re: downtown baton rouge resturant scene

Before Boudreaux and Thibodaux’s it was marazils then Rasputins

River room closed? That was one I wasn’t sure about. Still pissed red star turned into that joint.

Forgot about city bar. That place getting popular was probably the real signal of the end.

Driftwood was just old retail before they built it out.

In 2014 you had:

Happys
Roux house
Lucy’s
Schlitz
B&Ts
Blues Room
City Bar
Hueys
Draft House
Bald Eagle
Downtown Daquiri Lounge
Hound Dogs
Red Star
The Office
Brickyard

Crazy how it’s dropped off

Damn I’m legit stunned brickyard is still kicking.

Hound Dogs closed a couple years back and Daq Lounge sometime before them.

Bald Eagle is indeed still open.

frick the River Room

They also opened The Vintage (from New Orleans) in the space Magpie used to be. I've been a couple of times and I think the place could probably do well in another part of town, but I have doubts about it surviving downtown.

Fortunately for them, they are a mixed concept with a coffee bar, breakfast items, lunch, a full service bar, and small plates/dinner. So they hit all times of the day.

I can't speak for Happy's right now, but I have friends that like going there and were there the other night. I went pretty early during covid when we were in that first week of Phase 2 before they shut back down the bars.

Parish County Line ( ) was playing out back and it was shoulder-to-shoulder packed. This was that period when bars were open briefly and the mask thing hadn't happened yet.

I worked in downtown BR from 2007-2012 as a 20-something young professional and lived in midcity. Midcity wasn't quite what it is today, so the only entertainment for us was downtown, and we spent a bunch of time down there. Red Star was my base of operation, but I frequented other places as well. It was really on the up and up for that time period. In college, all we'd go downtown for was Tabby's for the keg beer or that one bar next to the casino (SoGo or something like that) that didn't card and had 3-for-1s Nothing else was really around in the early 2000s. Late 2000s saw a big improvement. Lots of private investment, Town Square being redone, and more hotel rooms. It looked like it could go somewhere. Kip did an amazing job down there, but without him the helm, the ship lost it's way.

Last time I "went out" down there was 2017, and it was a totally different place. Half the places were closed up, and the other half were a shell of their former self. I will say I love that Matherne's. That's what downtown needed, but unfortunately it needed it a decade ago. We ate at Cocha and it was really good.

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Between mayor broomme, the city council and the downtown development district....it had no chance of being sucessful

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DDD did a lot to improve downtown. I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Baton Rouge doesn’t have an uptown.
The only neighborhoods up river from Downtown are Exxon, Plank Road, and Southern University (The Bluff).

I guess if I were insane and attempting to gentrify the 70805, I’d try to rename the Plank Road area Uptown.

As far as creating a “downtown” like area closer to the growth in the Parish, that’s basically what Perkins Rowe is. I hope it eventually becomes referred to as “Downtown” St. George.

What’s going on with Spanish Moon? Saw a shite ton of good bands there over the years.

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What’s going on with Spanish Moon? Saw a shite ton of good bands there over the years.

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Yeah that was definitely one of my regular hangs for a long time. I heard they closed from a friend of mine but I don’t know how reliable that is.

Spanish Moon closed for renovations a few years ago and never opened back up