Portage Bar

The Portage Bar has a long history of dispensing spirits and during much of its life provided both short-term and long-term housing on the second floor. In the early years it was billed as a hotel, although sometimes functioned as a rooming house. By the mid-1950s the second floor provided housing for the saloon proprietor and his family. This was a relatively common choice for merchants in downtown Ely – ‘to live above the store’ – eliminating any commute and being available night and day to monitor the business. The details of 16 East Chapman follow. 

There is some uncertainty about the early years of this building. It appears that John ‘Giovanni’ Gianotti built this building and ran a saloon here in 1900. By I907 he moved his business next door to the building on the East. During the same year, young Mr. Louis Larson from Wisconsin ran the Northern Hotel and Saloon on this site through 1910 and perhaps longer. The Saloon was on the first floor and the hotel (more rooming house) was on the second floor. He employed three workers who lived on site and supported 15 boarders. Rates were $1.00 / day or reduced if rented by the week. The building was fitted with “all modern improvements”.

We lose track of Mr. Larson and of the ownership of the building until the 1940s when the Komatars ran the Ely Hotel and Lounge. Joseph Komatar was a Slovenian immigrant and originally a tailor In Ely. He and his wife, Helen, survived the 1930’s Depression by moving to Minneapolis where he practiced his sewing trade for the Bond Clothing Company, and she worked for the Carnelian Beauty Salon. By 1940, they are back in Ely, and he is running the Ely Hotel and Lounge on this site, and she is the owner/operator of her own beauty salon.  

The next proprietor was Louis (Kat) Zgonc. In 1955 (about) he sold the business to George Spalj who called it “George’s”. In 1970, Richard Anderson bought the bar and called it “The Portage Bar”.  

Although Mr. Gianotti received high praise in his obituary for running an orderly establishment (“not once was it necessary for him to answer to the law for infractions of code”), the building has had a history of activity.  During the Portage Bar era, a local motorcycle enthusiast, Louie Champa, would ride through the bar on his 1340 Harley Low Rider, starting at the back door and covering the length the building. Patrons scattered once they saw the headlights and heard the engine revving at the back entrance. If Louie found himself to be thirsty, which he sometimes was, he would park his bike by the cigarette machine and stop for a quick one on his way through.  

The building has been quiet now since the mid-1990s. We await a new life for the Ely Hotel and Lounge.

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1900 –John ‘Giovanni’ Gianotti owns the Saloon

1907 – Louis Larson runs the Northern Hotel (with First Class Bar in connection)

1942 (or earlier) – Joseph Louis Komatar runs the tavern and hotel

1949 – Kat Zgonc runs the Kat’s Bar

1955 – George Spalj runs George’s Bar

1970 – Richard Anderson runs the Portage Bar

The Sanborn Insurance Maps 1900-1924.

1900 and 1907 Ely City Directories.

Ancestry.com. Accessed April 8th, 2022.

Ely Phone Directories from 1949 to 2020 (available at the Ely-Winton Historical Society).

The Ely Miner, Ely Mn (1913, 1953)

The Ely Echo, Ely Mn (1994)