Once upon a time, on the corner of University and 22nd Ave NE, there was a magical place called the Deuce Deuce/Double Deuce/the 22nd Avenue Gentleman’s Club.

26 Year old Tara first heard of this place when she worked at a Minneapolis Liquor Distributor and was surrounded by middle aged salesmen who made questionably sketchy comments about how they liked to end their Friday night sales calls “at their home office there.” However, Tara was never to satisfy her curiosity of the place that inspired yelp user Jorge to leave a permanent review for, stating that “the only thing harder than my dick, was having to leave the place,” because it closed. #RIP

Speeding ahead, the only thing more upsetting than not getting to experience going there was living so close to this building and having to pass the graffiti’d eyesore everyday.

When Tara first heard it was to be bought by the people who owned Hola Arepa, she was beyond excited and even MORE excited to realize they had such a great sense of humor when they named their new Southeast Asian street food restaurant & bar, “Hai Hai” which means “22” in Vietnamese. A tongue in cheek homage to the building’s roots. Continue reading