Booze Makes Minneapolis History Better

Spend three hours exploring a curated list of four of Minneapolis’ best bars. We won’t just be drinking there, we’ll be learning the story of the bar, meeting the bartender, and trying a new drink.

Once you’re settled in with your drink, I’ll have a story to share with you about what helped make this fascinating city what it is today. 

The tour’s unnamed guest star is YOU. One third drinking, one third history and one third banter make this a thirst-quenching, educational, and social experience that has a little something for everybody. 

Why Minneapolis?

For this tour to work, the city needed two key things — a best-in-class bar scene, and a fascinating and varied history. 

Starting with the bars, Minneapolis is in the midst of a golden age of drinking. Long gone are the days of alcohol smuggling, speakeasies and temperance groups. No, today Minneapolis is dotted with distilleries, breweries and hidden havens for imbibing. Since the days of the lumberjacks, Minnesota has always put a premium on hand-crafting. Today’s embodiment of that is in our locally made beers and spirits. The care and craftsmanship put into these venues deserves to be seen, and it’s where we’ll be exploring on our tour.

As for our history, Minneapolis is not lacking. Running through Minneapolis’ history can be a dizzying experience, like reading a book by an author who should get gone through a few more edits. 

This is a place where the French thought they were start a new empire to compete with New England. It’s a place the Dakota people tended to the land, foraging foods that modern Minnesotans appreciate so much. It’s also a place of unspeakable tragedy, where a massive industrial explosion on the Mississippi led to safer worker conditions. It’s a place that has been a shining beacon of hope for countless Scandinavian, German, Hmong, Viet and Somali immigrants who have continued the tradition of adding their culture to the modern Minnesota smorgasbord of what we call our state today. 

There’s really no better place to combine a bit of learning with a cheeky pub crawl, and that’s why we do this in Minneapolis.