The Hat Trick Lounge

Located deep in the heart of downtown St. Paul—so deep that there isn’t much else going on around it—The Hat Trick Lounge is a no-frills watering hole catering to the hockey and slow-pitch softball set. On Friday and Saturday nights, however, one of the place’s neatest “tricks” is that it books some surprisingly good local music acts in a variety of genres, from blues, funk, soul, R & B and psychadelia to bluegrass, Texas swing, and the occasional acoustic fingerpicker or guitar-strumming troubador. The beer selection leans toward the cheap and watery, and the food is either fried or grilled, but the vibe is friendly and there’s always a game to watch.