Everybody’s seen the Star Tribune’s arts and entertainment magazine called the “vita.mn“.  The magazine’s campy covers can’t be missed and the content is just plain irresistible.  Every year, they publish the “List of Lists”, a collection of votes taken by their readers.

Well, it would appear that you all love The Indy as much as The Indy loves each and everyone of you: The Independent was in the Top Ten List of List three times in this issue.

The new issue will be released on July 21 and The Independent wins for:

• Best Bar in Uptown: 2nd place
• Best Service: 8th Place
• Best Happy Hour: 1st place!

Thank you – all of you for making The Independent such a great place!

This week marks an awful lot of partying going on in our fair “Hamlet of the Southern Arctic”. This weekend is the Big Great Gay Pride weekend, which is the largest GLBT gathering in North America.  (Only Sydney beats out Minneapolis/Saint Paul’s Gay Pride Celebration.)  This year marks Gay Pride’s 42nd Anniversary the same number of years since Judy Garland passed away.  The Minneapolis Jazz Fest is also celebrating their 13th Annual gathering of drums, saxophones and steel guitars. The fest includes greats such as Danilo Perez, Gary Burton and John Patitucci.

If you’ve lived in the Twin Cities more than two years, you know full well that we love our summer months.  We’ve become very creative finding new ways to get together and have a party.  Whether it’s on our lakes, under the shady oaks along the Mississippi River, we love to get together and have a party.

The Indy has amenities that might be a great addition to your party.  We can sit down and discuss a variety of ideas that we have available.  In addition to our parking garage, facility security and elevator access, we make it very tempting for all of those on your list of friends.  We’ll hammer out a customized menu to suit your health or animal-friendly nutritional needs and we can have our pastry chef prep customized cakes with a variety of selection in flavors and icings.

We have two spaces available for you, depending on your party size and needs.  Our semi-private game area includes high-top tables, sofa lounges and various games like darts and a pool table.  This space can easily accommodate 20-80 of your BFF’s.  For a little more intimacy we have a private party area we call The Alcove.  The space is all yours for you and your up to 50 of your Fab Friends.  The room comes with large plasma monitors, cable TV, and CD/DVD changer.  You can mix your own CD-tracks, your own menu and your own friends all in the same place!

Here’s our requirements: A $300 food minimum and a credit card to reserve either space.  Now let’s do the math on that: You and 29 of your BFF’s spend $10 each and you’re golden.   You can also opt for an appetizer buffet, or a full-menu buffet if you’d prefer.  Cakes need to be reserved 5-days in advance.  They go for 45 green-backs and one cake feeds 30 cavity-prone friends.     You can choose chocolate, carrot, white or yellow along with a variety of frostings including butter cream, chocolate, “scream cheese” or chocolate.  And yes, we can write or draw whatever you want on the cake provided that it’s not X Rated.  (You can always change our minds on that whole “X Rated” thing if it’s really naughty good!)  We don’t charge your credit card unless you cancel the party less than 10 days of the big event or your don’t bother to show up at all.  We have to charge a sales tax (it’s the law – we can’t help it) and there’s an 18% service charge to food and drink purchases.

Call James at #612-378-1905 or you can for more information.

…In the immortal words of P!nk:

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It’s here everybody!  It’s going to be hot, and sticky… and more hot.  There are really only three ways to avoid the inevitable: 1.) Hit the beach on Lake Calhoun, 2.) Stay home and watch reruns on television or 3.) Join us at The Independent for  one of our frosty specialty martinis .  The idea behind Lake Calhoun is tempting, we’ll agree, but there are things to consider:  Greasy SPF 80, screaming toddlers with sagging diapers throwing sand at you and unattractive life guards.  Staying home watching reruns might be tempting, if your Mom’s sofa can take you being the world’s largest couch potato.  We’re thinking a stop by The Independent is your best bet; considering the fact that we have a parking garage, a wait staff of hotties and beer bottles so cold they’ll stick to your fingers if they’re wet.

But who are we to second guess your summer (in)-activities?  We’re just happy knowing we have the market cornered, quite literally, in the category of Best Entertainment in Uptown.  At the corner of Hennepin Ave and Lake Street, our menu will knock the flip-flops right off your sun-burnt little piggies.

We locked Chef Phil in the pantry and wouldn’t let him out until he came up with some mighty fine upgrades to his menu.  He was stuck in there for a good five-six days without any water until he slipped his new menu under the pantry door with suggestions.  Regardless of what you think about our “extreme” measures for a menu-update; you just can’t argue the fact that Chef Phil is a culinary genius.

The Indy’s Apps include:

• Boneless wings, in teriyaki, buffalo, dynamite or Wild Turkey BBQ
• Spicy Fried Cheese Curds, served in a cool ranch dressing
• Summer Bruschetta, a fresh blend of roma, red onion, fresh basil, olive oil and fresh mozzarella, served with a delicately crunchy Parmesan crostini

Soup and Salad side-board now includes:

• Tomato Basil Soup, a delicate balance of tomato and hebs garnished with a fresh biscuit
• Caprese Salad, with fresh romaine and Spring greens tossed in a tomato-basil vinaigrett, and served with grape tomatoes and fresh mozzarella

New Sliders in town

• Fried Fish: Alaskan Cod, American cheese, shredded lettuce and a creamy house tartar
• Philly Cheese Steak, shaved ribeye, grilled, topped with caramelized onions and roasted peppers with a smooth tasting cheese

The Indy’s Entrée selection now includes…

• Walleye Tacos; tempura battered of Minnesota’s favorite fish with chili-chive aioli, Napa cabbage cole slaw with warm and soft flour tortillas.
• Linguini Primavera, a fresh Summer of medley of squash, peppers, red onion and grape tomatoes, sauteed in a select olive oil, white wine and finished with fresh basil and parmesan and garnished with toast-points.  The carnivores can add a herb grilled chicken for $3 more.
• Shanghai Joe’s Sesame Chicken, a crispy tempura fried chicken tossed in Shanghai Joe’s special sesame sauce and served with fresh stir-fry veggies and jasmine rice.

We even insisted on an updates to our Desserts, including:

• Strawberry Shortcake, with fresh summer-soaked berries and freshly whipped cream
• …and a Strawberry Shortcake Shooter for just 3 bucks

…Our new menu is truly a thing of beauty!  Wouldn’t you agree?  Our entire menu is now available for you to check out for yourself.  We’ll keep you happy with our crazy Happy Hours specials like 2-4-1 drinks including those premium lables, $5 specialty martinis and appetizers.  Wednesday’s Happy Hour starts at 3P and runs six hours long while Thursdays are for the thirsty with $2 domestic bottles of beer.   Check in at our Facebook page for instant deals and group deals for all of your friends.  Give us a call at 612-378-1905 if you’re bringing your beach volleyball team with you – we’ll make sure there’s a table waiting, with or without the sand covered ball.

So, what can a person expect when they visit one of the hottest restaurant/nightclubs in the Minneapolis/St Paul metropolitan area?  Everybody enjoys bragging about their drink specials or their select menu for those discerning palates, but nobody claims all of that and more than at The Independent.

Location: We are literally, at the corner of Lake and Hennipen in Uptown – the trendiest and upscale neighbor- hoods in the five state area. On the second floor of Calhoun Square, our balcony lets you enjoy our select menu and drink specials while floating high above all of it.

VIP: Need privacy for the power-lunches, or an intimate setting?  We have VIP seating where only you and your friends are allowed.  Let our select staff bring you the finest in culinary tastes from Chef Phil’s kitchen.

Private Parties: Inviting the office staff out for an “attitude adjust- ment”? We want you to think of our alcove area first.  Our sheik interior designs have been popping up in magazines and photo-journalists everywhere throughout the Twin Cities area.  Our large flat-screen HD plasma screen is available for the Power-Point present- ations, slide-shows or private movie screenings!

“The Alcove”, as we call it, is a haven for birthday parties, wedding dinners, anniversaries or a space just for whatever you want it to be.

Entertainment: DJ Dan spins the best tracks in R&B, hip-hop and Alt Rock.  Nightlife is fierce in the Minneapolis Uptown clubs, and it’s no exception at The Indy.  We’re surrounded by nightclubs here in our neighborhood so the pressure is on Dan to keep the attention of the music scene of Minneapolis.  Street-level pedestrians can’t help but here Dan’s grooves on The Indy’s brilliant sound system that keeps our friends tapping their toes, swinging those hips and grinding those booties.

Bites: We checked, and then we double-checked, but we’re really not sure who let’s their appetizer menus drop to Happy Hour prices at 10PM until Close.  Who does that?  Appetites that have been generated at 12:00-midnight, drop a $5 on the table and tell the server anything you want on our App menu. Skeptical on that selection of choices?  That’s fine: Here’s our menu.  We’re proud enough to let you decide ahead of schedule!

Sunday starts at 10A and is an all day event with our famous $12.99 brunches.  Selectively carved roasts and hams, eggs served practically every way you can name, including your own scrambled.  Large hotel pans brimming  with breakfast burritos, bacon, sausage and  waffles, pasta salads and blueberry muffins everywhere and a Bloody Mary bar that includes five different tomato-starters.  We clean-up at 3P and roll right on into Happy Hour until 7.

Sips: Finding a drink special is easy – Finding a good drink special is rare.  Our Happy Hour is a four hour-long event.  Starting at 3P, we can’t throw out the Welcome mat any farther than to keep it out most of the night.  Happy Hour might end at 7P, but on Wednesdays it runs until 9P and special $5 martinis begin at 10P.  Monday, we hand out $3 taps all day with $4 Specialty cocktails from 7P to close.  Tuesdays are a tequila-lovers dream with $3 tequila shots all day (which includes the “training wheels” if you insist.)    Thursday night is a “Vintners’ Paradise”: Bottles of wine drop to liquor store pricing at 1/2 off the menu list.

You see, when we say how proud we are, it shows up on a list like this.  We’re not owned by some company in “Dallas, TX-somewhere” who dictates our drink-pours and mandates additives like MSG in our food.  We’re free from all of that and that’s why we’re The Independent!  We make our own rules and it shows up in everything we do.

We have the perfect table waiting just for you.

Just a reminder that The Independent is proud to participate in Thursday’s Dining Out for Life, all day.  The Independent is donating 35% on all lunch, Happy Hour and dinner sales to The Aliveness Project here in Minneapolis.

April 28th

12PM  – 2AM

Reservations are highly encouraged

Large groups and parties are welcome

Big time fun and food expected

No matter what you have planned for Easter Sunday, you can’t expect Mom or Grandma to be in the kitchen all day, can you?   Be fair to your Mom by grabbing your wallet and taking her to our Easter Sunday this year.  For once, I’m sure she’d like a chance to have someone carve a nice slab of perfectly roasted beef or ham for her without having to use her own oven.

Face it; Easter is a feast holiday, and why try to pretend you know how to make a spread like everybody is expecting?  At The Independent, we don’t have a corporate office in a far away zip-code telling us what we can or can’t serve based on their best profit margins.  That’s why we’re “The Independent” and we’ve had plenty of practice at making enough food for hundreds to feast on.

Chef Phil knows when the roasts need to be turned, what’s the best temperature for those mouth-watering hams and how to make the best omelets in the Twin Cities.  We dare you to find a better tasting feast for Easter Sunday.

$12.99 gets you an all-you-can-stuff plate.  Add another $2, and your Mom gets a trip to the Bloody Mary bar, complete with five different tomato variations, garnishes, pepper sauces and olives.  If Mom goes for a second trip, you’re automatically the Designated Driver and she’ll love ya even more.

We strongly recommend reservations and we love those large groups.  Is everybody in your Church getting together? Have them all come down to The Indy and we’ll make sure Chef Phil has enough eggs for all of those omelets.

Here’s our Easter Sunday schedule, and you’re going to love it:

• April 24th
• Open at 10AM – Sunday Brunch runs until 3PM
• Happy Hour starts at 3PM and runs until 7PM
• 10PM DJ Dan kicks off “Soul Survivors”, Old school drop down R&B and Hip Hop to close
• Drink specials kick in with $3 drop shots and select beer with $5 appetizer menu.

It’s a full day of food, fest and family.

So, what are you waiting for? Give Mom and Grandma a call, tell them you’ll pick them up after church and tell them you’re taking them to The Indy!  They’ll love hearing from you and it’s guaranteed that they won’t turn down your offer.  But, don’t  forget to make make reservations!  If you wait any longer, Mom will think she’s the chef…again, and she’ll be looking for a coupon for this years Easter Ham.

It’s that time of year again: We eat, we love, we laugh and we fight HIV/AIDS.  The best of both worlds just got better this year with Chef Phil‘s culinary talents in our kitchen.

Like every where, The Independent is proud to donate 35% of our meal menu to The Aliveness Project, Minneapolis, MN who does such great work for people who are surviving with HIV/AIDS.  The organization is so great and so important, we feel truly blessed to support this group and their noble cause.  From the minute our doors open at 12:00 noon until 2:00AM on April 28th — 35% of our food profits will go to support The Aliveness Project.

“Make a reservation!“

Since we’ve been doing Dining Out for Life, we’ve gotten a lot of practice at this.  Here’s our advice: “Make a reservation!“ DOL is our biggest night of the year including Mothers Day.  There are always people waiting in line, for way too long, and it just isn’t going to be “your thing” to watch everybody enjoying Chef Phil’s food and all you have to nibble on is a toothpick from the bartender.  Make your reservation now!! We just can’t stress that enough.

Here’s the layout:

• Lunch is from 12 – 3PM.
• Happy Hour launches out of the gate at 3PM until 7PM.
• Our kitchen and our bar is open the entire time until closing at 2AM.
• Check out our Facebook page and see if we have any specials running.

This is how we can make this really easy:

There’s the menu:  Take a look at our tasty appetizers, burgers, entrees and more.

Here’s the link to make your reservations for Dining Out for Life on Thursday, April 28th.

We eat, we love, we laugh and we fight HIV/AIDS…

Every year, the night life of the Twin Cities wash behind their ears, get their manicures and pedicures, put on their favorite suits and hope you’ll vote for them in the “Best Of” voting for the City Pages. Believe me, we all mean well! We’re not that shallow! But, now is the time you can tip your hat towards our way and ship us some love for all the ways we show our love for you.

All of the nightclubs, strip-joints, restaurants, entertainment venues throughout the Twin Cities are up for grabs.  Got a place in mind?  We’re hoping it’s going to be us at The Indy.

Here’s what we’re gunning for:  We want no, pray for top-billing for the following categories:

• BEST HAPPY HOUR:

  $5 Appetizers and 2-4-1 cocktails, specialized martinis?  You can NOT beat that anywhere!

• BEST LATE NIGHT:

  $5 Appetizers, late-night specials 2:00AM?  Who else loves you more than The Indy?

• BEST BRUNCH:

  $12.99 A-Y-C-E, carving boards of ham and succulent roast beef, buckets of bacon, scrambles and $3 Bloody Mary bar?  Need we say any more?

So, go vote!  Vote for The Independent and…we might be wearing this tie next week!  Hurry!  Voting ends on Monday, the 30th of March.

We’re postponing the Scotch Dinner with the Glinlivit folks for now because we’d rather party our crazy heads of to celebrate Mardi Gras, a.k.a. “Fat Tuesday”.

Bring your beads, toss ‘em, share ‘em, mix-n-match ‘em and enjoy 2-for-1 Margharitas.  Not good enough?  Grab beads in mid-air and enjoy $2 tacos from 5:00PM to close.   (That’s 10 hours worth of tacos for $2 each!)

Still not good enough?

What else can we do?! How about we let you;

• …wear your Mardi Gras masks…
• trade your beads…
• …and challenge our bartenders on making the best Hurricanes in town?

See you Tuesday! And have a great Mardi Gras..!

Have you seen this man?  This man is soon to be the Twin Cities “Most Wanted”.

His name is Winston Evans.  And if you do see him. please don’t call the police!! Instead, call all of your friends!  We don’t want this man behind bars because we’re going to have him behind our bar at The Independent on March 8th for the Glenlivit Scotch Tasting & Dinner.

The Independent and The Glenlivit are pairing their finest for a dinner incomparable to anything east of Denver, north of Ft Worth and west of Cincinnati.

There will be a four course meal and you’ll be greeted with a complimentary Glenlivit cocktail to whet your appetite and time to meet Winston.  You’ll be able to pick him out of the crowd: He’ll be the one in the Scottish kilt surrounded by  beautiful women and connoisseurs of the single-malt.

Then,  something to nosh perhaps!?  Why sure!  How’s Chef Phil’s menu help you out with that?

• Course 1:

  Glenlivit 15 Year French Oak Reserve | Wild mushroom risotto with braised quail and crispy prosciutto

• Course 2:

  Glenlivit Nadurra Aged 16 Years | Smoked Salmon Canapes with capers, dill and lemon

• Course 3:

  Glenlivit Aged 18 Years | New Zealand Baby Lamb Chop with mint demi, horseradish-parsnip mashed potatoes and baby carrots

• Course 4:

  Glenlivit Aged 21 years | Mexican S’more with Mole Ganache, handmade graham cracker and marshmallow brulee

Oh – that menu is almost sinful!  How can you turn that down for a fabulous date night with your special morsel of love?   If Eve caused Adam to sin at The Independent, it would have been over this menu and a 21 year old glass of Glenlivit.

Grab your phone, make your reservations as quickly as you can.  Seating is going to go really fast and we don’t want to keep Winston waiting!  Call 612-378-1905 ASAP and demand your rightful place to meet with Winston!

Dinner is at 6:30PM.  Don’t be late!