N.E. Yacht Club 120th Anniversary Party this Sunday

One of northeast's coolest dive bars is having an historic bash this Sunday. It's the Northeast Yacht Club, located at 8th and Marshall right by the Plymouth Avenue bridge. And they're having their 120th birthday this Sunday. Details below.

The Yacht Club is one of the many bars in Closing Time, my upcoming book on bar history with the Minnesota Historical Society, that I've co-authored with my good friend Andy Sturdevant. (It's coming out in October and you should buy it!)

[Town Pump / Yacht Club, c. 1965.]

The bar began as a Glueks Beer tied house, and used to be called the Town Pump. I have a whole chapter on the bar in the book, but I also wrote about it in my Dive Bars of Outer Northeast Guide Booklet (available for purchase!).

Here's the except:

There are different so stories about who named this bar, whose joke it really was. By one account, it was the Poles, famous for self-deprecation. “Let’s call it the Yacht Club,” they said. “That’ll show those snobs up the hill.” This one is probably true. 

I’m fond of the other account, told to me by a regular one afternoon. You see, if you go to the Yacht Club you'll probably overlook the well-appointed newspaper rack. But if you stop and think about it, it's unusual for a bar like this to have copies fo the Wall Street Journal for sale. 

I believe that this stack of papers is perhaps the last remnant of the old Yacht Club newsmen culture, as this bar used to be a hangout for newspaper workers. The place got its name because of a running joke amongst Star and/or Tribune men poking fun at the city’s class hierarchy. (Example of old-school newspaper humor: “let’s retire to the Yacht Club gentlemen") The other ope newsmen joke was that they were working on the "white edition" while at the bar, reminiscent of the old chestnut about “sailboat fuel.” 

By some measures, the Northeast Yacht Club is no dive. It’s too well-kempt, with food attentive staff, mostly rule clientele, and a logo available on tee-shirts. Yet it remains a large space with a pool table and menus that fit roughly onto an index card, placed in those plastic doo-dad holders on the bar or small tables along the wall. What you call it is up to you. 

Once I was avoiding vague duties at the Yacht Club toward the end of some wintertime daylight. A handful of old-timers had pulled themselves snug up to the long wooden bar, and I set myself next to a small window to watch the bare trees framing the Plymouth Avenue bridge lose their silhouettes. My daydream was interrupted by an older, plaid-shirted man placing a scrap of yellow paper on the table before me.   

“You need any veggies?” he said, and halfway grinned before turning back to talk weather with the regular men.  

I looked down at the hand-written list.  

red potatoes $3
jumbo onion $3
large white mushrooms $5
1 lb. bacon $3 

... and on and on. 

Sadly, though my fridge was bare, I didn’t have the pocket change. The prices were as reasonable as the goods available, and you can’t beat dive bar delivery.  

Such moments of surprise and entrepreneurialism are the hallmark of a great establishment; nothing trumps the timely arrival of a tamale lady or a man peddling roses. I imagine that today’s underground dive economies are a pale shadow of their former selves, that in the old days wandering vendors were staples holding these rough places together. 

The Yacht Club is one of a handful of Northeast joints that have been halved in height. It you examine the rooftop corner by the entrance, you’ll see the angled space where a staircase used to climb between the first and second stories. Past the far corner of the bar itself, old photos hang along the wall depicting its younger days. It used to be called “The Town Pump” because of the well-used well just outside. (Imagine the days of women or children gathering water, carrying it back to hand-built houses.) At some point there was just enough of a fire that the powers-that-were decided to decapitate, leaving the first floor somehow intact.  

I’d guess that few people today imagine that this place was once more than it is, one-story building being commonplace now. But a century ago such spatial profligacy was unthinkable. 

The other Yacht Club rumor is that there was once (and still is?)  a tunnel through the basement. This was once the half-way staging post for prohibition booze, smuggled underground from the river and over to Elsie’s bowling alley across the street. Of course, the prohibition days were murder on dive bars, literally, figuratively, and in other ways too. One can only imagine the secrets buried in the ground along the Mississippi. How many cops blind eyes were turned at this corner? How many careers begun? 

There should be monuments to the old river tunnels, which today seem like an endless age ago. But at least the dive remains, the only living landmark.

Well, I stopped by the Yacht Club yesterday to drop of some photos (displayed here), and one of the old timers there swapped some stories and mentioned the tunnel.

Now, lots of old bars lay claim to a smuggling tunnel. You take such stories with a grain of salt or a handful of beer nuts, but in this case, he offered to show it to me.

Here it is!

[The smuggling tunnel under Marshall.]

That dark arch heading off to the left is the Town Pump / Yacht Club smuggling tunnel under NE Marshall Street that heads toward the Mississippi River. I have seen with my own eyes and it looks as creepy as you would think. Imagine a century ago unloading crates of whiskey barrels of beer, or anything else that might need to get smuggled from the Mississippi riverbanks near by.

Anyway, stop by the Yacht Club sunday to celebrate their rich history, as one of the city's greatest dive bars lives on.

[The Glueks Beer bar floor as it appears today.]

[Crowd at the bar back in the day.]

[Port of Minneapolis.]

[Great picture of the bar from the FDR years.]

[Newspapers.]

[The Yacht Club at dusk.]

Reading the Highland Villager #238

[A Villager in a dive.]

[Basically the problem is that the best source of Saint Paul streets & sidewalks news is the Highland Villager, a very fine and historical newspaper. This wouldn't be a problem, except that its not available online. You basically have to live in or frequent Saint Paul to read it. Until this newspaper goes online, sidewalk information must be set free. See also: Three Reasons Why I Re-Blog the Highland Villager.]


Headline: St. Paul reduces street work bills; but lawsuit seeks to move mill-and-overlay charges back onto property taxes
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: [Strapped for cash] back in 2003 Saint Paul had changed how it did assessments for repaving, but people got expensive bills in the mail and the city is reducing those amounts. Article claims that "St. Paul does mill-and-overlay work on busy arterial streets every 10 years or so." [Emphasis on "or so".] Article includes history of Saint Paul trying to get people to pay for street work. [I for one want to find a legal way for the city to assess non-profits again.] CM Noecker is one of the people who have been trying to get the changes done.Assessments are done by the linear foot of street frontage.  There is a website apparently of people pissed off who live on Victoria Street. There is a lawsuit. [There is always a lawsuit.]


Headline: [speaking of lawsuits] High Court to hear city's appeal of trash referendum; Mayor will keep organized trash collection in place at city's expense if appeal fails
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: There is a court case involving organized trash collection. [Can we use the "precedent" of every other major city having this service?] The judge seems to want to have it on the ballot. The trash will still be picked up. [Meanwhile, yet another of the"small haulers" has sold their route to a big company. The idea that a) the city should use small businesses because they are somehow morally good and b) that they were going to negotiate in good faith were both misplaced notions. Maybe some small businesses are great, but others are not, and in any case, the negotiations were certainly not a done in a way that was best for the city as a whole because of the need to be nice to Mike & Sons Trash Co. I look forward to this case being thrown out and everyone forgetting about it.]


Headline: City approves one, rejects another permit parking area near stadium
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: Neighbors are concerned about traffic and parking. Some people can have rules so that only they can park on their street, but others cannot. Some soccer fans drive cars and park them on streets for a while. Article includes the word "thwarted." Some people are noisy.  CM Jalali Nelson is quoted saying "we need to see what this first soccer season is like and come up with some intervention before going to a much more permanent and more far-reaching solution." Businesses are upset about the new districts because they will make it harder for people to go to their businesses. 


Headline: Fourth time is charm for housing proposal at Laurel and Dale
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A developer can build a five-unit cluster of homes on a vacant lot. Two apartments will be above a garage.


Headline: Council declines appeal, allows plan for fourplex to stand at 2150 Grand
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: A developer can tear down a single-family home and build a four-plex on Grand Avenue. CM Prince voted no. There were two variances. Neighbors are concerned about traffic, parking, and students.


Headline: Opus begins final design for senior housing along Lilydale bluffs
Author: Kevin Driscoll

Short short version: A five-story apartment will be built on the bluffs in Lilydale where a weird strip mall used to be. [Apparently, Lilydale has a City Council.]


Headline: Neighborhood STAR board takes shine to several local funding requests.
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: [There's a competitive process for a small pot of money to get grants from the city to fix up stuff.] Article lists some of the high-scoring submissions for funding. The St. Vincent Thrift Store on West 7th got some dollars, as did a bike shop and a board game store.


Headline: City looks at streamlining regs for complex Class N business licenses
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: CMs Noecker, Prince, and Thao want to make it easier for businesses to get liquor licenses and sidewalk signs, especially around petition requirements with neighbors. [Seems OK to me.]


Headline: Sandstone walk ends in Ramsey Hill
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The owner of a fancy old house is gong to change their historic sidewalk from sandstone to concrete. [Amazingly] the HPC approved it. Quote from preservation person: "aesthetics are bumping into safety." [I hope safety was wearing a helmet.]


Headline: St. Paul adopts new regulations for harnessing solar, wind power
Author: Jane McClure

Short short version: The city is trying to make it easier for people to put solar panels or small turbines on their roof.

Best Bike Lanes From Downtown Saint Paul to the West, Ranked

I get a lot of requests here at Twin City Sidewalks, and one in particular keeps coming up.

does anyone want to write a post about how to bike into/out of downtown Saint Paul from the west

So by popular demand, here it is, your definitive list of bike lane options going from downtown Saint Paul to the west.

1.  

This has been your rankings of bike lanes out of downtown Saint Paul to the west. Thanks for reading this blog.

The Mendacity of "Ope"

If there’s one thing Minnesotans can’t stand, it’s not being special. We hate the idea that we’re just like people anywhere else. For this reason, Minnesotans want so desperately to feel unique that we'll create idiosyncrasies out of whole cloth.

[From the Strib piece.]

Take for example "ope." According to local lore and trend pieces, "ope" is a thing Minnesotans say all the time. Alongside "grey duck", "uff da" and "hot dish", it's one of the rare cultural shibboleths. You can now buy special “ope” stickers on Minnesota-themed merchandise sites, etc.

Only I have never said "ope" and don't recall anyone else ever doing so either...

There was a great Star Tribune piece recently looking into this newfangled Minnesota saying, and the author discovers that "ope" originated in a schtick from a Kalamazoo radio station two years ago, so just like the coney dog, the whole “ope” thing is really from Michigan.

Anyway, the piece scratched the surface, but I dug more deeply into the internet archives. Here's your...

Great Minnesota "Ope" Timeline

1858 - 2009: Nobody in Minnesota is documented as saying "ope".

2009: First documented use of a Minnesotan using the word "ope" on the internet, on a message board about ice fishing.

2012: KDWB Dave Ryan viral Youtube video, “Shit Minnesotans Say”,  is chock full of Minnesotan sayings, but does not include “ope”.

(It later appears, however, in the comments.)


2014: City Pages article "20 things you say that make you a Minnesotan" does not include "ope".

Again, more recent comments take umbrage about the omission.

March 2017: A Buzzfeed article (based on the Kalamazoo thing) makes the bold claim that people in Michigan say “ope".


May 2017: A Buzzfeed article detailing Minnesotan sayings appears, but does not mention “ope”.


August 2017: The Give me The Mike blog makes a list of Minnesotan sayings, and DOES include “ope”.

• “Ope!” = excuse me; as in, “Ope! Sorry, I just need to sneak past ya there.”


November 2017: A Minnesota sayings article from the Gustavus Adolphus newspaper does not mention “ope”


November 2017: A Huffington Post article on “ope” appears, but but does not mention Minnesota.

January 2018: City Pages has a story on Minnesotans saying "ope".

It's not something Minnesotans say so much as something they emit. 

Two people are in close quarters. One wants to get to a location that is beyond or next to the other. It does not matter if these people are complete strangers, close relatives, or frequent sex partners.  

"Ope!" says Minnesotan No. 1. "Just gonna' sneak right past ya here..." 

"Ope!" says Minnesotan No. 2, ostensibly to confess that he or she is actually the rude one, and is apologetic for having so inconsiderately occupied a volume of space on the Earth at the same time as Minnesotan No. 1.  

In this spirit, we at City Pages say: "Ope! Just gonna sneak right past ya and into the regional consciousness here..."  

Rest of 2018 - Present: The dam breaks completely. Believing it makes them unique, Minnesotans start saying “ope” and usage spikes. Folks then begin marketing the fact that they say "ope", and everyone chimes in as if we'd been saying "ope" the whole time.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. And "ope" is Minnesotan.

[Get yer Minnesota "ope" merch today.]

Notable Quotes #18: David Roshiem describes Summer Heat in 19th Century Minneapolis

In the Nineteenth Century, the summer heat was an unabated horror. Here is how it affected the Minneapolitans in the old city: "Little was done in the way of business except what was actually necessary. Clerks in the stores confined their principal attention to keeping cool -- a task that was as hopeless of fulfillment as it was specious in promises... Those whose duties took them upon the street dragged along the shady side as much as possible and tried to dodge the issue but couldn't... The only business that seemed to profit by the hot wave was the ice and saloon traffic. The ice men were dripping statues of happiness... At the saloons the principle article in demand was lemonade, plain or with variations." It was wretchedly hot in July. 

In those un-air-conditioned times, unrelieved heat was thought to cause mental derangement, to wit, the following case of a woman who lived in the Gateway district in 1880. 

"Mrs. M. E. Whitney, proprietess of the laundry at 218 South Washington Avenue, yesterday afternoon escaped from her room to which she has been confined for some time with an attack of typhoid fever. Her presence upon the street was noticed by Detective Hoy, who compelled her to return to her rooms. Last evening about 8 o-clock she again escaped and has not since been seen but once. When she left her home she was attired only in her night dress and an alarm was at once given to the police, who instituted a search which after several hours proved of no avail. Wm. Hannigan at a later hour reported that he saw the unfortunate woman in the vicinity of the Falls hotel, and that she was walking rapidly and directly toward the river. The supposition is that she has succeeded in committing suicide which has long been contemplated and once or twice attempted. Mrs. Whitney has been very unfortunate during a number of years past, and the life of a dissipated husband brought dissipation and disgrace to herself..." 

Mrs. Whitney responded indignantly, " I write to say that I am not in the river, neither have I been any nearer than I am at present, and if I were very DISSIPATED I could not support myself and family of six persons. I have been sick, or worse than sick, for four weeks, but I can prove by my help that I am not dissipated... You can call at my office and I can get plenty of proof that the whole thing is false excepting that I am sick, M. E. Whitney." 

Thus an authentic voice from the old Gateway responding to newspaper smears.

[From The Other Minneapolis, or A History of the Minneapolis Skid Row, by David L. Roshiem.]

[Minneapolis Bridge Square / Gateway, c. 1874.]