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Palmer’s, legendary 119-year-old Minneapolis dive bar, will close in September
Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | July 3, 2025 | Jon Bream

Posted on 07/22/2025 10:12:47 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

The nationally heralded Palmer’s Bar, one of Minneapolis’ oldest dive bars where the music is loud and the drinks are cheap, will close in September after 119 years, according to a surprise Facebook post late Wednesday night.

“It is with heavy hearts that we must finally announce that Palmer’s Bar last day of business will be this Sept. 14, 2025,” read the post from the West Bank institution, which opened in 1906. “This has been an incredibly difficult but necessary decision and we are devastated to do so.”

Once touted by Esquire magazine as one of the best bars in America, the funky joint at 500 Cedar Av. S., decorated with beer and music memorabilia, has been a hub in recent years for rootsy and local punk bands as well as the home base for indomitable Minneapolis blues/jazz piano man Cornbread Harris, 98, on Sunday evenings.

“OMG. There is no place like Palmer’s, it’s irreplaceable,” Jason McGrath said on Facebook. “Such a great mix of people in a great location. Nothing else like it.”

Talking to the Minnesota Star Tribune in May about how the nationwide trend of declining alcohol sales is hurting music venues, Palmer’s co-owner Pat Dwyer said attendance for live shows was holding strong, but bar sales were down almost 20%.

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: bar; minneapolis; minnesota
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1 posted on 07/22/2025 10:12:47 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

I wonder if it’s because of the large Muslim population.


2 posted on 07/22/2025 10:37:50 PM PDT by KittyKares
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To: MinorityRepublican
Directly related article:
Why is No One Talking About the Somalian Gangs Taking Over Minnesota?

The West Bank, where Palmer's is, used to be a cool and funky old hippie/student neighborhood, but now it's the middle of Mogadishu on the Mississippi.

3 posted on 07/22/2025 10:40:44 PM PDT by Flatus I. Maximus (I didn't leave the Democratic Party. It LEFT me, and keeps going further left. )
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To: KittyKares

According to Grok, that would be part of it. It is also because the youth are more drawn to coolers than whiskeys and one of the partners stole about $380,000 from the bank accounts.


4 posted on 07/22/2025 10:42:45 PM PDT by Jonty30 (French doors are called French doors because you walk like a Frenchmen when you open them. )
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To: MinorityRepublican
This was my dive bar on 60th and Lexington. It opened in 1937. Many nights the bar would lock up with me and the bartender Johnny drinking and talking to dawn. The owner, Charlie would be sleeping in his usual booth. The bar is gone. Where Johnny went, I don’t know. Charlie passed on. Later, I learned that Charlie, who claimed perjury, owned the entire building. The best of times are the thoughtless kind…


5 posted on 07/22/2025 10:44:08 PM PDT by thegagline (Sic semper tyrannis! Trump & Vance, 2024! (Formerly) Goldwater & Thomas Sowell)
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To: MinorityRepublican

There’s no future for Palmer’s in Mogidishu...


6 posted on 07/22/2025 10:48:44 PM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is rabble-rising Sam Adams now that we need him? Is his name Trump, now?)
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To: MinorityRepublican
It's Minneapolis... just turn it into a hookah lounge.

-PJ

7 posted on 07/22/2025 10:59:37 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: KittyKares

Obviously.


8 posted on 07/22/2025 11:20:19 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: KittyKares

” I wonder if it’s because of the large Muslim population”

First off older Muslims drink heavy. The word you are looking for is taqiyya. Literally the deception. Having spent much time in their part of the world they drink,smoke and have sex with little regards for what their book says. As long as they die in jihad they get a full pass. Martyrdom gets extra points.

As for the USA No the younger generations recognize alcohol for the poison it is. None of the GenZ I know drink heavy or at all even though they are over 21. Most of the millennials also don’t drink heavy. The whole music and nightclub industry needs to adjust to this reality. GenX is largely married, and has kids to raise they don’t come out and do clubs and booze it.up either.


9 posted on 07/22/2025 11:29:34 PM PDT by GenXPolymath
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To: MinorityRepublican

Too bad. When are the Vikings moving?


10 posted on 07/23/2025 3:40:49 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: MinorityRepublican

bkmk


11 posted on 07/23/2025 3:46:31 AM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: Flatus I. Maximus

Yup. It’s like an urban mall now


12 posted on 07/23/2025 3:49:03 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If Hitler were alive today and criticized Trump, would he still be Hitler?)
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To: GenXPolymath

Spot on about younger generations period. They are pretty much abstaining from alcohol. Now on the flip side they smoke a lot of weed. And always chewing on those gummies. I smell it more and more these days on people.


13 posted on 07/23/2025 4:28:19 AM PDT by Hyman Roth
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To: MinorityRepublican

Lot of it probably also has to do with the price of booze. It is out of sight and even wholesale and there is no room to add any profit and still have it sell... They are killing their own industry with price fixing. Their costs are now no more than before Covid yet they have chosen to keep Covid overpriced mark ups. A lot of products/industries are still doing this and refuse to blame themselves for their own low sales.


14 posted on 07/23/2025 5:17:26 AM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: Flatus I. Maximus

I recently ran across a list of a couple dozen freebie perks the Somalis get in Minnesota. Guessing most is from our tax dollars.


15 posted on 07/23/2025 5:31:11 AM PDT by bgill
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To: MinorityRepublican

“Safe and vibrant” is how the DFL shill media describes Little Mogadishu (Minneapolis).
They use words, I don’t think they know what they mean - Chris Plante


16 posted on 07/23/2025 6:29:22 AM PDT by Fireone (1.Avoid crowds 2.Head on a swivel 3.Be prepared to protect & defend those around you 4.Avoid crowds)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Wonder why they didn’t try to sell it instead of just closing.


17 posted on 07/23/2025 8:13:53 AM PDT by packrat35 (Pureblood! No clot shot for me!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Garson Keillor on Lake Woebegon, Minnesota.

GARRISON KEILLOR: Where all the women are strong and all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.

As Minnesotan Bob Dylan wrote the times they are a changin’.

Should be this.

Where all the women are Marxist strong and all the men are looking as wimpy as Tampon Timmy and all the children appear to be Somalian.


18 posted on 07/23/2025 8:25:42 AM PDT by Biblebelter
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To: GenXPolymath

Thank you. I had the impression that Muslims don’t drink, and those who sneak it in wouldn’t do it at a public bar but privately in their home.

I’m amazed and pleased that the younger generations are that smart. Good for them. In my day, young adults wanted that buzz. I hope today’s young adults are not substituting other drugs in its place.


19 posted on 07/23/2025 8:52:21 AM PDT by KittyKares
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To: thegagline
I think you mean "penury." "Perjury" is a very different thing.

:)

20 posted on 07/23/2025 9:06:40 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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