Pryes Brewing Unveils 12-Screen Sports Mezzanine in Minneapolis Taproom

Twelve screens, some of them angled directly into the main taproom floor below: that's the setup Pryes Brewing just added to its riverside Minneapolis taproom at 1401 West River Road North. The brewery opened a new sports-centered space it calls the sports mezzanine, a room featuring 12 TV screens, some of which face into the main taproom as well.

The timing was deliberate. With 12 screens and plenty of room to spread out, the mezzanine launched squarely in the middle of March Madness, and Pryes isn't being shy about the opening promotion: two-for-one tallboys and Pragmatic Pilsners while the NCAA tournament runs. Pragmatic Pils is Pryes' clean, crisp, easy-drinking classic Czech pilsner, making it a sensible flagship to put on special for bracket season.

The food situation is worth noting for anyone planning a game-day visit. Pryes is located along the Mississippi River and the in-house kitchen has always been a draw, with elote fries, wood-fired pizzas, and mini donuts all accessible from the new mezzanine space. Pair that with the full beer list on tap and you have a legitimate full-session setup rather than just a bar with TVs bolted to a wall.

What separates this from a seasonal stunt is the commitment Pryes made in its announcement: as a proud sponsor of the Minnesota Twins, all Twins baseball is on the screens all season long, along with Vikings football, Wild hockey, and Timberwolves and Lynx matchups. March Madness got the mezzanine its debut, but the Twins' 162-game schedule is what will define it as a destination through October.

Pryes is the largest self-distributing brewery that only distributes within Minnesota, and operates one of the largest taprooms in Minneapolis, so the infrastructure to pull off a permanent sports viewing space was already in place. The mezzanine level itself isn't new to the building; the taproom has an existing upper-level mezzanine area that the brewery has now converted and branded specifically for sports programming.

For anyone who has watched a Twins game at a bar with one screen over the register and poor sightlines, the 12-screen build-out at a brewery with a full kitchen and a riverside patio is a meaningful upgrade to the Twin Cities' game-watching options.