Fire up the Uptown Death Watch!
Williams Uptown Pub & Peanut Bar, a Minneapolis nightlife fixture since the 1970s, has permanently closed. The website and Facebook page? Gone. The Google designation? "PERMENANTLY CLOSED." The most conspicuous sign of closure? The literal sign affixed to the front door you see above. Calls, emails, and DMs to Williams were not returned.
Back in January, Williams closed temporarily following a nearby shooting that injured one person. "Just like many other Uptown businesses, Williams Pub & Peanut Bar will not be open to the public for an indefinite period of time while we take a much needed break," read a Facebook post.
Williams reopened at some point in 2022, even luring patrons with this questionable Spaghetti Float special. (Racket had long-bubbling plans to taste test.)
The bar's Twitter account, which just went private this morning, was promoting the vast beer selection and game-watching opportunities as recently as last week.
In 2018, Minneapolis-based real estate firm The Ackerberg Group purchased the building at 2911 Hennepin Ave. that houses Williams for $3 million. (They've got their own website issues.) You might remember the global pandemic and local civil unrest that soon followed.
Generations of Twin Citians are surely loaded with nostalgic memories of getting loaded and cracking peanuts at Williams in their 20s. Read lots of 'em—plus surplus Minneapolis-is-burning hysteria—on this Facebook thread that was posted last night to Uptown Crime.
That's all we got!
Revisit the "24 Hours In Uptown" feature that kicked off Racket in 2021.
Correction (11/17): Apparently the Spaghetti Floats ruled:
