Nearly a year after it was damaged in a fire, one of the nation’s oldest LGBTQ+ bars will reopen Thursday in Minneapolis.

Last March, a garbage truck struck a power pole, knocking it onto the nearby bar, which started on fire. No one was hurt, management reported, but the bar was badly burned and has been closed, under reconstruction ever since.

A 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS crew was welcomed in on Wednesday for an exclusive first look ahead of opening day.

It was a complete remodel “from basement to roof,” said owner Gary Hallberg.

“I get texts, emails constantly, ‘When are you opening? When are you opening? When you opening?'” Hallberg shared. “We thought last November. But, anyway, it’s opening,” he said with a laugh.

“It’ll be fun to see people and get everything working again and get the bartenders meeting all their friends who come back. It’s going to be exciting.”

Hallberg has been the owner of the 73-year-old Minneapolis institution since the 1990s. Decades later, it’s still known in the neighborhood, in part, for the pool tables and the prices.

“You can have a fun night here without going broke,” Hallberg said.

“I’ve always said people make friends here, lifetime friends; conversation, beer, shooting pool, pinball, it’s a wholesale bar. It’s like, you might find this up in northern Minnesota, just as easy as you would find it here.”

Manager Craig Wilson has gone from patron to bartender to manager over the years, and in a couple of months, he will take over as owner.

“I felt I was home, and it was. And I knew it’d be mine someday, and I worked my way to get to this point,” Wilson said.

“It’s come a long way since I chatted with you last time,” he continued, referencing when 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS visited in November.

At the time, the bar had been stripped “down to the studs,” and was being rebuilt inside.

“I can’t believe we’re actually here, that like I said, the finish line is here,” Wilson said.

“There has been a lot of outreach of love and support, of memories that people have shared about their experiences here, how they met here… the laughter, the silliness we all have them, and it’s just fun to hear the stories that I wasn’t even aware of.”

Hallberg recalled the moment he got the call about the March 2024 fire.

“It was just devastating news. But the silver lining is that an hour later, we would have three guys in the basement with kegs, delivering to our keg cooler,” he said.

“As it is, Luke, one of the bartender, cleaners, was here. He still had to duck-walk to the door and get his key and to get out. And that was all within three seconds this place was engulfed… It could have been horrible.”

A year and many helping hands later, the pool tables and classic jukebox are back. And after a final wipedown on Wednesday, the infamous portrait of Queen Elizabeth II was hoisted back up onto the wall.

She ascended the throne the year the bar first opened.

“It’ll be arms open and ready to greet the whole world,” Wilson said.

“I have to thank the whole community and thank all the employees. Everybody stayed with me,” Hallberg said, also thanking Wilson and his brother, Mark Hallberg, who handled much of the reconstruction.

19 Bar will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.