CrowBar Hammstown

09/10/2026

Owning a cocktail bar has taught me that there are approximately 700 tiny things happening between the moment you walk through the door and the moment a beautiful little drink lands in front of you.

Most of them you should never have to think about. That’s our job.

But after enough nights behind the bar, you do start collecting a very specific list of things you wish you could lovingly explain to the general public. 😂

So consider this a small peek behind the curtain from someone who genuinely loves hospitality, genuinely loves having you here, and occasionally has to go into the back room and stare at a wall for 30 seconds.

This is all said with love.

Mostly. ❤️

09/09/2026

For most of human history, if you wanted to hear music, somebody had to be there to make it.

Then we figured out how to capture sound.

And for the next century, we became very, very good at making music easier.

Records brought musicians into our homes. The LP gave us enough uninterrupted time that an album could become its own piece of art. Stereo changed how music filled a room. Transistor radios put it in our hands. Cassettes put it in our cars. CDs gave us a skip button. Then we put thousands of songs in our pockets.

Now we can ask for almost any song ever recorded and hear it in seconds.

Which is pretty fu***ng magical.

But so is this…

Choosing a record. Taking it out of its sleeve. Putting it on the turntable. Dropping the needle. Listening to the song you came for and then hearing the one that comes after it.

At CrowBar, we still play vinyl.

And we built a system worthy of listening to it. United Audio and Technics by Panasonic turntables, all-analog JBL amplification and vintage JBL cinema speakers, including Sputnik, an old Met Stadium theater speaker gifted to us by Dave Thune and restored with the help of TC Tubes and Wonder Studio.

Most people sitting at the bar have no idea all of that is happening around them, but that’s one of the things I love most about this room.

We spend a lot of time thinking about the things you may never notice.

Because maybe the magic isn’t that vinyl sounds better. Maybe it’s that for a little while, it asks you to listen differently.

09/08/2026

For some reason, Instagram decided to cut off the rest of Hannah’s review, which was beautifully said. So here is Part Two. ❤️

We’ll combine the comments from BOTH posts for the giveaway, so everyone who is loving Hannah’s review gets a chance to win.

📚 HOW TO ENTER:
Like the post
Comment below
Share it with someone who loves to read

One winner will receive a copy of Hannah’s featured book + a free drink at CrowBar. 📖🍸

Must be 21+ to enter. Book and drink must be picked up at CrowBar.

09/08/2026

📚 BANNED AT THE BAR

Meet Hannah, Hannah. Her pick is Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

Why this one?

“It’s a classic with beautiful writing and a compelling, character-forward story. It stands the test of time as being a dark mirror to our reality and the continuous fight for women’s rights. It shows how quickly oppression of one group means the oppression of all, and that should never go unchecked or unchallenged.”

Want to win Hannah’s pick + a free drink at CrowBar? 🍸

❤️ Like this video
💬 Comment and tell us why you want to read it
📚 Share this video with someone who loves to read

Complete all three to enter.

Must be 21+ to enter. Winner receives the featured book + one free drink. Prize must be picked up and redeemed in person at CrowBar.

Read the books they tell you not to. 📚

09/05/2026

Thank you to Frederick Melo, Reporter and the Pioneer Press for taking the time to really dig into what is happening on the East Side, ask thoughtful questions, and tell this story with so much care. I’m especially grateful that you made room for the very human reasons why places like our neighborhood library matter so much to people. ❤️📚

The Dayton’s Bluff Library, which opened in 2004, would be permanently closed.

09/05/2026

Normalize having a third space so convincing you start calling it your first. 🐦‍⬛🍸

09/04/2026

4,235 books were challenged in the U.S. last year.

Nearly 40% represented the lives of q***r people and people of color.

Those numbers should bother you.

Because when we make certain stories harder to find, we make it harder to understand the people living them.

So for back-to-school month, we’re putting some of those books back into people’s hands.

We asked book lovers and independent booksellers to choose a banned or challenged book they believe is worth reading, and tell us why.

We bought every pick from an independent bookstore.

Now we’re giving them away.

📚 New book. New post. New giveaway.
🍸 Win the book + a CrowBar beverage.
⭐️ Like, comment + share that book’s post to enter.
🤓 Enter every giveaway if you want. Overachieving encouraged.

You don’t have to agree with every book.

You don’t even have to like it.

But you should get the chance to read it before somebody else decides what you’re allowed to think about it.

That’s Banned at the Bar.

09/03/2026

PLEASE SWIPE THROUGH THIS ONE. ❤️📚

We went to City Hall yesterday to sit in on the Saint Paul Library Board meeting and hear more about the proposed 2027 budget, including the proposal to close Dayton’s Bluff Library.

We went in worried about our library.

We came home still worried. But we also came home knowing a whole lot more than we did before, including something that gave us some hope: our City Council wants to find a way to keep Dayton’s Bluff Library open.

But the library is not saved yet, so this is the part where we need our neighbors.

If you live in Saint Paul, please contact your councilmember. It does not need to be a beautifully written letter. You do not need to understand every line of the city budget. You can simply tell them you want Dayton’s Bluff Library to stay open, thank them for working to find a way to do it, and ask them to keep going until the final budget reflects that.

One email matters. One phone call matters. One yard sign on a busy street matters. Showing up in a room matters.

And there are two chances coming up to do exactly that:

📚 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 | 6 PM
Dayton’s Bluff Library Meeting Room

Come sit with your neighbors, learn what’s happening and talk about what we can do together.

Refreshments provided.
More info: [email protected]

📚 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 | 6 PM
Community conversation with Councilmember Cheniqua Johnson

Metropolitan State University
Library & Learning Center
3rd Floor, Room 302, EcoLab Room

And you can keep showing up with us at CrowBar, too.

We have letter-writing supplies, council information, envelopes, stamps and a limited number of SAVE DAYTON’S BLUFF LIBRARY yard signs ready for you. CrowBar is 21+, but you do not need to buy a single thing. Come write a letter. Come grab a sign.

This library has spent years showing up for this neighborhood.

Right now, it needs its neighborhood to show up for it.

Ten minutes. One email. One call. One sign. Whatever you’ve got.

We’re not ready to let this little library go. ❤️ The link to the full presentation from the library board meeting is below in comments.

09/01/2026

Yesterday the CrowBar crew got to spend the day together at the Great Minnesota Get-Together, and obviously we came home with opinions.

Our hot takes: Longanisa Cheese Curd Lumpia: YES. Cracklin’ Corn Ribs: absolutely. Ube Cheesecake Wontons kicked butt. Que Viet’s giant egg roll continues to be ridiculous in all the right ways. Fried green olives were a team favorite. The zero-proof jalapeño margarita at the Boathouse was fantastic and the Agua de Sandía Loca from El Burrito Mercado absolutely slapped.

The dill pickle cookie was delicious. We just wanted them to turn the dill k**b until it broke. 😂

Turns out taking a bunch of bartenders and hospitality people to the Fair means nobody can eat anything normally. Everything got passed around. We argued about flavors and components, went back for another bite to defend our positions and laughed a LOT. We even got to hunt down ribbons won in the baked goods competition by partners of our own team members. ❤️

And somewhere between all the food, crop art, ribbons and very long lines, I kept thinking how damn proud I am that we get to do what we do HERE.

Minnesota celebrates people who make things. Who grow things. Who bake things. Who dream up something completely ridiculous and convince the rest of us to stand in line for it. CrowBar and Volière get to be one tiny part of all that creativity, right here in St. Paul, and that means a lot to us.

We’re proud to be Minnesota-made. Proud to call St. Paul home. And very proud of this little team we’re building here.

We also spent an unreasonable amount of the day asking: how do we get CrowBar + Volière to the Fair someday?

We know hard spirits aren’t currently part of it (Minnesota-made spirits getting a seat at that table someday would be pretty damn cool 👀), but until then, we have a killer zero-proof program and SO many ideas.

So we’re putting it into the universe. Fair partners, Minnesota brands, people who know people: let’s make something fun together next year. ❤️