This building at 1500 E. 78th Street in Richfield was first advertised as office space in 1969.

RODNEY’S AND MINE

The January-March 20, 1971, issue of Connie’s Insider reported that a new rock club by that name would be opening very soon on Highway 494 in Richfield (and felt the need to explain that Richfield was a suburb of Minneapolis.)

Rodney was Rodney Smith, who owned and operated the club with his wife.

Again, the Insider:  “Jimmy Lawrence’s new band will open the club musically speaking.”  Denny Johnson tells us that this new band was called Carrion:

May 1971 Photo copyright Mike Barich, St. Paul

The club placed two ads for staff in May 1971, warning applicants that they would be working in a “loud, overcrowded, swinging saloon.”

Perhaps they were overconfident; no more ads were found until May 1972, when another couple of ads described the place as “small but growing.”

Someone on Facebook remembered it being there into 1973.

LOS BRAVOS MEXICAN RESTAURANT

Ads for waitresses for this new restaurant began to appear in March 1973.  The restaurant lasted until at least February 1979.

GROUND ROUND

Ads for wait staff appeared for the Richfield Ground Round in late July 1980.  Ground Round was a chain – at the time there were also locations in Fridley (which had music), Brooklyn Center, Roseville, West St. Paul, and St. Paul.