After 62 years in the business, Lee’s Liquor Lounge in Minneapolis will close on May 14. The reason? It’s losing its parking lot.
The 300-capacity corner bar has long been home to a blue-collar crowd during the day and a younger audience by night, thanks to its twangy live music offerings. Texas honky tonker Dale Watson will be on hand to help close things out with concerts May 12 and 14. It’s a fitting choice as Watson — who records for the formerly St. Paul-based Red House Records — is a longtime fan of the place, to the point he wrote a song about it, 1999’s “Louie’s Lee’s Liquor Lounge.”
For decades, Lee’s had an unofficial deal to use a nearby parking lot, which is owned by the city, the state and Hennepin County. But now officials need it back to house equipment for the construction of the Southwest light-rail line. Lee’s somewhat isolated location near Target Field on Glenwood Avenue North leaves it with few other parking options.
A longtime favorite of workers at nearby plants, Lee’s earned a new following in the ’90s when Nate Dungan of the band Trailer Trash began booking rowdy country and roots acts, both national and local, to perform in the evenings.
The bar’s previous owner, Louie Sirian, sold it to Craig Kruckeberg in 2015. Kruckeberg did do some minor modernizing of the saloon and has added underground metal bands to the musical mix, while largely keeping its spirit intact.
