There were four different Purple Onions that I’ve found so far.  The name is no doubt inspired by the folk club by the same name in San Francisco.

HAMLINE

Perhaps the most famous Purple Onion was located at 722 No. Snelling Ave. at the corner of Minnehaha Ave. in St. Paul, near Hamline University.

This location was first the Hamline Sweet Shop, going as far back to at least 1942.  In March 1944, owner Alex Rosenberg forfeited $25 bail for violating food and dairy laws, and that November he was fined $50 for allowing minors to play pinball machines in his premises.

The Purple Onion is remembered as a place that allowed Bob Dylan to perform when he was kicked out of the Scholar and then the Bastille.  The Purple Onion reportedly paid him $6/night for his nascent song stylings before he left town at the end of 1960.  (Minneapolis Tribune, March 27, 1966)

An item from 1961 refers to the place as the Inn of the Purple Onion, William Danielson, Proprietor.  The item calls it a tavern.

There is another reference calling it a pizza parlor.

The site became the Hamline Apartments.

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MACALESTER

Steve Grooms remembered the Purple Onion as a “tiny basement coffeehouse on the Macalester Campus.”

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BLOOMINGTON

The Criterion Restaurant, 5001 W. 80th Street in Bloomington, was briefly called the Purple Onion starting in about August of 1991, but went bankrupt two months later, if I’m reading this right.

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DINKYTOWN

Pat Weinberg opened another Purple Onion in Dinkytown at 326 – 14th Ave. SE in about September 1993.  In 2006 it was moved to 1301 University Ave. SE., in the first floor of an apartment building.