What does it take to keep a Minneapolis music club going for decades?

The Dakota, the swanky music club and restaurant in downtown Minneapolis, will celebrate its 40th anniversary Saturday with a daylong block party. That’s a long, long time in the music business, and the Dakota should be rightfully proud.

But they’ve got some catching up to do with two other full-time Minneapolis music institutions — First Avenue has been around for 55 years and Bunker’s Music Bar & Grill for 49. It’s rare that live music venues endure that long.

What does it take to serve nightly live music for decades?

“It’s inertia,” Dakota founder Lowell Pickett said. “You keep doing it. As long as you derive pleasure and satisfaction — it comes from the music you’re hearing, from the people you’re working with, from the response from the community — you keep trying to do it as well as you can.”

It’s not that simple. It takes a combination of factors in a low-margin business — ranging from a passionate staff and a varied music menu to maintaining relationships with city officials and building a reliable reputation beyond “Prince played here.”

In separate interviews, Pickett, First Avenue general manager Nate Kranz and Bunker’s entertainment director James Klein discussed what has contributed to their venues surviving and sometimes thriving.

A dedicated, passionate staff is a must. Yes, the staff gets to hear live music but it’s not as glamorous, schmooze-with-the-stars as you might think. They are experiencing the music while carrying out various tasks from serving drinks to checking customer IDs.

“They are a crowd-pleasing, welcoming staff,” Klein said, pointing to a key trait.

Pickett, who founded the Dakota at the Bandana Square in St. Paul, is quick to share credit with various staffers. In fact, when Mpls.St. Paul Magazine wanted to feature him as Restaurateur of the Year once, he insisted that his entire team be featured in a cover photo.

Kranz, who has worked at First Ave since 1998, doesn’t think he’s on the top 10 seniority list at his place. But he knows the importance of a dedicated staff.

“You need a deep bench to rely on,” said the general manager, whose team will present about 1,900 shows at First Ave and its other five venues in the Twin Cities this year. The flagship might require 60 staff members on a concert night, but the numbers could expand to 100 with shows at multiple spots on the same night.

Kranz learned valuable lessons from longtime First Ave honcho Steve McClellan: diversify.

First Ave has branched out to presenting comedy, fashion shows, podcasts and even pro wrestling matches.

The Dakota has a similar story of pivoting as Pickett started the venue out as a restaurant with live jazz in the bar. Eventually, the music became as important as the food. After the Dakota moved to Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis in 2003, Pickett began expanding his musical menu, now embracing everything from Graham Nash to Cécile McLorin Salvant to local favorite Davina and the Vagabonds.

“We’ve gone through gradual transitions many times, but they were all thoughtful,” Pickett said. “It was not ‘We’re going to change the concept now.’”

Bunker’s, which sticks to local and regional bands these days, uses a different formula: residencies four nights a week (including Dr. Mambo’s Combo on Sundays since 1987) and a rotating selection of proven local bands on the weekend.

While Klein points out that its North Loop neighborhood “has changed dramatically over those years,” Bunker’s still draws a remarkably diverse audience of college students, millennials, Gen Xers and boomers.

“A high volume smooths out the edges,” Kranz pointed out. “I know one [poor-selling] show isn’t going to sink the whole thing.”

The Dakota, which rents its current space in Target headquarters in downtown Minneapolis, has turned to several investors over the years, including Richard Erickson of Holiday Stationstores circa 2001 and more recently his sons Lucas and Tyler.

First Avenue has owned its building and land since accountant Byron Frank bought it in bankruptcy in 2004 from its original owner; his daughter Dayna Frank took over five years later.

Bunker’s, a much smaller operation with a capacity for 300 people, is owned by Jackie Kelly, Klein’s wife who purchased the building and land with her previous husband in the late ’70s.

Every musician has experienced the horror stories: unclean dressing rooms, cold pizza, a bill for beer at the end of the night, you name it. Minnesota Nice hospitality prevails at Minneapolis’ music institutions.

“We treat them like staff,” Klein said. “We Christmas bonus them.”

At First Avenue, arrangements with artists vary from show to show. “Touring bands get food/snacks provided, per details in their riders,” Kranz said. “In general, we provide drinks, waters, etc. to all bands and in the very least offer a discount on food in the Depot,” First Ave’s adjacent restaurant.

Having more venues for live music helps foster a music scene. Kranz sees it as an artist development system.

First Avenue has its own equivalent of Major League Baseball’s farm system by expanding its six-venue empire to start bands in the 250-capacity 7th St. Entry and watch them progress to the First Ave-owned Turf Club and Fine Line, the Fitzgerald Theater, First Ave’s mainroom and other venues, including the Palace Theatre, Surly Brewing Field, the Armory and eventually arenas.

First Avenue competes with artists and venues affiliated with Live Nation, the world’s biggest promoter, specifically the Varsity Theater, Fillmore and Uptown Theater in Minneapolis.

“The Dakota and First Avenue benefit from this incredibly fertile creative community we have here,” Pickett said. “That there’s much talent in the Twin Cities has made places like us possible, and that much talent couldn’t be in Twin Cities if there weren’t multiple opportunities to play. None of this exists in isolation.”

Bunker’s ignores the competition. “Let them do what they do,” Klein said. “We just do what we do.”

While the Twins and other sports teams call it the fan experience, music venues need to be in touch with what their patrons want.

“It’s listening to your customers and getting the feedback,” Kranz said. “If you have a hot band, people will come.

“But we want people to take a chance because we want to develop that next wave of artists,” he added. “So you want to make sure they’re not in line all night. Make sure they can get a beer when they want one. Try to have a clean bathroom.”

“I’ve booked bands who I don’t know who they are,” Kranz freely admitted. “But it’s because I trust this person and they have a great track record and great ear. I like to believe we all have the same goal.”

For instance, First Ave booked an unknown Colorado rocker named Nathaniel Rateliff back in 2010 at the Turf Club and kept booking him from the State Theatre all the way to Xcel Energy Center, now known as Grand Casino Arena, in 2024.

Club owners, like all businesses, have to navigate the city rules. It’s helped First Avenue that several politicians, including former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, were regular customers. The club connected with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to co-sponsor the Save Our Stages Act in 2020, bringing millions to independent arts venues.

Kranz builds relationships with city officials because “you don’t want to meet the mayor when you have a ceiling collapse or when you really need help. We want to forge those relationships beforehand. It’s a relationship business.”

Taking cues from customers and venue operators in other cities, Kranz is always looking to tweak things at First Avenue. He pitched a $1 million sound system to his boss.

The Dakota made similar improvements — new sound system, lighting, chairs, floor, touchless toilets and sinks — thanks to more than $2.5 million in the post-pandemic Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program.

Food is a small part of the formula at Bunker’s (which sells burgers and offers free popcorn) and First Ave (which has the adjacent Depot Tavern). But it is a major piece at the Dakota.

While some may find the menu pricey ($40 for a half-chicken and $14 for dessert), the Dakota generates less revenue per customer chair than the bar/restaurant named the Local, which sits kitty-corner on Nicollet Mall and might turn over a table two or three times during a Dakota concert, according to Pickett.

“We’re in expensive real estate,” Pickett said. “Because we have a full-service kitchen, food sales are important to us. And our food sales are driven by the number of people who come in for a show.”

Who: 10 artists including the Suburbs, Jamecia Bennett, Davina and the Vagabonds, Glen David Andrews and Nachito Herrera

Where: Indoors and outdoors at the Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.