Sauce Spirits & Soundbar to cater to Uptown ears, stomachs

“All the musicians — I don’t know if I should tell you this — live from Franklin to Lake Street, Lyndale to Hennepin, every dang one of them.”
The above quote is from the late, great Bob Stinson of the Replacements in 1989. The area he’s referring to, of course, is Uptown. A lot’s changed since then. What was once an arts mecca is now home to a Victoria’s Secret, a North Face and countless condo developments geared toward yuppies who want to suckle at Uptown’s waning credibility teat. Can good, local music tear through the corporatization? Sauce - Spirits & Soundbar, which opened this past weekend, sure hopes so. And considering its prime Uptown real estate on Lyndale and Lake, it’s got the ideal location to test it.
The ratio of musicians to non-musicians in Uptown is still vast. It remains the locale where the rockers live, making it fitting that there’s finally a new venue. Sauce, which functions as an Italian restaurant/bar/venue hybrid celebrated its opening this past Friday and featured two of the city’s finer acts, The Guystorm and Military Special.
The venue itself, on top of having an enviable location, is not bad on the eyes. Featuring a stripped-down, minimal veneer, the dining area takes on the look of an art gallery, which it will double as in the future. Attached to the dining room is the lounge/stage area. The room itself is ordinary, but the walls, which make up the northwest corner of the venue, are made entirely of windows, offering a great view on the intersection of Lyndale and Lake. There’s a bar in each room, booths in the dining area and tables and couches in the lounge. As a whole, it’s both comfortable and trendy, perhaps to a fault, considering the persnickety scenesters to which it’s hoping to cater.
According to their calendar, the good acts show no signs of waning. Building Better Bombs, Black Blondie and The Wars of 181 2 are all on future bills and help make up a sound for which owner Mike Riehle is aiming.
“[We] look to model ourselves after The Current,” Riehle says, “where there’s a wide array of music, but kind of a general point of view and quality level you expect them to maintain.”
Opening night for Sauce, by most accounts, was a success. “[Things went] unbelievably smooth, despite all the chaos that comes with night one,” Riehle says.
The Guystorm frontman Angelo V. Pennacchio agrees. “The place was lots of fun,” he said, “but it was a bit rushed.” He’s referring, in part, to the fact that Sauce attained their liquor license mere hours before doors opened. That, combined with the sound system being, admittedly, incomplete.
As for the future of Sauce, Riehle has admirable goals. “I hope people will see us as the most comfortable rock club in the city, that just happens to have this really good pasta and pizza,” he says.
Pennacchio, who likens Sauce’s stage to that of The Hexagon’s, admires the establishment’s preliminary intentions. “I hope this place can do well,” he says, “It would be nice to have somewhere else in Uptown to play besides the Uptown Bar.”
The combination of good local music, pizza and booze seems a logical one. In terms of execution, Sauce appears to be doing everything right, thus far. With the recession still in full swing, the outlook for any night club is murky. Here’s to hoping that Sauce has the fortitude to help keep the local scene active and entertained.