American Sports Cafe

American Sports Café

Station 280, the former
American Sports Cafe

Location: 2554 Como Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Opened/Closed: c. 2004-2007

Back in 2004, the American Sports Café won the Best Lesbian Bar award at Minneapolis City Pages:

Just miles west of Club Metro's gravesite sits an unremarkable sports bar. Its faded red sign sticks out of a dirt parking lot, indifferently announcing its presence, and the generic venue name written on it might as well be Drink Beer Here. But don't let its drab appearance fool you, because with the money the American Sports Café saves on decor (we suspect the faux-gold-framed sports photos on the walls have been in place for the past decade) they can afford to offer ladies free drinks on Wednesday nights. And that gratis liquor draws a flood of tomboyishly cute, educated women from the nearby Hamline campus. Visor-capped college girls in carpenter jeans and polo shirts share appetizers with spiky-haired, multiple-pierced pool sharks. And every possible stripe of woman seems to stumble out into the dirt lot with a new friend on her arm--proof that the ASC values actual romance over a starry-eyed setting. For a gay-friendly bar, that's keeping your priorities straight.

It was still open in October 2007, when Kathy C. reviewed it for yelp, In this review, it is further clarified that American Sports Café was only lesbian-friendly on Wednesdays, but oh well.

Tucked away on Como and 280 by the tremendously seedy Warehouse Nightclub is a bar's bar, The American Sports Cafe.

What it lacks in ambiance it more than makes up for in drink specials; All American is the home of the famous "Beer and Pizza," which is essentially all the pizza and beer you want for only six bucks.  Although this only happens on Wednesday from 5-8, the rest of the week you can find some killer specials as well.  This is, after all, a Big 10 campus!

For the ladies who love ladies, ladies night (Wednesday night) is chock full of chicks that swing that way, so if you're looking for some girl on girl, guys need not apply!

Wednesdays aren't the only night All American is poppin, they have food AND drink specials every day of the week.

This bar is really country/towny, so if you're looking for a heels type of place, you'd be better off going to the Library.  However, if you're trying to throw back a few in a sweatshirt, pull up a barstool and enjoy!

Yelp reports that American Sports Café is now closed, but as usual, there is no date.

It is now a (presumably straight) male-oriented sports bar called Station 280. As one yelp review from February 2014 reports,

I have never been here past 8PM, so I am not sure what the late night crowd is like. During the afternoon and early evening, there are probably about 9 male patrons to every 1 female patron.  I guess the cheap beer and the cleavage behind the bar keeps the dudes a flocking.

Once again, a women's space is lost, only to be aggressively recolonized like this....