Minnesota Gay Bar Was Bought Out
A popular and historic gay bar in St. Paul, Minnesota is closing down and being turned into a sports bar.
The Town House at 1415 University Avenue West has announced that it is in a transitional period. The oldest gay bar in St. Paul will soon be no more and a soccer bar called The Black Hart will be replacing it.
Part of the reason for this is its prime location. The bar is stationed by the new, but still under construction, stadium for the Minnesota United FC. On top of that, Holly Monnett, the owner of The Town House, had reportedly been looking for someone to take over the bar for her after forty years of running it. When a man named Wes Burdine realized that a bar so close to the new stadium was looking for new leadership, he decided to buy the place.
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If you’re a fan of soccer and are familiar with soccer culture in the area, you may know Burdine. If you aren’t and you don’t, Burdine is a die hard soccer fan and the host of the FiftyFive.One podcast. Part of Burdine’s plans for the bar is to make it the location of upcoming podcast recordings.
But that’s not all. Burdine plans to change the atmosphere of the place to make it into a soccer bar. That said, Burdine doesn’t want to kick out and alienate the Town House crowd. He says that the Black Hart will keep some of the Town House’s old and traditional events like drag shows and karaoke competitions. He just plans to schedule them on days when soccer matches aren’t going on.
So far, the sale of the bar isn’t finished yet, but it’s expected to close up on June 11. On top of that, the new stadium, the Allianz Field, will also finish up its construction in March of 2019. This’ll give Burdine enough time to change up the bar while also finding the right mix of LGBTQ functions and sports fandom.
h/t: Pioneer Press, Twin Cities Eater
