When he was working with musicians from Bon Iver, the National and Poliça during the city of Berlin's free-form People Fests in the late 2010s, Alex Proctor was struck by the "openness."
And yes, this was in the eastern part of the city that had been closed off from Western culture for three decades.
"Everyone seemed open to trying new things, appreciating new music," he remembered.
A veteran sound engineer who has worked with those artists and more, Proctor is one of several creative forces involved in the small, low-lit but high-concept new Minneapolis music bar Berlin.
The 85-seat venue opens Wednesday in the historic North Loop warehouse building that previously housed Eric Dayton's high-end clothing store Askov Finlayson. A well-known restaurateur is involved, and a lot of well respected Twin Cities jazz, electronic and none-of-the-above musicians are on the calendar.
Not so familiar a name, Rich Henriksen, Berlin's owner, is a church musician and businessman who said he "just really wanted to spread my love of music" in the three-story, 1888-dated brick building he now owns.
"There are a lot of great attractions in the North Loop these days, but there isn't a nice little jazz bar like this," said Henriksen, whose claims review company Nokomis Health is housed above Berlin.
Henriksen, too, has his own happy stories of finding an "inspiring creative energy" in the city of Berlin in recent years. He listed off jazz venues such as Quasimodo, B Flat and especially the A-Trane as places on which he modeled his own Berlin.
"They're venues people go to not necessarily knowing who's playing; they just know it's going to be something great," he explained. "They get there early, hang out and settle in for a cool night of music."
The first cool night of music at Minneapolis' Berlin is Wednesday, with Cactus Blossoms guitarist Jake Hanson's swinging instrumental act the Riffin' Trio. The Jake Baldwin Trio plays Thursday, the JT Bates Quartet settles in Friday and Saturday night, and then drummer/keyboard wiz Martin Dosh kicks off a Sunday night residency with "friends." Tickets are only being sold for the weekend shows.
Other acts coming up include Jeremy Ylvisaker and Andrew Broder on Monday, jazz stalwarts the Atlantis Quartet Feb. 16-17 and a two-night session March 1-2 with Alpha Consumer — another act anchored by the ubiquitous JT Bates on drums.
"We're going to try to get JT down here as much as we can," said Proctor, who — like Bates — has long been involved in shows at Icehouse, a larger supper club on Nicollet Avenue south of downtown Minneapolis.
The key differences from Icehouse, Proctor said, is size and sound: Berlin is about a third the size of the two-story Icehouse, and thus it will cater to quieter, more intimate and/or more adventurous music showcases than what you might see in bigger rooms around town.
Instrumental acts will be the forte — sorry, singer/songwriters! — including electronic, world and ambient acts along with jazz and artier rock ensembles.
"We're going for a weirder and more experimental vibe in a lot of cases, allowing these renowned musicians to try things they can't really do in bigger rooms," Proctor said.
Thus, he said, he designed the room to "sound dead," allowing quieter music to "still come through loud and clear." Although, he quickly added, "It can get loud if we want it to."
Like Icehouse, though, Berlin intends to be known for food and drinks as well as music.
Former Grand Café proprietor Jamie Malone — a repeat James Beard Award nominee who's been running the pop-up-style event company Paris Dining Club — oversaw a mostly snacks-style menu that includes a vesper board, prawn skewers and baked gnocchi, plus some true German touches such as chicken schnitzel and pretzels.
The drink menu is being run by Ruby Langworthy, previously of Young Joni. Its decidedly "un-fussy" offerings include martinis, old fashioneds, Sazeracs and Negronis — all $12 (modest by North Loop standards).
Structurally, the venue turned the former store into one long, art-nouveau-inspired room with tables and booths wrapped around the stage in the back corner and a horseshoe-shaped, marble-topped bar toward the front. Patrons will be greeted with a blue stained-glass entryway fashioned after the famed Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the German capital city.
As the final bits of constructional touches were being made last Friday afternoon before the venue's first soft-opening night, Proctor seemed content to have Berlin as his main musical playground for the foreseeable future. The Brainerd native — who was schooled in audio technology near the new venue at the now-defunct Institute of Production & Recording — spent a lot of 2023 on tour with British electronic balladeer James Blake.
"I've been touring for so long, I'm ready to stay home more," Proctor said.
"This place is my chance to reconnect with this scene, and to honor and pay back a lot of the musicians I've been lucky enough to work with. I really hope to create a community here."
Berlin
Where: 204 N. 1st St., Mpls.
Hours: 4 p.m.-midnight daily, closed Tue.
Cover: Free most weeknights, $20-$40 weekends.
Online: berlinmpls.com.
