Welcome to the Happy Gnome, located at 498 Selby Avenue, St. Paul, MN. Known for it’s warm friendly atmosphere, great food and of course excellent beer. The bar resides in a converted historic fire house.
Why am I writing about a bar? Glad you asked. Every Saturday I run a post about a historic St. Paul church. We have some gorgeous churches, designed by Cass Gilbert and other noted architects. I never really get tired of taking church pictures.
One of our readers asked what I would when I run out of churches. It will take some time but I will eventually run out. The next logical move is to take pictures of bars in historic buildings. It is entirely possible that we have more bars than churches. In my neighborhood the number of bars and bar stools increased after the Xcel center was built and became the home of the Minnesota Wild.
When I run out of churches to photograph and change my Saturday post to "Saturday’s bar", I am going to change my process. I have a confession to make, pardon the pun, I don’t actually go inside the churches. It will be different with the bars. I plan on going in each one, having one drink and writing a post about it. I may write the post while I have the drink.
I’ll see you at the Happy Gnome in a few months.
How about critiquing the appletinis?
I’ve started a coffee tour on the Minneapolis Nokomis/Longfellow blog. Not sure what we’ll cover when we run out!
I’m not sure you’ll ever run out of churches in this town – there may be an infinite number. I’m certain you won’t run out of bars, however. There are over 500 places that have liquor licenses, and that would take you 10 years. In that time, some will close and new ones will open up. You will never have them all!
Erik – you are right. It will be some time before I run out of St. Paul historic churches. When I do I may start working on the churches that are named St. Paul but are in Minneapolis.
Lisa – that sounds like fun.
Erik and Lisa – when I start doing bars do you want to come with?