Music sets the tone at Minneapolis hangout Small Hours
by Stacy Brooks
February 05, 2025
The website for Small Hours includes everything you’d expect to find on a wine bar’s website, like the menu, hours, and an address. But then there’s something a little out of the ordinary: an itemized list of sound equipment, including Klipsch La Scala loudspeakers, a Varia Instruments RDM20 rotary mixer, Luxman PD-441 turntables, and a Cary Audio SLI-80HS integrated tube amp. Music isn’t a background feature at Small Hours — at the intimate hi-fi bar in northeast Minneapolis, it’s a main focus.
Small Hours, which opened last September, is a collaboration between sommelier Sarina Garibović and Americana musician Sam Cassidy. From the acoustic tiles on the ceiling to the elegant wooden shelves of vinyl behind the bar, everything about the space feels carefully considered. A few cues nudge guests to slow down and settle in. There’s a wine list focusing on bottles as well as Cassidy’s preference to play full LPs from his collection of 1,000-plus records. “The musician took the time to sequence a record and make a full body of work,” he explains. “I want to present it the way they intended and just let you sit with it.”
The music selection, which includes jazz, pop, rock, reggae, dub, and what Cassidy describes as “almost ambient music,” reflects his wide-ranging and eclectic personal taste. “I try to focus on things that are maybe a little off the beaten path or people don't hear all the time,” Cassidy says. “[I] hope that people leave having discovered something new or heard something that they're surprised to hear at a bar, even if they do know it.”
The hi-fi equipment and acoustics at Small Hours are immediately noticeable. It’s not that the sound is loud or overpowering, but rather that each auditory element is crisp and discernible. At a typical bar, the sound system gives you more of a black-and-white outline; at Small Hours, the song is in full, vibrant color. The music sounds rich and velvety, the audio equivalent of sinking into a plush mattress.
Three by British electronic musician Four Tet was playing on the turntable as I sat down, and during my visit I heard roughly the second half of the album, including the tracks “Daydream Repeat” and “Three Drums.” Cassidy mentioned that he plays that particular Four Tet record, which was released in 2024, quite a bit. Next up was the album Calling Out of Context by Arthur Russell. The posthumously released synth-pop compilation album includes “That’s Us/Wild Combination” (my favorite song of the evening) and “Calling All Kids.”
The noise level started around 65 decibels (which my decibel meter app tells me is “normal conversation”) and spiked up to 75 (“inside car”) as the space filled up with other guests. Despite the increased conversation noise, the music remained distinct throughout the evening. (I could even hear an occasional crackle on the vinyl.) It was also easy to chat with my dining companion.
Small Hours offers more than 120 bottles of wine, with most falling in the $65-$100 range. French options dominate, with Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Croatia, and the U.S. well-represented. I felt a tinge of decision paralysis in the face of so many choices, but eventually settled on the Gackes Unten Riesling from the Hermann Ludes Estate in Germany’s Mosel Valley ($65). It’s a lovely wine: delicate and crisp, the various distinct floral, fruit, and mineral notes coming together in a sort of pastel rainbow.
If wine by the bottle isn’t your thing, there are a few wines available by the glass, plus non-alcoholic drinks like n/a wine, botanical soda, and sparkling tea. For after-dinner sips, amaro, port, and Madeira are available by the glass.
As far as food goes, the bulk of the menu is devoted to nearly 40 types of tinned fish. The products are laid out like a wine list, grouped by fish type — sardines, tuna, mussels, plant-based, and so on — with the producer and country of origin provided for each. I ordered the smoked oil-packed trout from Danish producer Minnow ($14), which arrived garnished with microgreens. Caper berries and baguette slices came on the side. (Gluten-free crackers are available by request.) The robust smoky flavor was like digging into a piece of smoked trout on the way up the North Shore, with the fresh bread filling it out into a satisfying snack.
There’s also an assortment of small plates, including shrimp cocktail, chicken liver mousse, roasted carrots, and a ricotta tart. Several items are vegetarian and/or gluten-free, and there are a couple of vegan options like olives and kabocha squash.
The intentionally crafted, slow-paced experience at Small Hours is the exact opposite of how most of us consume media: frantically scrolling through ever-shorter news stories, pithy social media posts, 30-second videos, and AI-curated playlists. My evening at Small Hours was one of the few times in recent memory that I was forced to slow down and focus, to appreciate the nuances of a single wine and listen to an entire album. The evening was comfortably languid, the music gently meandering from one track to the next as I felt the tension in my neck and shoulders slowly melt away.
“[Our goal is] not to be cooler than you or anything like that,” says Cassidy. “It's that I really enjoy this stuff, and I think it should be heard more. Music is such a deep well, and it gives so much.”
Seven albums in heavy rotation at Small Hours
iiyo iiyo iiyo, Sam Wilkes
Ptah, the El Daoud, Alice Coltrane
Contrahouse, Contrahouse
Dog Eat Dog, Joni Mitchell
High, The Blue Nile
Mighty Vertebrate, Anna Butterss
Wisdom Through Music, Pharaoh Sanders
