Lucky on 13th Avenue

“Neighborhood revitalization” is such a PBS term. It sounds progressive and positive, but nobody really knows exactly what it means. Community flower beds? New condo construction? A property-tax hike

Northeast Minneapolis’s Sheridan neighborhood already boasts plenty of blue-collar watering holes such as Mayslack’s, but with the remodeling of  the331 Club, eccentric hairdresser Jon Oulman has given a younger, more sophisticated section of Nordeast society—the artists and musicians, and the hipster sycophants who love them—a cool new spot to find a drink and interesting conversation on a Tuesday night.

There’s been plenty of ink spilled on Oulman lately (a good portion of it on the pages of this magazine), and he’s not alone in his efforts to give Northeast a goose (In May, the Ritz Theater reopened just down the block), but on an average Tuesday at the 331, it’s clear that he’s given the Minneapolis demimonde something we’ve been missing. Inside the long room with its long bar, boxed in by tall, midnight blue walls, with a candle flickering upon a reasonably priced cocktail, a local (that is, within blocks local) musician—could be Faux Jean, could be Kid Dakota—is singing and playing guitar on the small stage for an eclectic crowd that includes a guy in Buddy Holly glasses and a corduroy blazer standing next to a biker in leather riding chaps. You’re still in the city, but through the open front door, across 13th Avenue, you can see a patch of green lawn. It reminds you of a cool bar your friend took you to in LA’s Echo Park. Or maybe that club where your girlfriend’s best friend in Portland took you.

The 331’s a dream of a neighborhood bar. It’s full of a cast of characters with strong neighborhood roots, and not only do you feel like you belong, but after discovering it, you feel like it belongs to you.

There’s live music almost every night, and there’s never a cover. Usually the artists are doing the stripped-down acoustic thing, scaling their rock club act to the more intimate space. The 331’s kitchen serves burgers and fries (and something called Raleigh’s Famous Texas Tacos on Tuesday nights). Some of Oulman’s art from the old Wyman hangs on the walls, but only a few pieces, so it’s not too busy. The bathrooms smell unrealistically nice.

“I wasn’t one of those guys who dreamed of having a bar,” Oulman says. He was just a guy who used to hang out at the New French for twenty years and wanted to recapture that vibe—a place where friends and friends of friends could hang out without being overwhelmed by a ball game blaring on the TV or a bunch of kitschy clown figurines behind the bar. Some nights, the 331 doesn’t live up to that standard (Thursday night’s Drinking Liberally poli-sci happy hour brings to mind a quote from John Updike: “Everybody who tells you how to act has whiskey on their breath”), but next time your girlfriend’s best friend is in town from Portland, you’ll know where to take her. 331 13th Ave. NE, Mpls., 612-331-1746