Many years ago, I spend an evening in Nyes taking photos for a magazine piece that never came together. The closing of Nyes prompted me to find some of my favorites from this totally Minneapolis bar.
I was never a regular at Nyes restaurant. Even when I moved to Minneapolis 10 years ago, it was a vestige of a former hey day. It was a place to take out-of-towers, so show them what a sing-along piano bar could be like, or what dining was like in the 60s. The perogies were great, the drinks were strong, and there were the people, as fixed and vital as the oversized stained glass lamps and shiny gold booths; the waitstaff that had spent their career there, the bartenders who knew everyone’s drinks. For a place locked in time, I’m grateful I got to glimpse it, occasionally, as a spectator but a respectful one. It wasn’t my place, but it was a place I was glad existed.
