The Minneapolis Club

Leadership, Service, Community

Pub

Reignite the Roaring 20s at the Governor’s Ball

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Get ready for an event experience unlike anything the Minneapolis Club has seen in more than 100 years: Roaring 20s in 2020.

The Minneapolis Club Inaugural Governor’s Ball will be held March 7, from 6 o’clock in the evening to 11, exclusively for members and their invited guests.

RSVP Today

RSVP by Friday, Feb. 28, to secure your spot in this amazing experience. Call 612-332-2292 or email concierge@mplsclub.org.

$125 Food & Experience includes all NA beverages. $60 Bar package option, or drink orders can be cash or member charge. The $250 VIP Experience provides two groups of 8 with private seating, complimentary bottle of sparkling wine, Chef’s choice platter for the table and personal server for drink orders.

Art Deco Ambiance

Revel in the vibe and art deco ambiance of the Roaring 20s. Greeted with a champagne cocktail or sparkling seltzer, you and your guests will be enveloped by live music the moment you step inside the Clubhouse—courtesy of George Faber & the Icons. After check-in, step onto the “red carpet” to commemorate this delightful evening with a stunning photograph.

Speakeasy Socializing

With stemmed glass in hand, ascend the staircase to the second floor, where the party begins. Make your way to the Martini Ice Luge in the Lounge for a special indulgence. As you visit with friends, reveal the secret signal to gain access to the Speakeasy Pub where famous 1920s cocktails are stirred. Or visit the Library for libations. In the spirit of the 20s, NA cocktails also await at each location.

Fabulous Eats

Food stations from Executive Chef Håken Lundberg create a fabulous feast. Catch your fill of lobster and seafood in the Sun Room or wander back to the Lounge for the Carver and Sides Station, where a selection of meats and sides awaits. The Library hosts the Dessert and Cheese Board Station with a Chocolate Fountain and Small Dessert Bites, fresh creations from our very creative Pastry Chef Ali Boril. And of course, a coffee bar is available.

Let Us Entertain You

As you sip, nibble and mingle, try your hand at blackjack and three hand poker or leave your mug shot in the photo booth – everything a duke or dame needs to have a good time! At 9:00 pm, we roll back the rugs to cut loose on the dance floor. The first half hour features big band favorites, with Swing Dancers inspiring us through the evening. At 9:30 pm, George Faber & the Icons show off their musical genius as the contemporary tunes take over.

From kitchen delights to big band swing from live musicians plus bountiful beverages and late night snacks, this is an event not to miss.

Dress to the Nines

Roaring 20s attire appreciated. Black tie attire is admired, not required. Want to go the extra mile? Join the fun by wearing your best zoot suit, pintuck dress, fedora or feathered headband to complete the Roaring 20s experience!

See you there, guys and dolls!

Sarah Colianni Mixes Drinks and Conversation at the Bar

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Sarah Colianni has been tending bar at the Club for about a year now, but it feels longer than that.

“That sounds bad, but I think that’s because of the setting,” she says. “Interacting with people at the Minneapolis Club, I’ve gotten to form better connections with the people who come and sit at the bar compared to other places I’ve worked at. It feels longer just because of how well I’ve gotten to know them.”

Some members say Sarah knows them better than anyone else; she says some consider her a friend. “It feels like family, almost – just making them feel comfortable.”

“It doesn’t feel like I’m doing a job – it just feels like a natural connection. It doesn’t feel like I’m going off a script.  It just flows really naturally.”

That natural flow, Colianni says, is informed by both her near-decade in the service industry and her Italian-American upbringing – which, to hear her describe it, comprised a lot of big family dinners and conversation.

“It’s just how I was raised. The whole [Italian] culture is kind of based on hospitality and making everyone feel welcome. You can’t teach hospitality – it’s just ingrained in me.”

Despite that intangibility, she’s had no problem sharing what she knows with other Club food and beverage staff, pulling from her experiences as a barista and mixologist at a number of Twin Cities institutions, including helping to open a distillery in St. Louis Park. At the Club, she’s helped with training materials, process improvement, and more.

“You can’t teach hospitality”

Still, Colianni’s passion for her work lies in the natural connections that occur across the bar, over drinks and between barstaff. “I worked in high-volume restaurants before, where you don’t get as much creativity to experiment,” she says. “That’s one thing I love about my job at the Club: people have the drinks they love, but then sometimes they branch out, and I get to introduce new drinks to them” and experiment with food and beverage staff to create all-new menu options.

Sarah Colianni, Bartender - Minneapolis Club

Members say Sarah even makes a “trademark” Old Fashioned – one so good, a visitor once said it was the best Old Fashioned he’d had in the USA. Others suggest that it should have its own special name, an idea that gains momentum when she mentions that her recipe includes a secret ingredient.

“I have no idea what to call it,” she says, adding, “If anybody has any suggestions…”

Visit the bar, try Sarah’s signature Old Fashioned, and maybe drop a name into the hat.

Custom-Made Pub Tables Suit Both Work and Play

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Visitors to the Pub in recent months have probably noticed the addition of two new high-top tables designed for both work and play—ready to serve members whether they’re grabbing breakfast and complimentary coffee, charging their laptops or mingling with friends over beers. If the new additions seem uniquely suited to the space, it’s because they are: The tables were handmade by Minneapolis Club engineers Dirk Gunder and Chad Stone.

When the idea of adding bar tables to the Pub first came up, it didn’t take long to determine the best way to get them. Dirk and Chad, both graduates of the wood finishing program at Dakota County Technical College, have demonstrated their carpentry expertise in countless ways around the Club. Most applicable for this project, they built the chef’s table in the kitchen in collaboration with Chef Håkan.

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For the pub, Dirk and Chad envisioned similar live-edge wood tables. Their first challenge was finding suitable lumber, but Paul Scott, director of purchasing, soon located a solution in Webster, Wisconsin. Following a thunderstorm that downed multiple trees on his property, an enterprising farmer there had purchased a sawmill and begun his own milling operation. Dirk made the two-hour drive and hand selected four oak slabs from the same tree.

Once the lumber was in their workshop in the Club basement, Dirk and Chad determined the best configuration for the slabs, then cut them to length, power planed and sanded them. After filling knots and ensuring the surfaces were level and smooth, the next step was staining the oak to match the existing tables in the Pub.

To equip the tables to stand up to decades of use in the Pub, Dirk and Chad then applied seven coats of a specialty varnish for wooden boats. Each coat required at least 24 hours of curing time (and up to four days in the humid conditions of the basement workshop), followed by fine sanding.

With the wood finishing complete, the only steps remaining were to attach the metal legs and power outlets, and finally install the tables in the Pub along with the new bar stools (which were a project themselves, requiring reupholstering by Paul Scott to match the Pub’s existing chairs).

The final result is worth celebrating. If you don’t visit the Pub regularly, stop in soon to see and appreciate Dirk and Chad’s craftsmanship. It’s yet another thing that makes our Clubhouse so special, and so well suited as the backdrop for your extraordinary experiences.

Nuie Helps Make the Minneapolis Club a Weekday Oasis

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Nuie Marceau is one of the Club’s longest-tenured staff members and takes pride in observing what our members need and asking how she can better serve them. Nuie has seen many changes in the Club and our members over the years. This is especially evident in the way members work.

“I’ve been here a while, and times have changed,” Nuie said. “Jobs are different now, with more contract work. Sometimes, people are working three projects at different locations in a day’s time.”

Because of today’s more flexible – and challenging – schedules, Nuie wants to remind members that the Minneapolis Club can be their oasis in the hustle and bustle of downtown Minneapolis. “The Club offers many areas to plug in a laptop or meet with clients,” says Nuie. In between meetings, members can take advantage of the fitness center or the squash courts.

Nuie and the rest of our staff make sure that our members can stop in any time of day for refreshments or foods in addition to the complimentary coffee available in the Reading Room and the Pub upstairs. She hopes that members will remember that they can take advantage of these perks instead of navigating a noisy, crowded coffee shop.

She’ll also make sure that you can satisfy your hunger any time of day. “You have to be open to what the members want,” she says. “We don’t shut down during the day. Between meetings, stop in for a bite or a cup of coffee. If you skipped lunch to work out and it’s 2 p.m., come in and have a sandwich.”

If you do, you can look forward to seeing Nuie’s smiling face.

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