FUN, AFFORDABLE & GUARANTEED FRIENDLY!

A RESTAURANT AND NIGHTCLUB, AND THEN, ANOTHER

On March 19th, 2001, 70 roll off dumpsters and 16 months later, Owner/Designer and sometimes chef Jason McLean and friends packed up the toolcase and fileted the ribbon on his latest homage to the spirit of theater and hand-made splendor, a Restaurant and Nightclub.

According to Mclean, "Like the original Loring Park location, Dinkytown has a heretofore overlooked charm. It's a great, easy to get to location and has a life spurred by Northrup Concerts, Gopher Sports, and the cultural and social ferment that IS the University experience. These super-forces will cojoin and coalesce with the Loring's commitment to the food, live music performance, community and the arts; I predict a natural synergy will again result."

McLean predicted right. Today, the thriving Dinkytown neighborhood, one of the few havens for independent businesses in Minneapolis, boasts a wealth of fascinating retail, dining, and nightlife options. The Loring Pasta Bar is the social and cultural hub of this funky, eclectic free-for-all. The Loring Past Bar honors its proximity to the adjacent University of Minnesota campus by providing an enchanting selection of edibles & potables at student-friendly prices, as well as what might very well be the most comfortable facilities for studying and/or hanging out in all of Minnesota. The Loring Pasta Bar offers a veritable cornucopia of live and DJ music options throughout the week - and even the day! And, last but hardly least the LPB is simply gorgeous.

ROLLING STONES or ARCHITECTURE 1,000,000 - 1

"What inspires me? Everything I've ever seen. Everything I've ever done: my childhood; the time I spent in New York; visits to Europe; working in theater; hanging out with my kids. Everything.

--- Jason McLean --

The Loring Pasta Bar is the sorts of place savvy Twin Cities residents make a point of showing off to visitors from New York, Los Angeles, and London - certainly not without reason. Invariably, they're blown away by the sheer indefinable grandeur of this palace of affordable luxury (not to mention its comfy booths, impeccable service, imaginative cuisine, and a thousand other details). In constructing the LBP, the Loring Design/Build Guild crew completed a massive undertaking: removing almost an entire floor and buttressing the building with 40 ton of exposed flying steel beams and trusses 35 feet in the air. Tens of thousands of recycled Chicago bricks were laid-up to improbable curves which twist and knot, reel and stumble through the rooms like a drunken mason on a bender (or the set of a Dr. Seuss film). Tile work and paint, meticulous artisan workmanship of booths and bars, steel and ironworking, live in stunning relief amidst the blown-out, remnant legacy of antiquity of the 120 year old former Northwestern Book Supply nee Gray's Campus Drugs.

THANKS AND CONGRATULATIONS

We're eternally indebted to the dozens of artisans and craftsmen who have brought these spaces to light and life. Special Kudos go to Dean Soderlin, Joel "Bones" Hanson, Michael Cordner, Matt Brown, Bruce Sparks, Dave Skurdahl, Alex Podulke, Chad Amunrud, Carl Abbott, Pete Conway and Teodoro Loja. We look forward to the coming years of festivities at The Loring Pasta Bar. We invite you to join us again and again for an ever-evolving experience.