Central Minnesota recommendations

[Chromatic Nomad]

Hey twin cities folk (and anyone else with ideas of course), I saw some threads relating to the Minneapolis music scene on here so I thought I would take the opportunity to ask something specific to the region. I am a classical, rock and jazz guitarist north of the twin cities and am looking for recommendations of fancy restaurants or other venues that might want to hire out easygoing classical and folk instrumental background music. I haven't had much luck finding anywhere like this yet, but I think it MUST exist. I appreciate any ideas y'all can throw at me, MPLS people. Thanks!!

[slimey]

There's a bunch of places in Stilwater, River Siren, Charlies pub, Freighthouse, Tilted Tiki.
Washington Sq Grill, Hanrahans in WBL.
I mostly play in Western Wi and don't get into the Twin Cities. Too lazy to travel that far. But I've played all those places listed and they have music regularly.

[Chromatic Nomad]

Steve, thanks so much for the info. I once saw the great Tony Hauser perform at a cafe/restaurant in Hudson, WI which makes me think of what you're saying. I will look into venues in this region, thank you!

[tomcstokes59]

CN
Have you thought of looking further north around Brainerd, Walker or Cross Lake? There are a lot of bars and resorts that offer live music. The last couple of years both Walker and Hackensack have been having outdoor music in the city parks. Just an idea.
Tom

[Chromatic Nomad]

Well, I should have been more specific. I am looking for places that I can play classical music sets. I imagine these would be more of background music in a fancy restaurant than anything like a bar or rowdier sort of place.

[curbucci]

What part of MN are you looking to play? I'm moving further north of the cities this summer to Mora. I found a few places in and around there I'm going to see if they want some instrumental fingerstyle sets. I'm currently in Coon Rapids. There's a good place in Saint Paul called The Finnish Bistro that I've played for some brunch gigs. There's also a great coffee shop called Ember Coffee in Big Lake that I've played at. They are play for tips gigs. I don't make my way to the cities for gigs any more.

[ChuckS]

You might want to check with the Mn Guitar Society. They are 'primarily' classical guitarists.

[stephenT]

A possible gig would be hooking up w/ wedding and event planners. Pay can be better than restaurant gigs,.. just have to have a pro looking EPK.

[gr81dorn]

There's a place called Renaissance Cafe in St. Cloud that often has a pianaist or a violin player. I think classical guitar would be suitable. It's a pretty fancy place that has opulent decor and a good menu. The owners are a really great middle eastern family.

There's a wine bar in St. Cloud that might dig that called Veranda Lounge where jazz type folks play a lot. There is a restuarant chain called Bo Diddley's and, despite the name, are kinda the hub of Central MN folk scene - they have solo finger style acoustic people there occasionally - much of that died with Covid, but they still have a stage...

[mjh42]

Perhaps here:

https://www.anokahardwarestore.com/

Looking at their website they might book more lively music--but yea never know....

[RLetson]

Bo Diddley's in St. Cloud is the home venue for the Granite City Folk Society, of which I'm a board member (but not the booker). We're pretty broad-church on the music we present, but straight-up classical guitar is probably outside our audience envelope. (And while Covid made us pause our in-person shows for a year or so, we're back to averaging two concerts a month for our September-May season.) I'm told that next year's season is nearly fully booked already, though you never know. We are, of course, Google-able.

The Veranda is right in the middle of the downtown bar-restaurant section, and it's not really a wine bar--it's a non-raucous bar bar in a historical BPOE hall now called Pioneer Place on Fifth, with a full-size concert space in the back part of the building (lots of tribute-band concerts) and a "speakeasy" bar in the basement. The Veranda proper (front of the house) hosts a long-serving jazz group on Thursdays and mixed-genre acoustic music on Fridays and Saturdays--you can Google them to get an idea of the acoustic acts they're presenting for the next few weeks. It runs strongly to singer-songwriter-guitarists.

There used to be a lot more music of all kinds in St. Cloud, but even before Covid both the bar and coffee-house scenes had deteriorated a good bit. There was a time when I played out regularly twice a week, but them days is gone, and not just because one playing partner died and the other is disabled.

[Merak]

New Richmond, River Falls and Hudson have weekly summer outdoor music program, check with the chamber of commerce.