I Have Been to Bauer Brothers. My Life is Now Complete.

Post and photos by the Hawthorne Hawkman

I admit it.  I've fallen short on my duties in promoting cool housing items and amazing businesses right in my own backyard.  Quite a few of those in my close social circle have often spoke about going to Bauer Brothers for items that compliment the homes they have been rehabbing and restoring.  But I also heard so many of my south Minneapolis friends gush about how amazing this place is that I just assumed it was somewhere OTHER than right here in NoMi.  Certainly it couldn't be in Hawthorne, I thought.

But here it is, 2432 2nd St N, right behind the Holiday gas station where I buy my paper every day.  (That Holiday is the best gas station in this part of NoMi, I might add.  The clerks are always friendly, plenty of cops patronize the place, and they don't sell white tees or other obvious items that enable gang/thug activity.)

At a birthday party this week for Mr. Irving Inquisition, I spoke to several of my neighbors who expressed surprise that I'd never been to Bauer Brothers before.  To my credit though, most of the items for sale are geared towards owners of older/historic homes or antique collectors, not renters or tenants - items such as stained glass windows.

Wherever and whatever the Blue Fox was, it must have been a heck of a place.

Bauer Brothers is four stories of gloriously random odds and ends, ranging from the aforementioned stained glass to doors (front doors, closets, automatic sliding glass doors, antique elevator doors from the Fitz in St. Paul, and even old jail and safe doors) to furniture to movie seats and bar stools to hutches and light fixtures and appliances and just about everything you could imagine.  If you've ever gone to the Humane Society and felt an overwhelming urge to just take home every single adorable puppy in the place, then you've got some idea of what I was feeling here.

As excited as I was about virtually everything here, I took photos only of the oddest items.  There's just too much to take in otherwise.  Let's start with...