"Nobody Beats Mayslacks Meats!"
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OUR STORY
A wrestler, a cigar box cash register, a garlic roast beef recipe, and 70 years of Nordeast history. Pull up a stool — this is a good one.
Minneapolis's Most Storied Neighborhood Bar
If you’re looking for the most historic bar in Northeast Minneapolis, you’ve found it. Mayslack’s Bar & Grill has been anchoring the corner of 4th Street NE in the Nordeast neighborhood since 1955 — and the building it sits in has been pouring drinks since 1900.
That’s over 120 years of Nordeast history on a single corner. Long before the craft breweries and art galleries moved in, this stretch of Northeast Minneapolis was a working-class immigrant community built by Polish, Czech, and Ukrainian families who came to work the mills, breweries, and lumber yards along the Mississippi River. Mayslack’s grew out of that world and has never left it.
Today, Mayslack’s is recognized as one of the oldest and most beloved neighborhood bars in Minneapolis — a must-visit destination for locals from Northeast Minneapolis, St. Anthony, Columbia Heights, Fridley, and across the Twin Cities who know that authentic dive bars don’t get built, they get earned. Whether you’re a lifelong Nordeaster or discovering the neighborhood for the first time, the history of Mayslack’s is the history of this community. Come in, order The Original, and be part of it.
The Man Behind The Bar
The story of Mayslack’s begins not behind a bar, but inside a wrestling ring. Stashu Maslajek was born in 1911 in Northeast Minneapolis, the son of Polish immigrants who had come to Nordeast like so many others — drawn by work, community, and the kind of tight-knit neighborhood life that this corner of Minneapolis was known for.
Stashu had other plans than the mills, though. He developed a passion for professional wrestling and moved to Chicago to chase it. Under the ring name “Handsome Stan,” he became a crowd favorite across the Upper Midwest circuit throughout the 1930s and ’40s. Along the way he Americanized the spelling of his Polish surname — Maslajek became Mayslack, easier for wrestling fans to chant from the bleachers.
When his ring career wound down in the late 1940s, Stan stayed connected to the sport as a wrestling and boxing promoter. But Minnesota kept calling. In 1955, Stan and his wife Ann — known to everyone in the neighborhood simply as “Butch” — came home to Nordeast and bought an old tavern on 4th Street NE called Johnson’s Place. They renamed it Mayslack’s. The rest is Northeast Minneapolis history.
"He was broad-shouldered, booming, and he'd demand you use two hands when he piled the beef on your plate."
As remembered by generations of Nordeast regulars
The Myth, The Legend
From day one, Mayslack’s was a partnership. While Stan worked the kitchen and the crowd, Butch ran the till — using a cigar box as their cash register. The two of them lived in the apartment directly above the bar, as close to the neighborhood as you could get.
Stan was the kind of owner who became the soul of his own establishment. He’d call down from the apartment to find out who was sitting at the bar, then send down free rounds for the people he liked. Mayslack’s organized bus trips to Vikings and Gopher games. On Monday nights, regulars gathered to play Smear — a beloved Minnesota card game — right at the bar.
The interior you see today is almost exactly what Stan built. The original tile floors, the dim lighting, the creaky wooden booths — it’s all still here. As one longtime visitor famously put it: “The floor tiles are cracked, the bar is dimly lit, and the booths are creaky and private. It is simply a dive bar. And I immediately loved it.”
Stan Mayslack passed away in 1994. But his name, his recipes, his spirit, and his corner of Nordeast live on exactly as he left them. Not too much has changed — and that’s entirely the point.
Born From Nordeast
You can’t understand Mayslack’s without understanding the neighborhood it grew out of. Northeast Minneapolis — Nordeast, to those who live here — is one of the oldest and most distinct communities in the Twin Cities. Long before it became known for art galleries and craft beer, it was a hardworking, blue-collar immigrant neighborhood built by waves of Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian, and Scandinavian families who came to work the mills, flour plants, and breweries lining the Mississippi River.
The building at 1428 4th Street NE has stood at the center of that community since 1900. The Nordeast neighborhood was so densely packed with bars, churches, and working families that people rarely needed to leave their few-block radius. Everything was within walking distance — including Mayslack’s.
When Stan opened in 1955, Northeast was at the height of its old-world character. The Polish and Czech polka traditions were still very much alive. The Nordeast neighborhood identity — proud, unpretentious, fiercely local — was exactly what Mayslack’s was built to serve. Decades later, as the neighborhood has grown and evolved, that identity is still the heartbeat of this bar.
"There are few cities with an area as concentrated with neighborhood character as the Northeast neighborhood of Minneapolis."
Scoundrel's Field Guide to Minneapolis Nordeast
The Polka Lounge
When Mayslack’s first opened its doors, it was listed in the Minneapolis phone book under a very specific name: “Mayslack’s Polka Lounge.” That wasn’t a marketing choice — it was just the truth. Stan Mayslack celebrated everything, and polka music was how Nordeast celebrated.
Throughout the year, Stan hosted parties for New Year’s Eve, Orthodox New Year, Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, and any other occasion that gave him an excuse to pack the bar with people and music. Local Polish polka bands played to overflowing crowds, with revelers spilling out onto 4th Street NE on warm nights. Polka bands from across the Upper Midwest made Mayslack’s a regular stop on their circuit.
The polka era reflected the cultural DNA of the neighborhood itself — the three dominant ethnic groups of early Nordeast were Polish, Russian Orthodox, and Czech, and their music shaped the sound of this corner of Minneapolis for generations. You can still find polka on the jukebox at Mayslack’s today, sitting right alongside everything else. Some things don’t need to change.
The MEAT
No chapter of Mayslack’s history is more important than this one. From the very first day Stan opened the doors, he was making garlic roast beef sandwiches. Not small ones. Not modest ones. Enormous, slow-roasted, garlic-infused stacks of beef that Stan would pile onto paper plates and hand to customers with a single command: “Use two hands!”
The garlic sauce was stored in mayonnaise jars in the cellar. The beef was slow-roasted for eight hours. In warm weather, the line for sandwiches would stretch out the front door and half a block down 4th Street NE. People came from across Minneapolis — and eventually from across the Twin Cities — to wait in that line.
Today, that sandwich is called The Original. It is still made exactly the way Stan made it. The beef is still slow-roasted in garlic. It is still piled high with banana peppers, sliced onions, and served with au jus. It is still enormous. And it still requires two hands. More than 70 years later, nobody beats Mayslack’s Meats — and nobody ever has.
"Nobody Beats Mayslack's Meats."
Stan Mayslack, circa 1955. Still true today.
As Seen in Grumpier Old Men
Mayslack’s Bar · Minneapolis, MN
Interior of “Slippery’s Tavern”
1995 Warner Bros. Film
Mayslack's on the Silver Screen
Mayslack’s has earned its place on more than just local “best of” lists. The bar was selected as a filming location for the 1995 Warner Bros. comedy Grumpier Old Men, starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Sophia Loren. The interior of Mayslack’s was used for the scene depicting “Slippery’s Tavern” — the bar where Maria walks in to persuade the boys to leave her restaurant alone.
It’s not hard to see why the film’s location scouts chose Mayslack’s. The bar looks exactly like a classic American neighborhood tavern should look — because it is one. The original tile floors, the stamped ceiling, the worn wooden bar and private booths have a lived-in authenticity that no set designer could fake. That same untouched atmosphere is what you’ll find when you walk in today.
As one visitor wrote after watching the movie and then coming in: “I walked in today and I’ll be honest — it probably looks just about the same inside.” That, more than anything, is the Mayslack’s legacy.