![TOM WALLACE ï twallace@startribune.com Assign# 00007011A slug_dumps0326 Date: March 10 2009 Photos for Bill Wardís essay on why we love 'Dive' places, This is a round-up of some favorites. Alís - breakfast spot, Uptown theater, Nyes Polonaise - the polka bar side, Reds Savoy Pizza - 7th st, East St Paul, Midway used books, The Wienery. Ranham Bowl---] Nyeís Bar is the home of the Ruth Adams and the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band. ORG XMIT: MIN2014120117043161 ORG XMIT: MIN](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/O6TFDWIHMMIGXEJJ6SJ3SBM67Q.jpg?&w=1080)
The site of the former Nye's Polonaise Room will soon reopen to the public.
Replacing the Minneapolis institution — which welcomed customers for 66 years before it was shuttered last April — will be Sonder Shaker (130 E. Hennepin Av.), a cocktail bar and lounge, when it debuts sometime this winter.
Owner Cassidy Flannery, for one, knows the challenge in following such an act.
"It was a pretty special place," said Flannery, who called himself a Nye's "regular" for its last two years. "Nye's was such a staple in the community and obviously we're never going to be able to replace what they were, but we're going to approach hospitality the same way. We're going to welcome everyone in, and treat everyone really well."
The focus at Sonder will be classic cocktails with modern twists, an echo of Flannery's upbringing. The name is an obscure reference to a YouTube series that defines it as the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
A New Glarus, Wis., native, Flannery grew up on the second floor of a supper club that his parents ran for 35 years. "My living room was pretty much their bar," he said.
His mother tended bar and gained a reputation for her classic Old-Fashioned, as well as her recipes for a whiskey blend and house-made bitters. Flannery — who later bartended his way through college in La Crosse, Wis. — will be replicating these at Sonder.
"We want to make classic, Prohibition-style cocktails, but make them more approachable and a little more fun, because a lot of people might think of classic cocktails as a little intimidating, pretentious, and we want to be more like a neighborhood bar," said Flannery, who currently works for Target headquarters.
