The look: As you approach The Happy Gnome, the first thing you’ll notice is the bell tower reaching skyward from the second floor. A tri-colored neon fixture simulating a ringing bell announces that you have arrived. Inside, the Gnome has a pretty straightforward atmosphere. Patrons can choose between a comfortable bar area with booths and barstools, a more formal dining room, and—weather permitting—a lovely and expansive patio. Although The Happy Gnome lacks the soft lighting and personal touches that make a neighborhood bar sincerely inviting, there is nothing offensive about the ambience. And yes, there are garden gnomes tucked into some of the nooks and crannies.
The crowd: My friend and I chose to sit at a narrow counter in the bar. Our neighbors appeared to be laid-back folks from the neighborhood in T-shirts and baseball caps. But as the night progressed, we noticed a significant number of suits and professional types. We felt more like we were downtown at happy hour than in the Cathedral Hill in the heart of Thursday night. I concluded that The Happy Gnome is more of a meeting place than the default watering hole in the neighborhood.
The beer: One’s enjoyment of The Happy Gnome will ultimately depend on their interest in what is arguably the best beer menu in town. The drink list is a hardcover epic filled with page after page of selections from the best breweries in the country and the world. They boast an impressive selection from local Midwestern breweries and we drank local for half of the night. We enjoyed adventurous ales from both Tyranena and Furthermore Breweries of Wisconsin, but the best American made beer of the evening was the Hop Wallop IPA from Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing. Hop Wallop is a typical Imperial IPA, a strong, bittersweet ale with tremendous amounts of hops added for a uniquely floral nose and a lingering texture in the mouth as if it has been thickened with pine tar. Heady from Victory’s delicious “wallop”, we tried to take advantage of the more exotic beers on the menu and ordered a Scottish-made stout that had been aged in casks of 1987 Macallan Scotch. Unfortunately, that beer was out of stock (a testimony to their constantly rotating inventory rather than poor ordering) so we opted for a Japanese beer made with ginger. The Hitachino Brewery’s Real Ginger Beer was exactly what it advertised, a tasty ginger-flavored beer that smoothly hides a 7% alcoholic content behind the taste of the ginger.
The food: Chef Matthew Hinman has put together a menu of mostly familiar comfort food with a nod towards seasonal, sustainable ingredients and more pizzazz than you will find at most bars.
The verdict: The Happy Gnome is a beer drinker's promised land. Because it does focus so strongly on the beer culture, it may not ever become your favorite bar, but it is the perfect place to bring visitors to the Twin Cities when you want to give them a taste of what we have to offer.
