. We ignored both the sign that said "30 minute limit" and the sign that said "small boats only". Rebels!

A quick beer each at 320 Brewing - Blood Orange Blonde and (Cr)hazy IPA - then a short walk to Froggy's. We were a bit disappointed by the lack of activity in Froggy's, and PC in general, but I guess Thursdays in PC are slow. The sound track playing at Froggy's was pretty good (classic rock). The sound track playing at 320 was off-putting (skater punk).

Deciding to eat elsewhere, we're walked down to Maxwell's BBQ, a relatively new option in PC. Food was good, plentiful, but no beer served there.

Their soundtrack was great (southern blues) and we didn't realize until later that we walked in right before closing (9pm). Thanks Maxwell's staff for putting up with us and staying open a bit later to accommodate.

Back to "the normal" (?) routine next month. Video commentary below.

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Miller's Corner Bar and Grill - Columbia Heights, MN

Visited June 1, 2022

First order of business tonight was the decision to move from "First Wednesday" for our excursions to "First Thursday." This is to accommodate Jay's workin' man schedule as Thursdays he works from home. Motion to move to first Thursday was unanimously approved.

This was actually our second visit to Miller's in Columbia Heights. Jay, wife Kristen and I came to Miller's previously, but lacking a quorum of original members (Al and Tim were absent), we couldn't call it "official."

Miller's is very unassuming from the outside. Plastic chairs and plastic picnic tables - a very basic, low maintenance, & inexpensive outside seating arrangement.

Columbia Heights is an interesting little blue collar, NE suburb. Lots of stop signs, corner stores, auto repair shops and bars like Miller's. While looking at the map (below), I see there is a completely enclosed town within Columbia Heights... Hilltop! Interesting history here, maybe deserving of a trip to see what Hilltop has to offer. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop,_Minnesota

Back to the current visit to Miller's - Al and I arrived shortly before 5:00 to a nearly empty bar. Just a single other patron playing pull tabs. Rustic décor, blue/white checkerboard flooring and well-worn stools/tables.

Our server, Tamara (?), came right over and got us started on happy hour beers, which, until 5:00, included a kind of pull-tab game, were you would win a "prize" of a dollar off, 50% off, $1 or free beer. That was fun as it added a sense of gambling & adventure to our beer drinking.

Tamara was great and skillfully covered the entire bar which, in about an hour, filled up with lots of happy, friendly locals. This is a neighborhood bar, within walking distance from dozens (hundreds?) of houses. It also sits directly on a bus line (the 11 runs down 40th Ave NE). Miller's is a quintessential local watering hole. We enjoyed inexpensive appetizers (tater tots, pot stickers) and later, some cheap sandwiches ($5 BLTs, $8.50 burger). This may have the least expensive establishment we've visited? For that reason, among others, it's been one of my favorite places on our list so far.

Too bad you couldn't make it Tim!

Lots of fun, as always! Our video summary:

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Ted's Recreation, St. Paul MN

Visited April 27th 2022

This was actually the May meeting of our group, as some members have a scheduling conflict in first week of May. Also worth mentioning that our April meetup didn't happen due to COVID (Al is fine, recovered) and Tim was too busy panhandling. Jay and I (and Jay's lovely wife Kristen) DID meet up at Miller's Corner Bar, Columbia Heights. But we didn't count that as an official meeting of St. Walt's (absence of a quorum). We'll revisit Miller's as a group later this year and post about it then.

Expectations for Ted's were set incredibly low. Reviews mentioned seeing five mice in a 2-hour period while at Ted's. So we went into this with an urban-safari-like attitude. We were expecting (hoping?) to see some critters, or at the least, some colorful local characters.

Ted's is at the intersection of Larpentuer and Lexington Avenue, at the heart of St Paul. The large red brick building looks closed/abandoned when you pull into the parking lot. (An aside: Al's Camry was the only sedan in a parking lot of extended-cab 4 wheel trucks.). The first door you come to has a "Condemned" posting from the city on it. Careful reading reveals it's only that specific entry that is condemned, not the entire building. Phew!

Inside, you find the bar surprisingly tidy and clean. It's a "cash only" bar and prices are pretty good. $4.50 for "fancy" beers (ex: Surly Furious) and $3.50 for Hamm's. 25 cents off during happy hour. Ted's has a reputation for stiff, cheap bar drinks, but we didn't sample any of those. No food... or maybe Heggie's frozen pizza? You can't really count that as food. But they did have a wide variety of Old Dutch chips to choose from. We snacked on Dill, Sour Cream and Onion, and traditional Old Dutch chips while we enjoyed our beers

The place smelled nice! Like somebody was doing laundry? Or maybe they just had dryer sheets stashed all around to give off that smell. A single pool table, a dart board and a juke box. I guess those items provide the "Recreation" aspect of Ted's.

Maybe it was the low expectations, but we all walked away very pleased with Ted's. As we were still pretty hungry (chips didn't fill us up), we then headed down to Half-Time Rec (Front Street, on the other side of Como Park) for a variety of fried appetizers. Loads of ice dumped in the urinal trough. Fun!

Video summary below:

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Kelly's Korner - Centerville, MN

March 2022

Located to the east of Centerville lake, in the "quad cities" (?) of the north suburbs, you'll find Kelly's Korner Bar and Grill. It was the first time we've heard the expression "quad cities" in relation to this area, but we took it to mean Centerville, Lino Lakes, Hugo and .... White Bear Lake? Jay looked up some history and found that Kelly's Korner is in a building that goes back 125 years (1890s). Many ownership changes over those years. It's been redesigned in the last 5-10 years, with a "COVID patio" on the parking lot side, volleyball courts, etc.

There's a dirt parking lot on the east side. When you enter, you come up the gangway into the main bar area, where the music on the jukebox pauses/scratches while everyone at the bar seems to give you the once-over. Ok, maybe not really, but that's what it feels like.

A "two-for-one" happy hour from 4pm-6pm and we all enjoyed the "Bubble Stash" IPA on tap from Hop Valley Brewing. No happy hour specials on food, but the appetizer sampler (choice of three) was a decent deal. We had deep fried mushrooms, spicy pickles and mozzarella sticks... In other words, stick whatever in a deep fryer and it will taste good.

The crowd (mostly in their 70s!) was clearly there for bingo, which started at 6:30. We stayed for a couple rounds of bingo and meat raffle without ever coming close to winning. To be fair, it was pretty cheap ($1 a game). Some fun innuendo about daubers, etc at the table.

Dinner (salads, sandwiches, wraps) was OK. It was decent but nothing to brag about. I had the fish sandwich with tots. It was completely acceptable bar food. Service was really good and wait staff checked in with us frequently, in spite of how busy it was.

Maybe the Ukraine invasion happening this week put a damper on spirits, but we all felt that things were just a little off for us tonight. Still a good time, but Kelly's is not a place high on our list, or one we're likely to visit again soon. Maybe we'll hit it again when we're all in our 70s and looking for bingo.

Video assessment below.

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Lindey's Prime Steakhouse, Arden Hills, MN

Visited January, 2022.

Lindey's is an Arden Hills institution. They've been in this location at County E and Old Snelling Ave for 60+ years. It sits in the middle of a residential area and the park around Lake Johanna. So it's a bit of a Brigadoon, as Al put it.

We arrived around 4:30 and the hostess ("Ma" Lindey?) greeted us at the door.

Guys: "We're going to sit at the bar and meet with some friends, if that's alright." Ma: "OK" Guys: "What are the chances we can get a table in about an hour?" Ma: "Did you make reservations?" Guys: "No. Uh... Is that a problem?" Ma: "Well, it's too late now!! Here, take this for next time," handing us a business card with the phone number on it. Guys: "So... what do we do now? Can you put us on the list?" Ma: "Talk to the bartender," turning away, clearly dismissing us.

"Ma" Lindey was definitely putting off some Roz - Monster's Inc vibes, frosty and gruff, and a bit worn down from doing this for 40 years, always running across dopes like us who don't know what they're doing.

So we made our way to the bar (eight stools, a tiny, intimate bar) and Blake, the bartender, took good care of us. We explained we're meeting friends and would like a table in about an hour. He walked back over to the hostess stand and added us on the list as "The Bar Guys." Not really sure why Ma Lindey couldn't have just done that, other than sheer grouchiness. Oh well.

Lindey's is the quintessential steak place . Sitting in the low ceilinged bar, looking out over the knotty cedar paneling on all walls/ceilings, the stone fireplace (with actual wood burning) with a whiskey Old Fashioned in hand (our first round)... Lindey's has a style and atmosphere you don't find much anymore, especially in a suburb of the Twin Cities.

Blake took good care of us while running drink orders as the place rapidly filled up. After the "Old Fashioned" round, we had a round of beers. There are 4 beers on tap - Freshed Squeezed IPA, a Breckenridge Winter Porter... and I don't remember the other two. Around 5:30, the owner came to collect "The Bar Guys" and took us to a primo corner table looking over the place, which by that time was more or less full.

Our waitress "Pam" came over and explained the four item menu to us, which didn't take long. Off the bat, she sized us up and said, "It's going to be four 'Lindey's Specials,' right?" Yep, that was about it. Pam said she'd been working there "for a few weeks" (sarcasm... her badge told us she has worked there since 1976). So she knew what she was doing.

We did order extra sautéed button mushrooms, which was a good call. Unlimited fried potatoes, enough steak for two servings and the bread basket magically kept refilling.

The massive steaks came out perfectly done and the fried potatoes were amazing. We ordered a second round of those. You're not going to have room for the cheese cake and you'll be bring home enough for dinner the next day.

An actual phone booth still exists near the entry. Non-functioning, but maybe one of the last phone booths in the Twin Cities?

What a great time! Highly recommended. Video commentary below:

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White Bear Bar

Visited December 2021.

Winter blizzards aren't stopping us! Despite winter storm warnings and near zero temps, we made our way to the White Bear Bar in White Bear Lake, MN. Directly across the street from the historic, iconic Cup and Cone on 4th.

Ample parking to the rear of the bar and walking in the back door, there's a large pool table area off to the right, darts on the left. Smokers gathering in the exterior patio area off to the side.

Décor/Atmosphere - Recently redone? Seemed really clean and fresh inside. Newish tile on the floor, clean and well maintained tables, stools. Friendly folks inside, shouting welcoming comments from across the bar. Background sound track was firmly targeted at a 50-ish crowd - 80s hits: Neil Diamond, The Cars, Foreigner.

Staff - Friendly! Immediately greeted and asked what we'd like to drink. Bartender was eating chocolate and admitted that might have explained her happy mood.

Beer/Food - 4 beers on tap, including a Sam Adams Seasonal and Deschutes (along with a light beer and... some kind of local lager?) . No credit cards accepted. Cash only. "Double Up for Buck" happy hour... any beer, get another for $1 from 3-6pm. Frozen pizza was the only food option. Ours was delivered, well, very, very burnt. After a couple servings of "Double Up for a Buck", we didn't much care.

The place thinned out a bit after happy hour closed at 6pm. Happy hour resumes again nightly at 11pm. We didn't stick around for that.

We had a good time! We spent awhile trying to figure out how Al's "Stormy Kromer" hat worked. I hope it's not permanently ruined.

We were entertained by a loooong story about Jay's trip to the Vikings v. Packers game at Lambeau Field. 95% of that story was not about the game! I guess it's like they say, it's all about the journey, not the destination. We got an update on Tim's dating adventures and my own curb-trip, face-plant on ice in the Kohl's parking lot. A lot of solid "guy talk" and quite a few laughs. We got a few snickers and side eye glances from the ladies repeatedly using the ATM (right behind Al), listening in on our exchanges.

There was also some existential discussion on what we're seeking in our monthly pub search. White Bear Bar seemed too nice & friendly to be a "Dive Bar" or "Hole in the Wall." They did, however, serve up cans of Old Style, a dive bar mainstay. I'm not sure we came to any conclusions, other than to say we don't have hard/fast rules for our monthly meetups.

We stopped for PowerBall tickets on the way home. The drawing is tonight, 1/5/2022, and over $600 million. The next post of this Tumblr might be coming from mega-millionaires!

Happy 2022! See our video summary below:

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Macalouso's Roadhouse - Vadnais Heights

Visited November 2021.

Do you remember that movie "Roadhouse," from the '80s? It was a Patrick Swayze vehicle about a roadhouse on the edge of town, full of hot babes, rock music, kung fu and great hair.

Macaluso's Roadhouse is that place 30-40 years later. The babes are now 50-ish bingo players, there's no kung fu, no rock and roll, and all the great hair dudes are now bald.... Or dead, I suppose. RIP Patrick Swayze.

Off 35E and County Road E, the sign for Macaluso's can be seen from the freeway. We found a surprisingly full parking lot for a Wednesday night. Inside, no place to sit, it was a packed house. I liked the wood beams and wood paneled decor. A large group of 50ish ladies were hovering around limited empty tables and chairs, waiting for staff to rearrange (?) It looked like the setup for a "speed dating" situation, but I didn't see a corresponding number of men (2:1, women to men ratio?) We settled into a booth no one had taken because it had a random, unclaimed, coat in it.

Meat raffle time! The hostess came around, selling slips for $1 ea. I had a couple dumb questions ("Will we be able to hear you? What's the prize?"), and she said, "Have you ever done a meat raffle before, Hon? Are you from Minnesota or no?" From that point on, we were (deservingly?) excluded from further number draws. Later, when the raffle was done and bingo commenced, we were actively shushed, so the ladies could hear numbers called.

Happy hour special was "Buy one, Get one for a dollar." No waitress service. On our second round, the bar tender said, "Just so you know, we're running out of CO2, so the beer might be flat. And also, we're out of shotglasses, but I'll remember you." Huh? We didn't get shotglasses our first round, rather just got double beers. But he ran by the table a couple minutes later and dropped off two shotglasses. After a few minutes of discussion, we figured out the shotglasses were currency for extra beers (duh). When we traded them in for beers later (Deschutes Fresh Squeezed, one of 4 beers in tap) it was, in fact, very, very flat. So, I guess, points to him for the honest warning? We could have gotten bottled beer as an alternative, but instead we drank our flat beers.

We ordered two appetizers (nachos and baked ravioli), both delivered very late and both very.... unappetizing.

In sum, my feeling was... Happy hour was happy! But after when bingo started, things rapidly fizzled out, fun wise.

So.... don't go for the food... or the beer.... but maybe go for the bingo? I dunno. We didn't play bingo. It was too expensive ($20 card) and demanded too much of a time commitment (we were told 1.5 hours!)

The owner of the abandoned coat in our booth came and claimed it later. The other thing to mention was we had some concern for a young kid (under 10?) who was hanging out under the bar and/or against the jukebox, while mom was bellied up to the bar. Should we have called Child Protective Services? It seemed a bit off for this day and age.

See our thoughts, in video form, below. Watch for the awkward moment when the bar tender comes by to clear the table, right in the middle of our review.

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Old Clover Inn - Vadnais Heights Mn

Visited November, 2021.

Expectations were low from the one star Yelp reviews. We weren’t disappointed.  The Clover Inn is on County Road F east of  McNemeny St.  4 beers on tap... Hamms, Mich Golden Light, Fulton Lonely Blonde and Kona Big Wave.  Happy hour discounts ($2.50) on the “domestics” (Hamms and Mich Golden).  No food.  There was a poster for Heggie’s pizza and “$6.50 Burgers”, but it seemed like it would’ve caused a ruckus to ask for either of those. Pull tabs and neighborhood regulars.  The place is surprisingly clean and white... recently painted?  We finished our happy hour beers and headed to Jimmy’s Food and Drink, nearby for appetizers (walleye fingers, wings, quesadilla).

Photos and video review below.