Drinking History Tour of St. Paul

Alcohol and St. Paul are like peas and carrots - there really is no better pairing. Since the very early days when famed bootlegger “Pig's Eye Parrant” served off-duty soldiers from Fort Snelling, imbibing has been a part of this city’s culture, and you’ll learn it on this three-hour bar crawl of our capital city. 

In this walking tour you’ll discover four bars and learn the city’s history as you do so. One of the best ways to discover a city is through its watering holes, and you’ll do just that as you find the walk (or stumble) your way through St. Paul’s story.

St. Paul plays its cards close to its vest — while Minneapolis steals the limelight, St. Paul has always been happy to sit back and let the people come to it.

Unlike Minneapolis, the bars of St Paul are often multi-generational, counting its age not in years but decades. St. Paul has a reputation of being a sleepy city, but what it lacks in hip, cosmopolitan glory it makes up for with “Cheers”-style bars, where everybody knows your name. 

For a time, St. Paul was a crime haven, with a corrupt chief of police allowing criminals from Chicago to make their home here (for a price). In fact, Minnesota has played host to famed gangsters like John Dillinger, Babyface Nelson, Roger "the Terrible" Touhy, Machine Gun Kelly, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, and the Barker gang.

So - why do a bar tour of St. Paul? St. Paul is a city inextricably linked to its bars, and that’s why the St. Paul Bar Tour is one of our favorites