Vieux Carre, downtown St. Paul's jazzy music club, to close after five-year run

"This was a very difficult decision for many reasons, but we have not been able to establish the level of consistent business needed to justify its continuation," the club said in a news release late Friday.

Vieux Carre is booked and run by the folks behind the long-established Dakota in downtown Minneapolis.

The Dakota took over the St. Paul space, 408 St. Peter St., in the 100-year-old Hamm Building where the jazz musician-owned Artists Quarter had operated for 18 barely-break-even years.

Vieux Carre — pronounced "view kar-ay," meaning "old square," another name for New Orleans' famous French Quarter — offered Louisiana-inspired food along with a steady diet of Minnesota performers including blues-soul singer Joyann Parker and the jazzy Twin Cities Hot Club as well as occasional nationally known performers such as jazz trumpeter Avishai Cohen and Americana singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier.

Vieux Carre will stay open through June, participating in the annual Twin Cities Jazz Festival by presenting pianist Jon Weber and the Omar Abdulkarim Quintet, among others.

This is not the only change on the corner of St. Peter and 7th Place. The Great Waters Brewing Co., which was located above Vieux Carre, closed earlier this year and will be replaced by the Loon Café, the second incarnation of the popular Minneapolis watering hole.