I am Leslie Bock.
Entrepreneur
Creating magical mayhem can be a tough road. I started my career in fashion design. With $5000 left to me by my grandma when she died, I opened the world’s tiniest store called DV8 on Lyndale near Lynlake. Prince’s (as in the former) stylist at that time, would come in and shop for clothing. I made everything myself. This random occurance was the little spark that kept my hope alive. Other than that, my efforts to keep my chin up were difficult that first year. I found a new location in Uptown, morphed DV8 into Saint Sabrina‘s (which opened in 1993) and segued into the body modification business. Piercing and tattooing became big business and my first floor space became a two story mini complex. I thought I would open a second location on the U of M campus, but unfortunately, I was a bit ahead of my time and that didn’t pan out. No tattooing on campus. Restless after a couple of years, I decided to try my hand at the restaurant/bar business. How tough could it be? (Idiot?) I went in believing that pierced, tattooed, and pink haired people needed jobs and quirky places to go, so I thought I would open a tiki and pizza place in a former A & W drive-in and call it Psycho Suzi’s. It seemed like a good idea. It started off slow, but through word of mouth and some media attention, it took off like gangbusters. So, thinking I actually could possibly know what I was doing, I had another idea. Open a zombie bar that was anti-zombie and pro-human and call it Donny Dirk’s Zombie Den and make it be very fancy but cheap. After some serious misunderstandings by my new neighbors and the city as to how I was going to turn the former Stand Up Frank’s (which was deemed a liability by the police department) into an asset, I proceeded. The fight almost wore me out, but I pressed on. Opening Donny Dirk’s was a huge struggle, but it built up my character. Two years passed, and another opportunity was on the horizon. Riverfront property became available within blocks of Psycho Suzi’s, so I just had to figure out a way to move the restaurant. Being 5 times larger than the current location was a serious mind screw, so I questioned myself repeatedly, do this many people really want tiki drinks and pizza in Northeast? Apparently, they do. Anyway, I’ve got one more in me. Hope to see you soon.
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