The Cardinal Bar, on 38th Street just west of Hiawatha, has attained just a tad of hYpStR chic in recent years; half a block from the 38th Street Light Rail station, it’s become a stop on one of the recent traditions among dissipate twentysomethings with strong livers, the Light Rail Bar Crawl (where people start at the Mall of America, the light rail’s southern terminus, and ride up the line, hitting bars near the stops along the way, at Fort Snelling, the Cardinal, Lake, Franklin, Cedar-Riverside, and finally downtown).
But back in the day, when the Card was the closest cheap bar to my first apartment at 38th and Hiawatha, it was a place to go to get $.50 tappers and dollar burger baskets on Tuesday nights, to sit on a well-worn bar stool with a bunch of alcoholics and yap about the Vikings”.
Anyway, while many of us have fond (also hazy) memories of the place, apparently not everyone’s awash in nostalgia:
The third arson to hit a Minneapolis bar and grill this summer has prompted authorities to again search the south side neighborhood for culprits.
The most recent fire struck the Cardinal Bar and Restaurant, 2920 E. 38th St., just before 6 a.m. Saturday, when firefighters arrived to find flames outside an unused doorway to the bar along 38th Street. The fire was limited to the outside of the building and was put out in about five minutes, said Sgt. Sean McKenna of the Minneapolis Police Department’s arson squad.
If we assume his motive is anger at the hYpStR faddism that’s put the place on the map, then please, please Minneapolis PD; find them.
Before the arsonist turns his attention to the Turf Club.
When did you live at 38th and Hiawatha? I lived in the 3800 block of 29th Ave for awhile, in ’82 I think, and probably hit the Cardinal a couple of times (those are hazy days). I was a big fan of Ted Cook’s 19th Hole rib shop, though!
My first place in the Cities was at 37-something Minnehaha – just in from the corner of 38th. I was there from November ’85 into the spring of ’86.
I remember Ted Cook’s. But my real fave was Doyle’s, on 38th and Bloomington. The best onion rings ever – they used an almost tempura-like batter, and it was amazing; can’t find anything like ’em anywhere. They make a Pork Tenderloin sandwich with the same batter; it hadda be a cholesterol daisy-cutter, but mmmmmm, was it yummy.
That, along with a coke, would set me back maybe $6 back then. It was a big treat to myself after a good week when I was making $6 an hour…
By ’85 I had already gone suburban, lured by lower home prices the further out you went and an unbelievably low 11% interest rate (coming on the heels of the 20%+ Carter years) that convinced me to give up my vagabond renter ways!