Grumpies... The Coolest Coon Rapids Has Ever Been!

June 15, 2018

"Dood, this is the coolest Coon Rapids has ever been!"

I'm most certainly not talking about this place...

Though I am talking about a specific event that took place inside it's walls.

Today, the bar known as Willy's has been closed for over 6 months.

After numerous incidents with patron fights and gun violence, the owner called it quits on the bar and closed the doors for good.

And the city is much better off for it!

But we'll get to that soon enough...

My absence in blogging lately is due to returning to my sleepy suburban hometown after a (give or take) 22 year absence. Where I have to deal with a lack of internet connection, and a whole lot less quiet me/writing time...

(You can add Laura and I to that population now...)

I was born in this town, grew up here and stayed to the age of 21. Then I packed the Vanilla Honksicle (second of three Fort Escorts I've owned) and headed west for Colorado. That was in 1996. Other than a 19 month stretch that covers the point of this story, I lived in Colorado until 2 weeks ago.

When I was a child, the building that housed Willy's was known as Mr. Steak. A family discount steak house that even advertised in the 1978 Minnesota Twins Yearbook (There's your baseball tie-in!). However I don't see the Coon Rapids location listed here...

In the mid to late 1970's, Mr. Steak was a budding chain of family restaurants placed all around the Midwest. (As of 2000, there was still a location in Fargo, ND. I ate there then, don't know if it's still around now.) The buildings were set up the same way, with a row of front facing widows that had two sticking out from the building. It was their signature architecture, and I found several former Mr. Steak locations around Denver with the exact same layout.

These two postcards were found online, and dated from the late 1960's, shows roughly what all Mr. Steak's looked like inside.

The Coon Rapids location looked exactly like this inside.

Mr. Steak didn't last with such stiff competition as Perkins across the street, and closed in 1984. After sitting vacant briefly, the restaurant reopened as "Arnolds" in the summer of 1985.

Arnolds was an upstart local chain of restaurants, loosely based on the 1950's hangout diner. No outward claim was made, but it was a not so thinly veiled reference to the Arnolds restaurant in Happy Days. Their main gimmick being the self service burger bar. You'd get your burger, then take it up to a big table full of toppings to outfit the burger with however you wanted it dressed.

Their food was decent, their malts were really good, but Arnolds got lost in the shuffle and closed by 1990.

Shortly afterwards, their building was reopened as J. Cousineaus. I'm not certain on that spelling... And I have no images of that bar/restaurant.

I don't even know when it closed and was reopened as a Franchise of Grumpy's...

Where my former roommate DJ Crazy Carl, had a sometime DJ and Karaoke gig in the summer of 2002...

Grumpy had three locations. Two in Minneapolis and one in Crapids.

I fully understood the Minneapolis locations, but why Crapids?

October 2003, saw my brief return to living in Crapids. And Grumpy's was the main drinkin' hole in town. There were/are others, but Grumpy's was probably the most notorious.

Those days, I was still known to tip a few back every now and then, but my drinking days were winding down. So if I made an appearance at Grumpy's, it was usually playing the role of Sober Cab for whatever friends I was hanging out with that day.

Mostly I just hung out at Flintwood with Dr. John. Spending our days drinking cheap beer and expensive whiskey, in a smokey haze with static filled televisions, under the watchful eye of the Breakfast Club...

Only rarely did John and I venture out of our self-imposed exile of intoxication...

But there was one reason to on March 19, 2004...

Legendary punk band The Melvins were making an unheard of appearance, playing a show in Coon Rapids, at Grumpy's! When John told me this was actually happening, I couldn't believe it...

The Melvins? Here? In Coon Rapids?

This I've got to see...

John and I successfully left the house and made it to Grumpy's (this was a victory in and of itself), and met up with John's brother Joel. Who immediately turned to me and said: "This is the coolest Coon Rapids has ever been!"

Sure enough, Grumpy's was hopping.

The Melvins were just milling about the bar.

Here's Dr. John with Dale Crover...

Dr. John with Kevin Rutmanis...

And Dr. John shocking King Buzzo with an unexpected goosing!

When John asked Dale Crover why The Melvins were playing a gig in Coon Rapids. Crover replied:

"I don't know, just seemed like a weird thing to do..."

We wondered if maybe they owed Tom Hazelmeyer money...

Before I moved back to Colorado in May 2005, my visits to Grumpy's were a lot less frequent. I met Dr. John there for his 28th birfday, and he provided a special birfday drawing for my notebook.

Then signed it...

Wieners are funny...

Tom Hazelmeyer sold Grumpy's to a guy named Willy, not too long after The Melvins appearance.

After a lengthy period of time of not knowing what to rename the bar, it stayed Grumpy's well after the sale, before finally becoming Willy's.

If you can't be creative, just name it after yourself!

And damn is that a TERRIBLE logo...

Did someone break your crayons as you were coloring, Willy?

For much of the next decade, Willy's forged on. Serving drinks and "good times" to all the thirsty Crapidians.

While destroying livers and providing police with ample DUI targets, travelling both directions of Coon Rapids Blvd.

Word hit last fall that Willy's had closed.

Rumors had been circulating that Willy's was looking to sell and/or close the bar. But after some recent legal issues regarding the bar and it's patrons, the bar was closed last fall.

The announcement was made with simple sheets of paper taped to the doors, reading: Closed.