Tafi’s
This page is about the many clubs that were located at 14 No. Fifth Street in Minneapolis, in the Warehouse District of Downtown.
ANCIENT HISTORY
The three-story building goes back to 1884, according to Minneapolis building permits.
Newspapers show it was Dickens and McCague’s Livery Stable in January 1886 and a glass company.
In 1891 it must have housed apartments, as cases of measles were reported.
In May 1898 the wallpaper business in the basement went up in flames; the Tribune’s headline read “Was Warm for a Time.”
In 1903 – 1906 it was Rimal Zieve’s grocery store (across from the West Hotel), getting robbed a lot.
In 1908 it was described as the Levi M. Stewart Building, 67 x 100. It was reported that Simon Ravicz leased the building for 10 years and would be remodeling the first floor into three stores and the second and third floors into a hotel. (Minneapolis Tribune, July 24, 1908)
In July 1935 it was a restaurant owned by Hyman Polski of St. Paul. In 1929 Polski had been sent to Leavenworth for two years for being involved in a 70,000 gallon distillery in Rosemount in 1926. Here’s more information on Mr. Polski.
I. Wolk had a special food permit in May 1936 for 12 – 14 Fifth Street N.
MODERN VENUES
- The Gold Bubble Cafe: 1934 – 1939
- Andy Leonard’s: 1941 – 1945
- Leo ‘n’ Eddie’s: 1946
- Elk’s Club: 1948 – 1968
- Tafi’s: 1971 – 1972
- Sutton Place: 1976 – 1978
- Fox Trap: 1978 – 1980
- Wells Fargo Saloon and Way Station: 1980 – 1981
- Taste Show Lounge: 1981 – 1984
- Jukebox Saturday Night: 1984 – 1992
- Grafittis: 1995 – 1997
- The Deep End: 1997
- Sneaky Pete’s: 2007 –
THE GOLD BUBBLE
One of the hundreds of “Nite Clubs” that opened after Prohibition ended was the delightfully-named Gold Bubble Cafe.
This is as much hoopla as I’ve seen for a little post-Prohibition place. Despite its high profile location, there didn’t seem to be any trouble … at the Bubble.
An article written in the first person but without a byline introduced us to proprietor Sam Gorman, age 35, who got tired of being a furrier. (Saturday Press, July 21, 1934)
I want you to go and see it. I want you to meet Sam. I want you to listen to the excellent orchestra; dance under the revolving lights; feast your eyes on the magnificently hand painted walls; eat the finest food you ever tasted and –
Rest your elbows on the only “horse-shoe” bar in the city. That bar alone is worth walking from St. Paul to see.
The “Gold Bubble.” Sam must have dreamed that name. I hope his dream comes true.
On April 21, 1939, Hennepin County Sheriffs raided the Gold Bubble and took proprietor Marie Critelli into custody for maintaining gambling devices, specifically “chuck-a-luck” and Bingo. The case was dismissed when it was pointed out that there was a partition between the gambling area and the bar!
In June 1939 the establishment went up for sale.
The Gold Bubble had a great bowling team and was often in the Minneapolis papers with their scores.
ANDY LEONARD’S GAY NINETIES
Andrew A. Leonard was the former proprietor of the Harbor Bar/Club Lido at 507 Hennepin Ave. He got his license for the 5th Street address in June 1940. He opened the Gay Nineties by January 1941.
Cedric Adams reported that on January 10, 1944, the place “should take on a strange atmosphere.” I bet it had one already. Anyway,
Along with Andy’s Gay Nineties Revue will be an act featuring the Montana Kid and Coley Bay, America’s most educated horse. They say the Kid and the animal sit down at a table together, eat, drink, and visit.
On July 24, 1944, a benefit performance at the veterans’ hospital was held with performers from Andy’s Bar, including the Montana Kid and Coley Bay, the Campbell Sisters, and tenor Joe Griffin.
In May 1945, gambling crusader Rev. O.S. Winther reported that he caught people playing the dice game California at Andy Leonard’s. Andy’s is last seen in July 1945.
LEO ‘N’ EDDIE’S
This was an apparently short-lived establishment, spotted in the papers from February to July 1946. It was owned by A.E. (Eddie) Holman, former Mid-Continent Airlines pilot, and Leo Haydnet, “Former Fertile, Minn. mercantilist.” Cedric Adams reported in his column that they planned to have larger name bands and two-act floor shows. (Minneapolis Star-Journal, February 12, 1946)
ELKS LODGE
The building was purchased by the Minneapolis Elks Lodge No. 44 from Leonard in January 1948 for $80,000. The liquor ordinance had to be amended in order for Leonard’s license to be transferred to the Lodge. In April 1968 the Club put the building up for sale, with the provision of leasing back the second and third floors. It remained the Elk’s Club until about October 1968.
TAFI’S
In late July, 1970, the entire building was taken over by James Theophilius Aladubi Babington-Johnson, Jr., known as Tafi. Tafi had been a dining car waiter for the Great Northern Railway, got a degree in political science and worked for Honeywell and the Institute of African-American Studies.
Tafi’s opened on January 4, 1971. The club was a restaurant/supper club featuring live jazz and folk. Ahmad Jamal Trio played at the opening, and Young/Holt Unlimited did two weeks at the end of 1970. The Insider described it as a “Playboy-type operation.” Jazz just didn’t bring in customers and it closed after three months.
An article from July 1971 said that brothers Danny and Gary Stevens were trying to line up financing to buy it and convert it to a rock venue called the Fillmore, but it was gone by 1972.
SUTTON PLACE DISCO 1977-1979
Please see Sutton Place
FOX TRAP
Transition from Gay to Black Clientele
Fox Trap opened in September 1978. It was owned by Ernest Pesis, who had owned Sutton Place. Sutton Place had been reportedly losing its gay clientele by exploiting it with inflated prices and alienating straights with rude behavior that brought three official complaints from women to the State Department of Human Rights. Manager Allen Bloom explained that the name of the bar changed to get away from the gay image, which was not that profitable anyway.
Fox Trap quickly developed a predominantly black clientele, reported the Star‘s Karin Winegar in 1979.
Ernie Pesis was quoted as saying that he did not change the character of the bar: “It changed itself. It weeded itself out: The gays left ’cause they thought there were too many straights and the straights left ’cause they thought there were too many gays.” He did like the name change of the bar, though. But Manager Bloom said the name was changed to get away from the gay image, and the lineup of disc jockeys was changed from multiracial to black.
An anonymous letter dated September 18, 1978, written by a U of M student (taking “Comp-Eng” but apparently not too far along), has this:
The owners of Suttons sold out its a strictly Black bar so I have not been in there since the change and I won’t.
The Palm Court
The club was on two stories, with the Palm Court Lounge on the first floor. This was described as having turquoise-carpeted banquette beneath a silver Art Deco ceiling, a small mirror-walled dance chamber, a Victorian-style oak bar, chandeliers and fireplace. This rooom is a retreat for conversation or listening to jazz. On Sundays, Morris Wilson’s Trio backed singer Roberta Davis in the Palm Court. On Mondays, jazz musicians stopped by for a jam session. (Minneapolis Star, January 26, 1979)
The Upstairs Disco
An article headlined “Hennepin Avenue: She’s not a lady” by David E. Early of the Minneapolis Star described the various entertainment venues on and proximate to the City’s main party street. Although Fox Trap was technically not on Hennepin Avenue, Fox Trap was “definitely part of the weekend milieu of the avenue,” he wrote.
The Trap is a sumptuous black disco where peace-lovers can whisper in cool tones downstairs and real hardy partygoers can fry shoe soles on a stainless steel floor upstairs. An orange neon sign in the upper Trap implores all present to “Dance Yore Ass Off.” Friday night no urging was needed to press the black crowd into service at one of the few places in Minneapolis catering to blacks.
“It’s a ripoff,” said one brother, who was on his way in after paying the $3 entrance fee, “but so many fine women come here I’ve just got to come. They like to get ripped off, so I do too. And anyway that $3 keeps the riff-raff out.”
The next club described in the article was Uncle Sam’s, and it was said to be not as throbbing and didn’t have the stifling heat of Fox Trap. (Minneapolis Star, October 30, 1978)
On January 26, 1979, Minneapolis Star reporter Karin Winegar’s headline read “Fox Trap snares high-chic clientele.” Her observations included:
- The place is studded with women in haute couture splendor and some whose fashion is pieced-rabbit chic. Pointer Sisters’ 1940-style is creeping in and, like most discos, this one is experiencing an epidemic of the so-called hooker look – women wearing silk shirts, snug designer jeans and spike-heeled boots.
- Disco-goers are fewer and more inhibited than in the Sutton days when the hot lights and the night fevers had dancers stripping off their shirts.
- The Trap may be the only disco in town where no one “touch dances.” “There are no Fred and Ginger routines here,” says assistant manager Daryl Thompson. The mood is laid back.
- Thompson: “We have a lot of college-educated blacks. The cops were expecting hassles, and we just don’t have any.”
- The Fox Trap was said to have the largest disco dance floor in the Twin Cities.
An article from November 5, 1979, by Minneapolis Star reporter Derek Reveron was headlined “Interracial dating – An accepted Lifestyle.” His take on the club was:
The only disco or club where blacks gather in substantial numbers is the Foxtrap. And black men and women complain that the Foxtrap isn’t frequented by the middle-class professionals they would like to meet. This means that many blacks go to nightclubs and discos frequented by whites.
Fox Trap Disc Jockey Found Shot to Death
On June 24, 1980, Kyle Steven Ray, age 23, was found shot to death in the vacant first floor apartment of the duplex where he lived. He was a disc jockey for the Fox Trap and on KMOJ-FM radio. The suspect was a workman who had been remodeling the downstairs apartment. Ray had planned to move out of the apartment the following day. He was scheduled to graduate that summer from the University of Minnesota with a degree in communications. A benefit was held on June 25 for Ray’s family at the Fox Trap. Although a suspect was named in the paper, no followup was found.
Fox Trap closed in late 1980.
WELLS FARGO SALOON AND WAY STATION:
Wells Fargo Saloon opened in November 1980. The owner was Ernest Pesis, and the Manager was Pete Rhodes.
The first floor was converted to a steakhouse, the second was devoted to live music.
For the third floor, Pesis imported a mechanical bull from a company called El Toro of Correles, New Mexico. It bucked at nine different speeds, clockwise or counterclockwise as controlled by an operator. It cost $7,000 used, as opposed to $9,000 new. The bull was one of four in the Twin Cities and 400 in the U.S. It cost $2 to ride (and a waiver). There was a multi-page spread of photos by Mike Zerby in the Minneapolis Tribune‘s Sunday Picture Magazine, November 30, 1980.
Despite all this fun, Wells Fargo closed in April 1981.
TASTE SHOW LOUNGE
Taste opened in May 1981. Its manager was Pete Rhodes.
The building had three floors. The first featured live bands.
The second floor featured a disc jockey.
Alan Freed says that the third floor was another dance floor with a different DJ, and was not always open.
More from Alan:
The Taste was portrayed in Purple Rain, outside and inside, but was not this place, although the real Taste/Fox Trap was an inspiration. The Taste interior scenes with Apollonia 6 were shot at the Union Bar in NE Minneapolis and the exterior, I believe, was shot in LA, where a few other shots were filmed, including the Hotel Huntington exterior.
Richard says,
Taste had a second floor dance floor and the room was lined in stainless steel so that the lights from the dance floor reflected everywhere. They also had a HUGE neon sign that would flash that had a phrase of “Dance Your Ass Off,” also later available as T-shirts.. (I know.. I owned one).
Before coming over to the Gay Nineties to be a manager, Michael Bloom used to be manager/accountant at Taste for a while. He occasionally would tell me stories, and my favorite one was about two bouncer/doormen guys he would continually have to remind to get to work. Seems they were always talking music and not paying attention to the patrons. He claims the two guys were Jimmy Jam… and Terry Lewis !
In 1981 they had a “Fox of the Week” contest.
In June 1984, Pete Rhodes noted that Taste had switched over to primarily recorded music in the past year, which had an impact on the Black Music Awards, since there were fewer black working musicians. (Minneapolis Tribune, June 8, 1984)
JUKE BOX SATURDAY NIGHT
Juke Box Saturday Night opened in November 1984 and was owned by Steve Schussler and his partners. (Pesis still owned the building.) It had a Golden Oldies theme and was the site of many benefits and also boxing matches.
In July 1991, Schussler filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, with plans to change the format. But as a stopgap measure to recoup money for his investors, he put in nude dancing in the Second Floor banquet center, incurring the wrath of the community. That space eventually became Dream Girls, run by porn purveyors the Hafiz Brothers.
Jukebox Saturday Night closed on Feburary 26, 1992.
SNEAKY PETE’S
Opened in 2007; described as a wild party bar in 2010. Owned by Peter Hafiz in 2010. In April 2011, Wally the Beer Man became a celebrity bartender before and after Twins games at Sneaky Pete’s.