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Nye’s will reopen, as a piano bar — in the exact same spot

Nye's, as seen in 2004. (Faruk Ateş/CC BY-NC 2.0)
Nye's, as seen in 2004. (Faruk Ateş/CC BY-NC 2.0)

by Jeyca Maldonado-Medina

November 10, 2017

In April of 2016 Nye's Polonaise room closed its doors after 67 years in business. Next month Nye's will be back, as Nye's Piano Bar. Brothers Rob and Tony Jacob, the owners of Nye's, have announced that they're opening a new establishment with the Nye's name in the Montage apartment building — a new development that sits right where the original Nye's used to be.

In addition to the bar area with a stage for live acts such as the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band, the old Nye's also had a piano bar with live karaoke. This time around, the venue is re-opening as just a piano bar. The operation will be smaller than it was, and no food will be served. People will still be able to purchase drinks, though, and sing to their hearts' content.

The Jacobs say they were surprised by the intensity of the community response when they announced plans to sell the Nye's building and close the venue. "We didn’t think we had as many followers as we discovered a couple of years ago. We felt we had an obligation to bring it back," Rob Jacob told City Pages.

The space will be significantly smaller than it once was; 1,300 square feet in comparison to what used to be 11,000 square feet, according to the Star Tribune. The familiar Nye's exterior will remain, but the interior is being completely transformed, although the Jacobs say they're aiming for a similar vibe.

(If you want to catch a little nostalgia, you can sit in one of the original Nye's booths — now relocated to the Viking Bar.)

“Nye’s was a classic part of a lot of people’s lives,” Rob Jacob told the Star Tribune. “It’s really the customers that own this thing. And we just felt like we had an obligation to bring it back.”

Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment
This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.