19 Bar — Restaurant in Minneapolis

IF YOU ARE BLACK, DO NOT GO HERE. Here’s why: I am compelled to share my deeply troubling experience at this establishment on Saturday, June 28, 2025. What should have been a celebratory Pride evening after a long day of work turned into a hurtful and discriminatory encounter. Around 9:55-10:00 PM, as I was leaving the venue, a security guard abruptly snatched a drink from my hands and threw it away without any respectful communication. When I politely suggested he could have handled the situation more courteously, he became dismissive and rude, repeatedly stating he "didn't care" about my concerns while citing Minnesota law. What made this particularly disturbing was witnessing white people leaving with drinks in hand during the same timeframe without any intervention whatsoever. As a Black woman, this difference in treatment felt discriminatory and deeply hurtful. Having lived in Minneapolis for three years and been to other establishments, I have never experienced such unprofessional and disrespectful treatment. Other venues handle similar situations with basic courtesy and professionalism - something this establishment clearly lacks. When I called at 10:07 PM to speak with management, the dismissive attitude continued. The person who answered was equally unprofessional, once again explaining laws I already understand rather than addressing my valid concerns about the treatment I received. As a Black woman who is part of the LGBTQ community, this experience was particularly painful and damaged my faith in how people treat one another. Everyone deserves basic respect and dignity, regardless of their identity. I am seeing other reviews also mentioning the discrimination towards black people. Clearly this is an ongoing issue and establishment doesn’t care to fix this issue. I have reached out to management via email but have little confidence based on my phone interaction that this will be addressed appropriately. Until this establishment demonstrates they can treat all customers with equal respect and professionalism, I cannot recommend it to anyone. Update will follow based on management's response to my...

I'm a regular here. I would give 5 if not for the reasons I'm going to list. I go at least once a week for dolls night, but also just generally when friends want to meet up to play pool. I have become friendly with most of the bartenders there and have never once had even close to a complaint about the space until tonight

There's a new guy there. He charged us double the price what my wife and I normally pay for. Two tequila sunrises normally come out to $10 cash and for the last 6 months I've ordered them has never deviated. So imagine my confusion when the guy looks at me and asks if the $10 bill is just for one, to which I tell him it's for two and he goes "oh. Welllll it's uhhhhhhhhh $13??"

he also tried to enforce a one drink minimum. This has never existed in the history of the bars existence. Most girls I know on dolls night don't even drink lol

Also tried me to get me to be the one to fix the pool table when I asked for help to which I get it under the guise of "a regular might know how to" but there are a few issues with it outside of me not knowing how.

A the bar was beyond dead. Maybe 10 people including my wife and i

B it's his job as the person working to be able to use the key and do whatever it needs

C if I knew how to fix it, I would not approach and ask "hey can I have help with the pool table? the balls are stuck" and would approach like "hey can I get the table key? Some balls are stuck and I know how to fix it, I just need the key"

When I told this stuff to the owner/workers in the later shift they seemed rather alarmed. I think there's a new hire working the dead shift that's woefully incompetent

Still love the bar...

The patio is pretty nice - two sections (that I saw; there might be more that I didn’t, I guess) one was more inside than outside, and the other was more the ‘standard smoking-area’ type - and the drink I got was excellent. It was stronger than it tasted, and for being under $5 it was priced quite to my liking. There were probably 20-ish people there, and the sun was still up. There were people playing pool, smoking, sitting quietly, and congregating about something that appeared to be really amusing. There wears also darts, some arcade games (pinball at least, I think more too), and I think there was a spot to sing karaoke but I might have made that up. It’s hard to be sure sometimes. Anyway... There was one part of the experience that was, hmmm, it was disappointing The bartender who served me my drink didn’t ask for my I.D. I’m not just being vain, trust me. I may not look as young as I used to, but I’m only 30, and I could easily be a 30-year-old sting operative agent guy (?), but then again, I guess I don’t really know how all of that works and maybe they do. Maybe. I just don’t like the thought of any bar owner - of any business owner - getting stuck with a fine or losing their licensure over something so easily avoidable. I mean, asking for ID when selling alcohol, tobacco, or firearms is just supposed to be standard operating procedure in any case. If I was standing in line behind a guy who asked to see a Smith & Wesson and when he liked it paid and walked out with it no questions asked, well, I don’t know what I’d think or do. I’m pretty sure I’d be more than a little concerned though. I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’....