Mr. Joe’s Supper Club
Mr. Joe’s was located at 1964 W. University Ave. at Prior in St. Paul, in the Midway Motor Lodge.
The 100-unit Midway Motor Lodge opened on June 2, 1960. The lodge offered an indoor heated swimming pool that kids (often successfully) tried to sneak into. The owners were Robert Gisselbeck of Minneapolis, Edward O. Luedke of Milwaukee, and James Hammert of St. Lauderdale. The dining room and cocktail lounge were leased to Joe Kozlak, one of the owners of the Jax Cafe.
Postcard from 1957
Quoting James Lileks:
Mr. Joe’s was a supper club at the old Midway Motor Lodge. The Midway was across from the Twins, another motel – sorry, motor lodge. For some reason the presence of two huge motels at the same intersection gave the corner some importance and permanence. The Twins was demolished a few years ago, the space turned into an enormous hardware store. The Midway survives. It’s been remodeled from its original appearance, of course; who wants classic 60s motel styling when you can have late-80s / early 90s oversized cartoony Mansard roofs besides EVERYONE WITH A SENSE OF STYLE Sorry, didn’t meant to shout.
A 16-year-old girl drowned in the pool while at a pool party in August 1967. Another boy drowned in 1979.
In July 1968, the ad said Mr. Joe’s was under new management.
In 1974, the Trustee for Twins Midway Motels, sought to end the lease with New World Inns to operate the Midway Motor Lodge and the Twins Motor Inn.
In 1979, food critic Karin Winegar of the Star took a trip to Mr. Joe’s and came out calling it the “Best Bargain Around.” After whining about the lack of seafood in the Twin Cities, she admits,
… but the dim, old-fashioned red and black dining room still offers a nice selection of marine life served in field-hand portions with hot popovers and a large salad bar.” She calls the dining room quiet, and in this pre-nonsmoking world, she warns that “requests for a non-smoking section at Mr. Joe’s are ignored.” (Minneapolis Star, March 30, 1979)
In one ad in 1981, the “Midway Twins Motor Inn” has the address 1964-1965 University Ave.
In January 1985, the papers published that the hotel was behind in its taxes.
The Motel began selling off its furniture on January 4, 1986.
It came back to life as Midway Lodge in January 1988. On July 18, 1988, Carlos Caprice, head of the St. Paul gang the Disciples, was found dead in one of the rooms of the motel. The cause of death was determined to be an overdose of cocaine. (Minneapolis Tribune, August 18, 1988)
Ashtray from the collection of Mark Youngblood
MUSIC AT MR. JOE’S
Almost every ad (and there were few, except for holidays, until 1969) focused on the food at Mr. Joe’s, with music at the piano bar as a small added attraction. Different people tickled the ivories during the late sixties and seventies, but one name is fairly consistent, and that is Bruno. In 1968 it was “Tiny and Bruno.” Who or what is Bruno? Here’s one of a series of ads from that era – can you pick out the entertainers?
Minneapolis Star, July 10, 1969
Image courtesy Tom Wehler
Image courtesy Kimberlee Duran
DAYS INN
At some point before 2006, the Midway became a Days Inn.
Days Inn by Wyndham St. Paul-Minneapolis-Midway, to be exact.
And Mr. Joe’s was gone. At this writing it is a burger joint called the Midway Cafe and Grill.
