Rival House Sporting Parlour opens in downtown St. Paul

Rival House Sporting Parlour is at 411 Minnesota St. in downtown St. Paul. (Courtesy of Rival House)

Rival House is on the street level of the DoubleTree hotel in downtown St. Paul. (Courtesy of Rival House)

The new street-level sports-themed restaurant in the DoubleTree by Hilton in downtown St. Paul is now open.

Rival House Sporting Parlour is the creation of Graves Hospitality Corp., which manages the hotel, along with the Crowne Plaza on the riverfront, for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.

The band bought the properties last year, and construction on the restaurant began shortly thereafter. Previously, there was only a skyway-level eatery in the hotel.

The sports theme of Rival House goes beyond big-screen showings of sporting events. There are also pinball machines, Skee-Ball, pingpong and tabletop games like Jenga.

The restaurant has partnered with the Red Wagon Pizza wagon, which frequents the Linden Hills Farmers' Market in Minneapolis, and uses its pizza recipes in a wood-fired oven. The pizza features farm-fresh ingredients and a heritage-wheat crust. There also are other bar snacks and entrees.

As for the drinks, servers are all certified cicerones (basically beer sommeliers), and the restaurant has 24 craft beers on tap. There are also beer-focused cocktails and other drinks assembled by the renowned bartenders at Bradstreet Craftshouse, which is a Graves concept.

Bradstreet, as we previously reported, will be moving from the 601 Graves Hotel, which was sold and is being renamed, to the old Rye Deli spot in Uptown this fall.

Rival House Sporting Parlour: 411 Minnesota St., St. Paul; 651-255-0645; rivalhousestpaul.com

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Rival House Sporting Parlour opens in downtown St. Paul