It has been the hang out for many, from college students to old men. The late pioneering Minneapolis folk-bluesman Spider John Koerner had a reserved seat at the bar when he wasn’t bartending. Jon Hamm of “Mad Men” fame stopped by when he was in town for a pro hockey game in 2021. Bonnie Raitt frequented Palmer’s when she was recording her 1971 debut album in the Twin Cities.
Palmer’s was featured in the films “Old Explorers” (1990), starring James Whitmore and Jose Ferrer and directed by Minneapolis’ own Bill Pohlad, and “Factotum” (2005), based on the Charles Bukowski novel.
In 2014, Esquire named Palmer’s one of the “best bars in America,” commenting “there are dives and dives in this world. There’s the type Guy Fieri calls out, old joints that might not feel like they need to get their hair done before seeing company but are nonetheless fundamentally clean and comfortable and unchallenging. Then there’s Palmer’s."
It has a long history and a sense of survival. As its website points out, Palmer’s has endured prohibition, bootlegging, police raids (in the 1930s there was a brothel upstairs), two World Wars, the smoking ban, the advent of AA and Starbucks as well as various urban renewal projects.
Opened in 1906 as Carl’s Bar in 1906, it was renamed Palmer’s in 1950 by Henry Palmer. Adam Folta ran the place from 1959 to 1975 before his son, Roger Folta, took over with Flo Johnstone for the next 20 years.
Lisa Hammer and her husband Keith Berg bought the bar in 2001 until musician Tony Zaccardi purchased it in 2018 along with current owners Pat and Sarah Dwyer, who also own another beloved neighborhood bar, Grumpy’s in northeast Minneapolis. (Zaccardi is no longer an owner.)