Post #681252 by bamalamalu on Sat, Jun 8, 2013 7:41 PM

We were in Minneapolis about a week or so ago so went to check out the new location. We'd been to the old location about 3 years ago and, while it was fun, we do remember not being overly impressed with the drinks. This time we thought they were definitely improved. The new location is huge and clearly popular. We ended up going three times during our trip and it was crowded every time. The first time we went on a Sunday evening and managed to get a table in the bar area. We went back a few days later with some relatives and sat in the dining room. Then, of course, we wanted to see what the upstairs was like, so went back again early on a Saturday night when that was open.

The drinks downstairs were fine; not the greatest, but certainly drinkable. There is a noticeable difference in the drinks upstairs - lots of fresh citrus, etc. My main complaint would actually be that there was SO much fresh lime in most of the drinks we sampled that they ended up tasting similar. On our first round, it actually took several sips to confirm which drink was which. The Mai Tai, oddly enough, tasted rather orange. But nothing that'd keep us from returning.

The upstairs was really pretty impressive. We were at a small table right near the band and it was amazing to sit in a fully decked-out room with live exotica that was jammed full of people at 6pm. The three different bars do have different menus, but your waitress takes your order and fetches your drink from wherever necessary. You can also order off the full food menu if you want. It was rainy on our visits, so we didn't sit outside at all, but there's lots of outdoor seating right on the river.

Despite some negative things I'd heard, the three different waitresses we had were all good. No complaints on the service at all (we'd normally have sat right at a bar at least once, but they were always full.) We were also struck by the diversity of the crowd. There was quite a mix of people each time - older/younger, tattooed/not, etc, so we didn't really experience that 'annoying hipster' feel I kept reading about.

Overall, while it's not exactly 'authentic,' we enjoyed all of our visits. If we lived there, the main thing that'd keep us away would probably be the crowds/parking. When you go often, things get annoying, but it's certainly worth a stop if you're visiting. I'd probably recommend going right at 5 on a Friday or Saturday when the upstairs opens. Decent drinks and the experience in the room with a live band is pretty cool. Plus, it's just fun downing rum drinks in a church!