The name Dutch Bar comes from “going Dutch,” the concept of sharing, said Patty Grell, owner of the new (or more accurately, repurposed) establishment at 2512 Central Ave. NE. It’s a comfortable place that promotes conversation, with beers at $5 to $7 and cocktails around $12. The menu consists of items easily assembled and not requiring hood ventilation. Prices range from a $3 serving of Aki’s Pan Bread, to $8-$9 small bites, to sandwiches approaching $15; there will be soup in the colder months.
Grell said she wanted most of her costs to be focused in people, such as son Marco and others who work there, not things. So she carefully shopped reuse stores, antique stores and used equipment suppliers to finish and furnish the place. She said, “The whole theme was inspired by the bar,” originally built in Chicago as the back wall for a three-chair barber shop in Michigan. Found at Waldenwood Antiques in Buffalo, Minn., its green, brown and gold tones are repeated in the aged textured ceilings by Tara Costello, whose paintings comprise the first of many shows Dutch Bar’s walls will offer.
Any crumbling plaster was removed, everything sealed, and new plaster tinted in various colors. Grell did some gold leaf herself on New Year’s Day. North Wind Lumber and Woodworks made the bar top from a slab of a tree that fell and took out a garage in Prospect Park. For build-out of what was most recently office space, she worked with a contractor. Alvarado’s Hardwood Flooring sanded the floors which were patched with flooring replaced by the tiled areas of kitchens and rest rooms.
The amount of reuse, including credit for the flooring, qualified the project for a Hennepin County Building Materials Reuse Grant, rebating $5,000 of Grell’s costs after installing and documenting everything. (Info on the grant program at: https://www.hennepin.us/residents/recycling-hazardous-waste/deconstruction)
One could say that every piece carries its story into this place, and that, too, inspires conversation even if it’s to guess what that story is.
Dutch Bar has about 40 seats inside and 16 on a patio behind the building, a stone’s throw from Fair State’s outdoor seating. Dutch Bar is open Wednesday through Sunday, 3 p.m.-lateish, with happy hour 3-5 p.m. dutchbarnempls.com, 612-400-7883.
Below: Patty Grell shopped numerous reuse stores for leftover tile, then worked with Clay Squared for custom accent tiles. Eleanor, co-manager of the bar, and Patty Grell, owner, by the backdrop that determined the color scheme for the space. Originally manufactured in Chicago, it was in a barber shop for most of its life. Custom shelving was built for bar supplies in place of the back mirrors. There’s a patio out back of the Dutch Bar, which was awaiting a suitable cover. Lighting and ceiling treatments in the rest rooms are all repurposed. To avoid breaking into existing walls, electrical conduit runs exposed. Any falling plaster was knocked off, then replaced with new that was colored to echo the bar back, and made to look old, and everything sealed. Dutch Bar refers to sharing, as in “going Dutch.” The bar top was cut from a giant tree that fell in Prospect Park neighborhood. Finished by North Wind Lumber & Woodworks. (Photos by Margo Ashmore)
