Another stop on our potential innocent bystander locations tour. Ah, Mickey's - this is actually a hard review for me to write because I find the staff to be extremely friendly and helpful, while the clientele leaves something to be desired.
The beer selection is abysmal unless you enjoy Bud Light with Lime or a broke neck 40. However, they do carry Surly, Fat Tire, and a decent selection of ciders...so Brandon approves of them in a pinch. If you're coming here hoping to find the latest seasonal brewed by the ironically mustached, flannel clad hipster gods, you will be left disappointed and wishing you had stopped at Surdyk's or North Loop Wine & Spirits on your way home. But if it's 9pm on a Saturday and goddammit you just need a sixer of something that tastes remotely like beer to get you through the idiotic no sale on Sunday law, Mickey's can hook you up. Be warned though...their beer is marked up about 15-25% from most other places because they're small and family owned.
The liquor is kept behind the counter because it's North Minneapolis, folks. Gangster shit happens here. I assume there are plenty of stories of people shoving bottles of Ciroc down their pants and trying to waddle out the front doors. I've never seen it personally, but it sounds about right. They have some higher end vodkas if you're into clear alcohol like me, but their gin selection is god awful. Hendricks or gtfo is my motto and they don't carry Hendricks. Or Citadel. Or Farmer's. Tanqueray or Bombay Sapphire is about as top shelf as they get in the gin department. Oh well, I assume those sell well enough to justify keeping them on the shelves, I can't really hate on that.
And now...the clientele. You can't really fault a place for their patrons, but it's just fucking ridiculous how many times I've stopped at Mickey's and had to endure some type of shenanigans from someone waiting in line. From people jumping in front of me to customers loudly discussing mine or my boyfriend's piercings and tattoos to someone actually insinuating Brandon might be in the brotherhood because he is pierced, tattooed, and was wearing all black everything at the time. Look. We live 2 blocks away, who would live in this neighborhood and hate everyone but white people? That would be a bad time. So it makes me really fucking angry when we get looked at like freaks while politely standing in line waiting to buy our shitty beer and 3rd tier bottle of gin. Also, some drunk dude tried to touch my ass once...no. Just no. read more