Just three months after an eviction notice filled their Eat Street supper club with sour notes, the operators of Icehouse are singing an upbeat new tune.
Minneapolis music eatery Icehouse will avoid eviction under new ownership plan
Some formerly silent partners in the Eat Street venue are taking over with the continued involvement of founder Brian Liebeck.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
July 18, 2024 at 2:20PM
A new ownership deal has saved the Minneapolis music haven from an eviction threat and sparked plans for a revitalization. Not all is new, though: Some of the principal players who helped make it one of the Twin Cities’ best-loved live music venues are staying in place.
Icehouse’s founder Brian Liebeck will still run day-to-day operations and remain a minority owner, and a well-known musician who’s performed there often, jazz and rock drummer JT Bates, has signed on to help manage the music programming.
“We all want to see this club survive and this neighborhood thrive,” said John Higgins, Icehouse’s new majority owner and president.
Higgins and his wife, Amy Higgins, were already silent investors in Icehouse and helped it come out of the COVID-19 shutdown with a new sound system and other refurbishments. They agreed to take over as majority owners amid negotiations over unpaid rent with the landlords of the historic property, Chicago-based Northpond Partners.
According to the eviction lawsuit filed in April by Northpond — whose Minneapolis investments also include Seven Points, the Uptown mall formerly known as Calhoun Square — Icehouse’s operators owed $118,000 in rent going back to July 2023. Liebeck said then, however, that he had a plan in place to bring the venue out from under the debt.
That plan was unveiled this week. Longtime associates of Liebeck, the Higginses enlisted the Icehouse operator’s help when they took over and rebuilt the Portage, a popular old bar in Cable, Wis., near Hayward, where the Minneapolis couple own a lake home.
A biotech businessman who’s also a Walker Art Center trustee, John Higgins said the unique challenges they faced at the Portage — the bar was gutted by a fire months into its reconstruction — made them well-prepared to take over Icehouse.
“These clubs are fun to be around, but the reality is that running them is a very serious and difficult business,” Higgins said. “You have to love it.”
He and his wife have long loved Icehouse, he said, and have ideas to help it thrive again. Among them: hosting more live music in the smaller, “more piano bar-like” side of the venue, Higgins said, rather than the main room with the big stage and balcony. He likened the vibe in that room to a popular, new, jazz-heavy bar in Minneapolis’ North Loop district, Berlin.
They also hope to host more outdoor concerts on Icehouse’s large patio, which became a popular site for music during the pandemic. And they intend to implement “a real, numbers-driven” plan to curate more diversity among the performers, Higgins said. The venue is at 2528 Nicollet Av. S., near the Whittier and Phillips neighborhoods
“The heart and soul of the club is something I’m keeping and staying on top of now,” he said.
Asked separately whether he plans to stay aboard long term and is hopeful the venue’s future is bright again, Liebeck said simply, “Yes and yes!”
Icehouse’s new (and old) team members will celebrate the venue’s revitalization at an Aug. 3 concert billed as the Rise Up Reggae Festival, featuring local mainstays the International Reggae All-Stars, Socaholix and Innocent.
The venue’s live music offerings in the interim include a release party for the rock band Dilly Dally Alley on Thursday, a showcase with the Twin Cities Flamenco Collective on Sunday, a jazz residency series with the Minneapolis String Project on Monday and the return of Derecho Rhythm Section with Low’s Alan Sparhawk on Aug. 1.
Critics’ picks for entertainment in the week ahead.
