The look: At the far end of the long and lovely patio of The Freight House in downtown Stillwater sits a strange rectangular box. By the time you read this, that box will be decorated in blue and will probably resemble a cartoon ice cube. But on the afternoon of its grand opening, the Minus5 Ice Lounge looks like a giant ice chest. Step inside and you will see that that is exactly what it is. Walls of ice line the room with shelves carved in ice displaying vodkas and glassware made of—you guessed it—ice. With a maximum occupancy of 25, the walk-in ice cube seems a little small to host a proper party, but the porthole windows offer the same view of the St. Croix river that the patio patrons enjoy and for a small crowd the ice bar is surely an awesome—if novel—place to demonstrate that you are the coolest kids on the block.
The model in Stillwater is a smaller model than the other Minus5 ice bars located in New Zealand, Australia, Portugal, and Las Vegas. This particular model, known as “The Igloo,” is not permanent and semi-portable. Stillwater was chosen for the temperature extremes between summer and winter and for the high humidity. The owners want to see how their product functions when subjected to the environmental conditions of Southeastern Minnesota. Not to mention, Stillwater is a great little town in America’s heartland. The experiment in Stillwater will help the company determine what other American locations they will choose.
After my sneak preview, Minus5 COO Craig Ling explained to me that the ice bar utilizes state of the art engineering to keep the room at 23 degrees without fans constantly blasting cold air into the room and on the customers. (To further ensure the comfort of their guests, Minus5 provides parkas and gloves to wear.)
The crowd: The only people inside the ice bar when I stopped by were workmen in warm clothing arranging sturdy blocks of ice as they put the finishing touches on the bar. But as soon as they open for business I am sure that Stillwater’s hippest bar-hoppers (as well as its most insecure posers) will be the first to rock the ice block. But as the word gets out that this place actually exists, thrill-seeking tourists from the Twin Cities will make it a part of their Stillwater excursions. With a $17.95 cover charge that includes the first drink there won’t be many nonchalant customers to Minus 5. As such, it will be patronized by people who like to be in the loop with what is hip in the bar scene.
The drinks: As I mentioned, the bar was neither open, nor functioning when I visited. Therefore I wasn’t able to experience it in the way it is intended to be. For that matter, there wasn’t even a cocktail list available for me to preview. But I can tell you that Minus5 is exclusively a vodka bar and the drink list will be limited. There will be five house cocktails made with Finlandia Vodka. A few other vodkas will be available upon request and there will be a beer option, but that’s it, folks. (As the story goes, Ling’s idea for Minus5 was inspired by his great-grandfather Buck Rockwell. Apparently Mr. Rockwell’s boat became packed in the ice and he had no choice but to stay the winter in a remote whaling village. There he made the best of the situation by imbibing heroic doses of ice-cold vodka. It sounds like a whimsical myth created as an excuse not to bother with a full bar to me, but there’s nothing wrong with embellishing your proud family history for the sake of a little fun.) I happen to like Finlandia for sentimental reasons, but I do find the narrow focus a bit of a turn-off. On the other hand, in a room that only holds twenty-five people space is at a premium, so limiting the liquor options is a necessary evil. The point of Minus5 is the atmosphere. If you can’t enjoy the place for that and you are going to complain about not being able to drink your gin and tonic in July, then you should probably stay on the patio.
The food: Minus5 is an ice lounge more than a bar and definitely not a restaurant. If you need sustenance, The Freight House serves standard, familiar American fare.
The verdict: This one is a bit tricky because I didn’t actually get to have a drink at Minus5 and I have no idea what the vibe is like when there are real customers kicking it in the ice lounge. But I get the picture and I saw enough of the unfinished product to get a sense for what it will be like when the door is open for business.
All at once, I resent feeling like Minnesota is being used as a guinea pig location but feel honored to be the second American location for a “chain” that is so global. It’s hard for me to dig a bar that values their building materials more than their cocktails, and yet…I can’t deny that it’s unique. Furthermore, my inclination to find the whole concept distasteful because of its dependence of constant energy consumption fell by the wayside when I admitted to myself that bars and restaurants, by their nature, are relatively wasteful businesses. If Mr. Ling is sincere that it takes less energy to power a Minus5 ice bar than it does to keep a meat locker cool, then my objection is negligible anyway. So we’re left with what? A bar that is unlike almost every other bar in the world right in our backyard? That doesn’t suck. Does that make it a good place to go for a drink with a first date or an old friend? Probably not. But does it make it a worthwhile place to go with your friends for an interesting night out? Probably, yeah.
One of my biggest complaints about the bars I visit is that there isn’t enough to set them apart from the hundreds of other options out there. Minus5 doesn’t have that flaw. In fact, Minus5 is inversely deficient; almost everything about it is different from other bars except that it lacks what every other bar has: a full bar. Instead, Minus5 is a bar banking on its own novelty—literally! I don’t know that I respect that, but I won’t pretend that I’m not looking forward to taking a trip to Stillwater to check it out with some friends.
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