Twin Cities Music Highlights

Lamplighter Lounge

160 W. Larpenteur Ave.

St. Paul

The Lamplighter Lounge is located at 160 W. Larpenteur Ave. at Rice Street in St. Paul.  It is located in a small strip mall.

Its original owner was Gary Landreville, and I’m told that it was a neighborhood, middle-class bar, with a sign above the door that said “Pink Champagne on Ice.”  Guys stopped there after work, and sat around a 15-ft., oval bar.  There was a small dance floor and a juke box.  My correspondent, who lived in the neighborhood, says it was well kept, clean, and there were no problems or fights.

In 1980, a folk-rock singer named J.D. Elias performed

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Courtesy Mark Youngblood

 


 

Then Gary sold it, and it became a topless place.  A space that had been a barber shop and then a pizza place became a glassed-in space where the girls do their show.  They are totally nude, but the reviews say the glass gets kind of smeared…

 

 

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