Baseball Travel: HHH Metrodome, Minneapolis

Minnesota Twins / HHH Metrodome

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Rating

Specifics

Address/Directions: 34 Kirby Puckett Place, Minneapolis. The stadium is accessible from both major freeways (I-35 and I-94) that intersect near downtown Minneapolis. Minnesotans believe in good signage, so follow the signs to the Metrodome.
Phone: 612-33-TWINS; 800/33-TWINS.
Web: www.mntwins.com
Online ticket sales? No. The Web site misleadingly advertises online ticket sales.
Online broadcasts? Yes.
Capacity: 48,678.
Year Built: 1982.
Last Visited: May 5, 1999.

Description

When the Minnesota Twins won the World Series in 1987 and 1991, television announcers were besides themselves in amazement at how loud the Metrodome was when the packed house was in a full-throat roar.

Well, duh! Put 55,000 into an area the size of my rec room, and they'd sound mighty noisy to you, too.

The ability of a crowd to generate noise is about the only redeeming quality of the Metrodome, surely one of the worst venues for major-league baseball still in existence. With the Metrodome's crowded concourses and the Twins' apathetic management, it's no wonder that the minor-league St. Paul Saints -- playing baseball under the sun and on the grass, the way God intended it -- will sometimes attract more fans to Midway Stadium than the Twins will to the Metrodome.

Still, major-league baseball is major-league baseball, and if we want to see the likes of Ken Griffey and Mark McGuire we must put up with the Metrodome, or at least make the most of the experience.

That includes picking your seating carefully. Out of the Dome's 45,000 or so seats, only 20,000 or so are worth sitting in. Sections 118-132 (behind home plate) are obviously the best seats in the house, and at $19 they're a bargain. Avoid sections 113-117 and 133-139; these are good football seats but their orientation are guaranteed to give you a stiff neck by the third inning. The outfield bleachers are a great buy at $7. Anything in the upper deck is a crapshoot; sections 223-227 give you a good, if elevated, view, but anything else down each line is a bad buy. Generally speaking, admission at the Dome is lower than you can find in other major-league ballparks, and you must give the Twins some credit for keeping ticket prices affordable.

Concession Highlights

There aren't many. The vast majority of the concession stands feature $3.50 Hormel Dome Dogs (which is just this side of being inedible -- avoid them), $4 brats, popcorn, peanuts, et al. Most of the beer taps feature some Miller or Budweiser variant, although if you look real hard you can find a single James Page Amber Lager tap and a single Grain Belt Premium tap. (However, Grain Belt Premium is sold by the roaming beer vendors, albeit poured directly from a can.) There are really only two unique concession stands. Down each line there's a beer-and-brat concession area, where brats and Gluek Golden beer can be found. Gluek's Restaurant (16 N. 6th St.) is a downtown Minneapolis landmark, and Gluek Beer has been sold in the Twin Cities since the turn of the century or so, when there was an actual Gluek Brewery in existence. (As you might guess, the Gluek's Restaurant is built in the German beer-hall tradition.) For many years, the only place you could find it was at the restaurant or in extremely well-stocked liquor stores, as the beer was brewed under contract by the Cold Spring Brewery in central Minnesota. Today, that brewery is known as the Gluek Brewery, and its beers can be found in most liquor stores and some bars outside of the original Gluek's. So if you're a beer lover at all, check out Gluek's at the Metrodome.

Why such pathetic concessions? Because the concessions aren't actually run by the Twins -- they're run by the Metrodome itself, and since there's little public accountability and no reason to fill the Metrodome coffers even more, there's no pressure to upgrade concessions if the Twins and Vikings don't raise a fuss.

Smoking

There's no smoking in the Dome. At all. Before I started smoking cigars, I found this restriction charming. Now I don't.

Parking

As with everything connected with the Metrodome, the parking situation sucks. There's little parking on the streets surrounding the Metrodome -- and don't worry, the meter maids will enforce the meters -- so you're forced to pay to park in a ramp or a lot. The good thing about the dwindling Twins attendance is that you can find a surface lot next to the Metrodome that charges only $4 for parking.

Be warned that if you park in the Strutswear Building ramp on 6th Street (kitty-corner from the southeast corner of the Dome), you're paying Carl Pohlad for the privilege of parking so you can spend $3.50 on a frickin' Hormel hot dog. Yes, Smilin' Carl owns the ramp, which coincidentally is the only parking ramp within a block of the Dome. But since the ramp is run separately from the Twins, Smilin' Carl can say he's losing money on the Twins while pocketing the parking-ramp profits. No wonder Minnesota citizens refuse to buy the old b*****d a new ballpark.

For the Kids

About the only activity truly geared for kids is face-painting, and of course the Twins charge you for it. Otherwise, the Metrodome isn't an exceptionally kid-friendly stadium.

Before the Game

Spend as little time in the Metrodome as you can before the game starts. Your best bet is drown your sorrows a little before the game, and there are two areas that are roughly within walking distance (provided you're ready for a six-to-10 block hike): the West Bank and the eastern edge of downtown Minneapolis.

The West Bank is renowned in musical history, being an early hangout of Bob Dylan and generally providing the home to the 1960s Twin Cities folk scene. Today, the West Bank is run down and in no immediate danger of being gentrified. Cedar Avenue runs down the middle of the West Bank, and your best bets are on either end of Cedar Avenue, as the bars in the heart of the West Bank appeal to students (as is the case with the 400 Bar) or a slightly rougher clientele (which is the case with the Viking and Palmer's). At the north end of the West Bank -- which really isn't within easy walking distance of the Dome -- is the Town Hall Brewery, which offers a fine selection of beers (brewed on the premises) and some adventuresome appetizers. Also at this end of Cedar is Sgt. Preston's (where you can get good sandwiches built to order) and Grandma's, a Twin Cities outpost of the popular Duluth eatery.

At the south end of Cedar, you have Whiskey Junction, which looks rougher than it really is. The Junction is a popular meeting ground for bikers (and the various biker subgenres, including gay bikers and butch lesbian bikers) and pool players, but the Junction is really more of a sports hangout. There's a wide selection of beers -- ranging from Miller High Life and Pabst Blue Ribbon in a bottle to Summit Pale Ale and Sam Adams Lager on tap -- and cigar smoking is allowed and encouraged (when Butch is tending bar, he's got a stogie close a hand). The other advantage of the Junction is that you can park there and walk to the Dome.

A few years ago the commission running the Dome erected an outdoor concourse area designed to entice fans with food, live music and more. I've never seen a large crowd in the outdoor concourse, except when a good bar band is playing before the game. There is a Famous Dave's rib stand in the concourse, and it's worth checking out if you're a barbecue fan.

The only bar within a block of the Dome is Hubert's (601 Chicago Av.), and that status means that Hubert's is usually crowded before a game. The one redeeming factor is that Hubert's has a patio bar, which means that you can suck up some sun before sitting under the Dome's Teflon ceiling.

After the Game

Since I park at the Junction and leave my car there, I usually duck into the bar for a quick one before heading for home (provided there's no cover charge for a band, which is usually the case on a weekend).

However, there's a wide assortment of good restaurants and bars in downtown Minneapolis, provided you're willing to walk the seven or eight blocks to get to them.

Closest to the Metrodome is Kieran's (330 2nd Av. S., which is at the corner of South 4th Street, an Irish pub that's really run by an Irishman. While the food at Kieran's is nothing special, the people-watching is often quite good, and the music is better than average for an Irish bar situated in Minnesota. As you'd expect, every major Irish beer (Harp's, Guinness) is on tap.

Head further west and you'll hit one of the few exciting nightlife spots in the Twin Cities: the Warehouse District. Downtown Minneapolis has long been seen by urban planners as a place for experimentalism, with some successes (the Nicollet Mall) and some failures (the Gateway, the Metropolitan), but luckily the urban planners didn't see fit to tear down the large warehouses on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. Today, these warehouses have been gentrified and turned into a yuppie roaming ground, complete with bars, restaurants, trendy loft spaces and exposed-brick-dominated offices. On a warm summer night, the Warehouse District is a vibrant, pulsing area. Your best bets: Cafe Havana (119 Washington Av. N.), where the beautiful people go to be seen; the Monte Carlo (219 3rd Av. N.), where anything but a martini is a waste of time; Gluek's Restaurant (16 N. 6th St.), mentioned above; Origami (30 N. 1st St.), the best place for sushi in Minneapolis; Runyon's (107 Washington Av. N.), which seems more like a neighborhood bar than a yuppie watering hole; Club Ashe (332 1st Av. N.), a comfortable cigar hangout;

If these yuppie hangouts are too slick for your tastes, I'd recommend an earthier alternative, all of which are within a short drive of downtown Minneapolis.

Mayslack's (1428 4th St. NE.) is the home of giant garlic-beef sandwiches, a colorful neighborhood clientele and polka bands in the back room. Lee's Liquor Lounge (101 Glenwood Av.) is the home to cool cats and kitties, serving as the unofficial headquarters of the Minneapolis swing movement and home to a nightly dose of live music. Lyle's (2021 Hennepin Av.; referred to by the locals as "Liquor Lyle's) is at once charming and seedy, right on the edge of trendy uptown but still rough enough where a patron can be knifed once a year or so. Stay out of the pool room, and you'll be OK. Finally, Stand Up Frank's (22nd Av. N., at 2nd Street North) is a Minneapolis landmark for those in the know: strong drinks, a neighborhood crowd, and a lack of seating (leading to the bar's unique name). Don't bother bringing your yuppie credit cards to Stand Up Frank's -- it's strictly cash on the barrelhead.

Where to Stay

There's an abundance of hotels in downtown Minneapolis, most within walking distance of the Dome. The two closest are the Best Western Normandy Downtown (405 S. 8th St.) and the Embassy Suites Downtown (425 S. 7th St.). From the outside the Normandy doesn't look like a lot, but the rooms are surprisingly nice and the hotel as a whole is very affordable. The Embassy Suites is like every other Embassy Suites in the chain: larger rooms, free happy hour, and free breakfast.

Also within walking distance, but a little spendier, are the Crowne Plaza Northstar (618 2nd Av. S.), the Holiday Inn Express (225 11th St. S.) the Hilton (1001 Marquette Av.), the Marriott City Center (30 S. 7th St.), the Radisson Plaza (35 S. 7th St.), The Marquette (710 Marquette Av.) and the awkwardly named Hyatt Whitney at St. Anthony Falls (150 Portland Av.)

Be warned that there's a few hotels with "Metrodome" in their names that aren't really close to the Dome. The Holiday Inn Metrodome is, in theory, within walking distance of the Dome, if you don't mind a long walk on hot pavement. Ever farther away is the Sheraton Hotel Metrodome, which isn't even in the same zip code (and barely in the same area code) as the Metrodome.

Notes

Will we see the end of the Metrodome anytime soon? St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman is aggressively seeking a new stadium for downtown St. Paul, but it's hard to say how realistic his quest is -- most political insiders give him little chance to pull it off, given how most of the state's politicos dislike Coleman and the Minnesota public's general apathy toward public funding of stadium, a dislike intensified by the sight of billionaire Carl Pohlad elbowing his way to slurp from the public trough.

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