Nye's Polonaise Room (1950 - 2016)

North Minneapolis native Albin "Al" Nye purchased "Heffron's Bar" on the corner of East Hennepin Avenue and Lourdes Place (org. Prince Street) on August 1, 1950. The blue-collar bar was soon renamed Nye's Bar. Expansion occurred three times, beginning in 1964, adding on a restaurant and polka lounge (the Polonaise Room), piano bar (Chopin Dining Room), and additional space in a former cafe once known as the "Dog House."

This change not only created the informal "old side" and "new side," separated by a swinging door, but also brought food and live entertainment to the establishment. Polish dishes, which paired well with polka on the dance floor in the Polonaise (a Polish style of dance) Room, were an opportunity for the owner and much of the Northeast community to celebrate their roots. For years owner Al Nye made the sauerkraut at home from a secret recipe. The restaurant offered other dishes but became well-known for its Polish fare.

However, Nye's was more than food and stiff drinks. It was an experience for everyone who walked through its doors, regardless of age. Sometimes surly, often dimly lit – with more wall space than windows, Nye's was a partnership in merriment between patrons and staff. It was akin to a family get-together, complete with dinner, drink, song, and dance. Memories of those moments, experienced for generations, became part of its mystique. Much of that was due to its long-tenured staff of iconic characters.

Piano player Louella "Sweet Lou" Snider played for audiences at Nye's every Friday and Saturday night for 45 years, retiring in 2011 at age 76. She was thirty-one when she first began crooning at the keys in the Chopin Room. With a portrait of the room's namesake looking over her shoulder, Lou delighted a packed house of audiences for years, singing, playing, and passing the microphone around a semi-circle of crooners of varied vocal capabilities joining her on a journey through a litany of classic songs, some played multiple times a night.

In 1974, accordionist Ruth Adams and the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band became Nye's house band, performing four sets between the men's room and the cigarette machine every Friday and Saturday at 8 pm. They were much more than a simple polka band, averaging 65 songs a night, playing waltzes, foxtrots, rhumbas, cha-chas, and many other styles. Ruth passed away in 2011, but the band continued until the establishment closed in 2016.

Evelyn "Minnie" Radke was a long-time hostess at Nye's, considered the "Twin Cities most gracious hostess" by the Star Tribune. She and her bar stool could be found near the front door of Nye's for 36 years after more than a quarter century at her previous employer, Harry's, in downtown Minneapolis. Radke retired in 2014 at age 85.

The list of familiar faces was long. All were part of a great Minneapolis memory, much like Nye's. The yellow building with red neon was a callback to an era in which mid-century modern was king. Inside, Nye's classic, borderline kitschy, old-world charm gave the place an unmistakable aura the moment y ou walked in. The red, gold, and black motif, complete with oversized gold glitter boot seats, Formica tables, and paneled walls, created a time capsule of a bygone era.

After 44 years of ownership, on September 1, 1994, Al Nye sold the establishment to Steve "Andy" Anderly. In 1999, Nye's was purchased by brothers Rob and Tony Jacob, who planned to keep it much the same. In 2006, Esquire magazine named it the "Best Bar in America."

In 2014, the owners announced Nye's was closing. Due to a downturn in business and costs to upgrade the building, it was no longer financially feasible to continue. Fittingly, on April 3, 2016, the establishment's last day in business, the final song sung was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by long-time regular Vera Strandmark.

With that, the "last place that everyone fit in" was soon to be no more.