The Red Herring Lounge

Specialties

The Red Herring Lounge is a music venue, art gallery and cocktail lounge, specializing in: live music, artfully-​crafted cocktails and special events. For all intents and purposes, it is THE bar to visit when in Duluth.

History

Established in 2014.

The Red Herring Lounge is housed in a 130 year-​old building that originally held the Lake Superior Fish Company (1890s — ?). Other known business entities in the building include: The Rocket Bar (50s — early 70s) and The Hippo Vegetarian Restaurant (80s).

The building was acquired by present owner Bob Monahan in November of 2013 and renovated to accommodate The Red Herring, as well as the offices and recording studios for Monahan’s record label, Chaperone Records (est. 2012) in the building’s basement.

Meet the Business Owner

Bob M.

Business Owner

Bob Monahan was born in Duluth, MN in 1978. He spent his school years between International Falls, Duluth, and Shoreview, MN, graduating from Roseville Area Highschool in 1996. From there, he spent four years scouring the globe– and himself– for some semblance of meaning/​direction before meeting the would-​be mother of his daughter in the spring of 2000.

The rest is a lot of things; some heartbreaking, some heartbreakingly beautiful.

After a series of attempts, Monahan launched his first entrepreneurial success, Chaperone Records, a vinyl-​centric record label catering to Duluth’s increasingly underrepresented pool of musical creatives. Seeing the need for said creatives to present their talents and the growing need for a dedicated space for music, Monahan passively sought out a place that might meet these needs, stumbling on the modest façade and run-​down charm of 208 E 1^st St. one Autumn afternoon. The rest is too much to write here.