Mahony’s Irish Pub, which opened at 124 W. Chimes St. outside the north gates of the LSU campus in mid 2015, closed in December after what owner Gary Brown says was a disappointing football season.
“Our first year, we did pretty well and we expected the second football season to be 30 to 40 percent better,” Brown says. “But after the season and everything that happened people just didn’t tailgate as much.”
The bar is the second establishment to close in that location in as many years. Reginelli’s Pizzeria, a New Orleans-based restaurant chain, closed in May 2015 after nearly eight years in business. Owner Darryl Reginelli cited difficulties with parking in the neighborhood, erratic crowds and a shift in the LSU student population toward the south side of campus.
Brown agrees parking is a major factor in keeping business away from West Chimes Street, but also says his other establishments placed too many demands on his time.
“If we had had a decent football season last fall we would have hung in there,” he says. “But it was too risky to go forward with everything else we have going on.
Property owner Pete Losavio doesn’t have a new tenant lined up yet, but says he believes the location works well for a nightclub or a bar/restaurant concept.
The building at 124 W. Chimes St. was once a pool hall in the 1940s and was later the popular Bayou Bar, where some scenes from the movie Sex, Lies, and Videotape were filmed. Bayou Bar burned down in 2002 and was home to a string of tenants after it was restored until Reginelli’s opened in 2007.
—Stephanie Riegel
