Like a good little lesbian, I went to Pi this weekend. It had it’s soft opening three weeks ago and the grand opening two weeks ago.

Good: Space, coat check, crowd, art on display.
Average: Bar, DJ, sound, bathrooms.
Not-so-good: Parking, lighting, building signage.

I’m not very familiar with that part of town (it’s in Seward, at 25th Ave S and E 25th St), so I did a good deal of driving around and around trying to get there. Who knew there were so many streets that don’t go all the way through? I had to park a couple blocks away. Not a big deal in the summer. Kind of sucky in the winter. But parking anywhere is sucky in this weather when it’s below freezing and there are five-foot snowdrifts everywhere.

When I think of Seward, I think of the Seward Cafe. So that’s sort of the picture I had in my head. I wasn’t sure what to expect of Pi. I’m not sure if I was satisfied or disappointed or what. That particular location is, shall we say, industrial. I had read that they bought a building down the street from an American Legion Hall. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t expecting it to look like one. It’s a totally nondescript building, with a not very visible sign out front (but with a very bright light). I only picked it out because of the crowd of smokers outside. But okay. Can’t change the whole facade, but do something about the signage.

It’s spacious inside. Plenty of room on the dance floor, plenty of room off the dance floor, and a whole ‘nother room for pool and arcade games (except Ms PacMan was dead to the world). A gender inclusive bathroom should eliminate some of the bathroom problems the Town House has been having.

Every time I needed to go to the bar, I waited. And waited. So the bar was doing a brisk business. Drinks, I thought, were reasonably priced. Maybe when I get back someday for happy hour, or to have dinner when it’s a little less rowdy, I can test the bartender’s mettle a bit. I don’t have high hopes, but I’m not a cheap beer drinker, so they’ve got to show me something.

The coat check girl was super nice and very deftly managed some folks trying to cut the line. Rock on, coat check girl.

They’ve got a video screen up on one side of the dance floor on which they were showing WWII-era topless dancers. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Lots of flopping boobies with that strangely-coiffed hair and you know they had different grooming standards for down there back in the day. Weird. I couldn’t stop looking at it.

They’re doing a good job with their myspace page. I’ve come to pay a lot of attention to bulletins on myspace. Any group that has an event or news they want to put out should be putting out bulletins on myspace. Especially if, say, you’re offering specials because of the snowstorm. And have a calendar, too.

The big questions will be what kind of scene develops at Pi, how that compares to the Town House, and how the two will split their business. It’ll take a while for that to sort itself out, once the novelty of the new place wears off. The obvious distinction is that Pi is in Minneapolis and the Town House is in St Paul and people may not be as inclined to travel as far as they used to when they only had the one choice.

I’ve already seen comments that people are concerned that Pi is going to be too high-falutin’. Judging by the crowd there on Saturday night, this is not the case. It’s definitely safe to say that a wide variety of lesbian lifestyle niches were represented on Saturday. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if it was decidedly less dive-y than the Town House. I’d like a place to dress up for that has a little pizzazz. But I suspect I’m in the minority on that one. I have a very vague memory of going to The Metro once before it closed, and that was eight years ago. Pi is certainly more reminiscent of what The Metro used to be.

Pi has a whole smorgasbord of theme nights and events planned. Latin, world, riot grrl, hip hop/r&b, art installations, etc. I’m sure they’ll be paying close attention to what sells well. My biggest concern is that they’re going to try to be everything to everybody. I think the community has really high expectations, and Pi just needs to make sure they’re getting people in the door, feeding them, keeping them liquored up, and keeping their booties shakin’.