The pole had to go... and a Kickstart helped

By JAN WILLMS

When Tim Cheesebrow and his parents, Dennis and Bonnie, took over the coffee shop at 1539 Hamline in February, they took things slowly.

The business had been operated as Coffee Grounds for the past 20 years, with a small stage for music performances. And on that stage was a pole that had been in the way of musicians for a long time. However, it held up the ceiling and it would not be a simple matter to remove it.

So when the Cheesebrows started their coffee shop, known as the Underground Music Café, they knew that at some point the pole must go.

“We just kind of walked in and took the place over as is,” Tim Cheesebrow acknowledged. “We wanted to get to know people and let them get to know us, get the pulse of the community before we made any changes.”

“We did a lot of listening,” he continued, “and asked questions to discern what the community wanted. After that, we closed for about a week for renovations. We gutted the whole place and put it back together.” But the pole remained.

The Cheesebrows tweaked the menu.

“People really wanted breakfast,” Cheesebrow said. “There used to be only doughnuts, and they said they wished we had something more substantial. So we said sure.” And a breakfast menu was added.

When many people, who came in the afternoon for meetings or work, said they would like to stay and work all day if there were food for lunch, the Underground Music Café added a deli menu. In the evenings, for music listeners, desserts and wine were put on the menu. They hope to incorporate craft beers next.

Cheesebrow, who with his family also owns and operates Musicworks Minnesota, a program that emphasizes songwriting education, offers live music at the Underground Music Café several nights a week.

Cheesebrow has a music composition degree and a studio art degree from St. John’s University. He plays mostly guitar and does vocals, but said he can play a variety of instruments. “Everything except piano,” he joked.

Cheesebrow showcases local performers: folk, classical composers, country and new age music. Bluegrass, old time and big band tunes are played. Dan Newton, an accordion player, provides Cajun, French Bistro and Honky Tonk music.

Musicworks Minnesota has joined forces with several schools to teach songwriting. Cheesebrow teaches three songwriting classes at Moundsview. Once the students have written songs, they bring them in to Essential Sessions Studio, located in the basement of the coffee shop, and have them recorded.

Brad Matala, who operates the studio, talked Cheesebrow into buying the coffee shop.

“Brad records all our classes, and he gives nice recording deals to people who have helped out Musicworks,” Cheesebrow stated. “He’s a real solid guy.”

Musicworks Minnesota is in its fourth year. The program just completed its second year of a blues camp, with 30 kids in attendance. The camp is supported by MacPhail Center for Music.

“The kids played in ensembles all day,” Cheesebrow explained. “They played with big name local blues guys and got a real good education on what the gigging life is like. A lot of work, and it doesn’t pay much.”

Cheesebrow said Musicworks Minnesota is relatively new, but stabilizing quickly.

“We’re out of the initial growth phase and into the establishing growth phase,” he said.

Cheesebrow said that songwriting education is something that no one is doing elsewhere. He has been asked to set up branches in Ohio and Nashville.

“I told them to let me tackle St. Paul first,” he smiled.

And part of tackling St. Paul meant dealing with the conspicuous pole on the stage that all the performers had to maneuver around. Cheesebrow and his family finally decided the time had come to get rid of the pole.

They began a Kickstarter fundraising campaign online in June to renovate the stage, remove the pole and put in a new sound system. They raised $16,500 in 30 days.

One hundred eighty-seven people participated, and the whole project is just weeks away from being completed.

Cheesebrow said the Kickstarter crowd funding project creates ownership for participants. “You can’t get any better PR than that,” he noted.

He said it is an example of all the people who are customers at the Underground Music Café, or are performers there helping, coming together as a community.

“The community support has been overwhelming,” he said. Putting together a Kickstarter campaign is also overwhelming. Cheesebrow said it takes 40 hours a week for two months to run a successful Kickstarter.

“But the whole thing is totally worth it,” he said.

Combining a love of music and fine food is what the Cheesebrows emphasize with the Underground Music Café.

“Eat well, do good and make music is our motto,” Cheesebrow emphasized. “We like to eat and serve good food, and music education is important. It is also important to do some good in the world, and playing music is a natural extension of that.”