By: David Rachac
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Photo from the 331 Club website
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For the past two years, the 331 Club has been the musical centerpiece of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District. In this interview, owner Jarret Oulman talks about the history of the building that houses the 331 Club, the recent difficulties with the City of Minneapolis regarding zoning ordinances and plans for future events, including the Second Anniversary party that will take place on Saturday, March 31.
HowWasTheShow: What do you know about the history of the building where the 331 Club is located?
Jarret Oulman: Way too much! I could write a novella on the history of this building and some of the characters that have been through here. I have had to study the history of 331 13th Ave NE (331 Club's address) to prepare our case to re-establish general entertainment with the city. I love the stuff too! I graduated with a BA in History from the U, so the project is up my alley.
The building was built in 1885, sold to Gluek Brewing Company in 1899 and they built it out into a bar where they only sold Gluek beer. The Gluek Bar was open for 30 years until Prohibition. Upon the onset of Prohibition, The Gluek and Grain Belt Breweries sold off all of the properties that housed their bars. At that point in time, the two breweries owned almost all of the bars in Northeast Minneapolis. Shortly after the repeal of Prohibition, Andy Visniewski, a recent Polish immigrant who shortly thereafter changed his name to Wisniewski, purchased the bar. Andy and his sons owned and ran the bar for 40 years. It was a classy place throughout. The room had three rows of little booths, and at one point in time the walls were covered in amazing eight-foot tall hand-painted can-can girls. We salvaged the face of one of the girls and can show it to you upon request at the bar today. The clientèle was a well-dressed bunch. The bartenders and servers all wore standard bow ties and pressed white shirts.
Shortly after we bought the place, a man in his 60s came into the bar and told me he was born upstairs from the bar. At that time, there was one apartment located on the second floor. His last name was Rabatin. I do not know how the Wisniewski family and the Rabatin family were related exactly, but somehow the two married into one another, and between the two families, they owned the building across the street (1304 University, housing Erte), which was home to their funeral home and mortuary. They also owned and lived in the duplex located kitty-corner from the bar. After Andy Wisniewski passed, two of his sons wanted to operate the bar, and during the inheritance, the Rabatins ended up splitting the property in half and built 337 13th Ave and ran the restaurant as Rabatin's Cafe until he sold it to Jim Grell in the early '90s, who kept the decor of the place and renamed it The Modern Cafe.
As a result of the Grain Belt Brewery closing in the late '70s, the entire 13th Ave went into a serious economic decline. The Ritz Theatre closed down, the bakery (located in Rogue Buddha's space) closed, Rabatin's restaurant (The Modern) stopped serving dinners and was only open for lunch. The gas station located across the street from the 331 club closed and was torn down. The liquor store (presently occupied by the APWU) closed, the laundromat (located on the corner of 4th and 13th) closed its doors. The Wisniewski family sold the bar at 331 13th Ave around 1977. It changed hands three times in seven years before it settled into being a run-down biker bar. By 1983, 13th Ave was desolate and downtrodden.
HWTS: The building must have been in pretty sad shape when you bought it. What kinds of renovations did you have to do to make the 331 Club look the way that it does?
Oulman: Structurally, the building was in amazing shape. The month before we opened, we completely rebuilt the bathrooms -- twice actually, since the first bathrooms did not meet ADA requirements. We tore down all of the walls, six layers in some areas! We redid all the duct work, smoke ventilation systems and removed two drop ceilings to expose the original tin ceiling. We installed the oversized booths and banquette, updated and made improvements to the bar and kitchen areas including the mirrored back bar with those tricky glass shelves, installed a new HVAC system, and ran all new plumbing and electric.
Upstairs, there was a nine-unit roadhouse with tenants who paid their rent weekly. All the rooms were 8'x12' and they shared two bathrooms. Previously, the tenants would come down to the bar and utilize it almost as a living room. They would receive mail from the bar, pay rent at the bar, get ice from the bar, use the pay phone at the bar, take their toilet paper from the bar, and all of that. We only ran it for 18 months, but the roadhouse proved a headache to manage, as many tenants created problems and distractions from focusing on running the bar.
Interestingly enough, I never posted an ad in the paper once, but never had a problem keeping the rooms full. People just kept coming out of the woodwork asking about rooms for rent above the bar. Police would come responding to all sorts of nonsense. There were a few fights upstairs, One tenant had a pot crop growing behind false walls. Once, a tenant demanded his security deposit back, saying that he was moving to Florida that day. I had his room filled within two days, but later that night, the police came for the guy who moved out and busted into the room and arrested the brand new tenant by mistake! One guy even used his closet instead of the bathroom! We did what we could to keep the roadhouse separate from the bar for as long as we could, but I really had no desire to continue to operate the roadhouse. So it was an easy decision to move the Salon upstairs.
We tore out all but two of the rooms, which are currently used as office and storage, finished the floors, paneled the walls, build a faux-bar, and turned the room into an immaculate setting for a salon. My father, Jon Oulman, has been around the local art and style scenes practically since Beltrammi came to town. He is a very talented designer, too. He designed the interior of both the Bar and the Salon. If you have not yet seen the room upstairs, you really ought to come up for a peek or a hair cut!
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| J Lenz of Pert Near Sandstone provides his own "amplification" during the City's crackdown - Photo by Jen Fuller |
HWTS: Was it always your vision for the 331 Club to become such an eclectic music venue?
Oulman: We always wanted to target the Northeast and greater arts community. We knew that music would be a big part of it, but wanted to be open to inviting and incorporating all appropriate mediums. We could not anticipate the way we were received by the music community. The idea was to focus on becoming the saloon for the arts community in Northeast Minneapolis. Music just grew quickly as a great way to get creative people involved with the 331 club.
HWTS: You recently had a little run-in with the City of Minneapolis regarding your live music license. What exactly were the issues that you were cited for?
Oulman: The administrative citations were: Utilizing electricity to amplify musical instruments, hosting Burlesque while utilizing electricity to amplify musical instruments, having our event run past allowed hours, and drinks being viewed on sidewalk. We also received the cease-and-desist notice regarding our level of entertainment.
HWTS: What impact has the cease-and-desist order had on your business?
Oulman: Over the past six months, we have had confused and frustrated artists, we've confused politicians, and confused and frightened bureaucrats. I’ve watched my cost structure go up and up without being able to pay bands more, as we have incurred more than $10,000 in extra expenses, not including prospective lost sales. This has resulted in fewer tips for employees. I also pay our sound engineer for a full evening to set up one microphone and then go sit by the door. He used to receive tips, but now he has a hard time making rent.
Seventy percent of the bands say that they want to wait to play until we get our amplification situation remedied, so programming has been difficult. It’s been frustrating watching clubs host the shows that we would have had with the same license levels that we have, knowing that they flew under the radar because the new inspector who tried to start regulating this archaic method of quantifying art in taverns got "promoted" out of his position at the end of November after just a few months on the job.
HWTS: So what steps did you need to take in order to secure the license you need to offer amplified live music again?
Oulman: First, we had to figure out what real options existed for us and which were appropriate and obtainable. This was difficult, as different bureaucrats from different offices would give me conflicting advice. After two months of being led in circles, the city officials recommended that I hire an outside consultant. So, I hired an ex-liquor inspector as a consultant to get the process going. Quite an odd lesson in how to get things effectively accomplished at City Hall. Our non-conforming use hearing in zoning will take place Thursday the 22nd, and our license upgrade will be heard in licensing April 4th.
HWTS: The 331 Club will celebrate its Second Anniversary on March 31st. What all will be going on?
Oulman: We had hoped that the city would be able to go over our upgrade application on March 21, but now we have to wait until April 4 to find out if the license will receive a license division recommendation for approval. So we will not have our Class A license on the 31—we will have to wait for an extra week or two. The weekend will still be amazing, though. Romantica, Night in the Box, The Roe Family Singers and Jen Markey and her Buckboard Boys are all playing. We will be going upstairs in the salon space for the weekend with Danny Sigelman and Bromance (Knol Tate and Bill Caperton) flexing records. It will be lots of amazing fun.>
HWTS: Any other events happening at the 331 Club later this spring that you want to mention?
Oulman: Big deal shows in April are the Tin Star Sister reunion show on Thursday, April 12, the MN Folk Tour reunion with Baby Grant Johnson, Rich Mattson and Charlie Parr on Friday, April 27, and Andy Friedman and the Other Failures with Defibrillators and the Two Man Gentleman Band on Saturday, April 28. Art-A-Whirl will again be huge this year. We plan to expand our craft fair, host outdoor music, and late night fun inside and upstairs. We are waiting to start booking the weekend until after April 4, when we will know more about our entertainment level situation.
HWTS: Any final thoughts?
Oulman: I think I have the best job ever. I work with talented people who bring their visions, ideas and passion to me. Together, we try to figure out how to share and celebrate those things with everyone else who may appreciate it. In the process, we have found ourselves entrenched in the middle of an amazing and burgeoning art community here in Northeast Minneapolis. Amplification issues aside, we are turning two years old. So many talented and creative people are and have been involved with the 331 Club, making it the social center for arts and mediums in our community, many times extending well beyond music. Without these people bringing what they love most and sharing it with others, the 331 Club would be just a room.
Artist Info: Jarret Oulman
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