Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant

Rating:

Once again, the dinner topic was the Twins ballpark brouhaha.

"Not a dime of taxpayer money," one friend said, for the 10,000th time.

"It only makes sense in the Warehouse District," said another pal, doing a fairly convincing R.T. Rybak impersonation. Everyone dropped their forks when our group's loudest City of Lakes cheerleader chimed in. "Let St. Paul have it," she said. "Now that we've got the Dakota, what do we need with a stadium?"

Point well taken. In October, in the latest bit of Twin Towns turf war, the Minneapple pulled a two-fer on its sibling when the Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant relocated from St. Paul's somnolent Bandana Square to 10th St. and Nicollet Mall. Not only did downtown Minneapolis got a much-needed nightlife booster shot (as well as a smart new lunchtime destination) but business is booming: a slow night in the new place bests a busy evening in the old one.

Owners Lowell Pickett and Richard Erickson, working with the talented Shea Inc. design firm and a pile of cash, have reversed the jinxed karma of predecessors Zinc and Merchant's, replacing those failures with a sauve setting that's not only a swell dining and drinking destination, but also a gift to music lovers. Unlike the clumsy compromises of Metrodome-style stadiums built for both baseball and football but suitable for neither, this ingenious and attractive bar/music hall/restaurant hybrid actually works; the accoustics and sightlines rival those of neighboring Orchestra Hall.

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