The Jazz Lab was one of the first coffeehouses in the Twin Cities, located on the first floor of a duplex at 815 Payne Ave. in St. Paul.

It was a restaurant purchased by Dick Guindon and a partner in 1955 or 1956.  Guindon, who became an iconic Minneapolis Tribune cartoonist, said, “We didn’t want to be restaurateurs, but we bought it to keep the hangout open.”  The place accommodated 30 to 40 people, the tables sported checkered tablecloths and candles, and the menu consisted of ready-made pizza, sandwiches, and “after dinner” coffee.

The walls were black, which Guindon said was a common practice among hip people in those days.  News reporters came looking for beatniks, but Guindon said there weren’t any.  The St. Paul came for a raid, only to find a discussion of the Great Books Club.

Musically, it doesn’t appear there were live performances, but it had a jazz jukebox, which was a rarity in the Twin Cities.  It was open from 6 pm “to whenever,” and frequented by musicians, journalists, and “people who stared stonily into space,” as Guindon remembered it.

Guindon and his partner closed the Jazz Lab in 1958 when the upstairs tenant, a jazz musician, was busted on a pot charge.

This entire page is taken from an article about Coffeehouses by Jon Bream, Minneapolis Star, December 16, 1975.