Local attorney and Metro Councilman John Delgado plans to open his third downtown bar before the end of the year in the space at 421 Third St. that was previously occupied by 3rd Street Pub and, before that, Punchers.
Delgado says he and his business partners, Andrew Bayard and Christian Walther, bought the business from Mike Labat, who is moving to Texas and getting out of the bar business. They are leasing the space from the building’s owner, IPO Baton Rouge Properties, which owns Restaurant IPO next door.
The new bar will be called The Draft House and, as its name implies, will feature more than 90 beers on tap. It’s a concept for downtown the partners have been working on for more than two years, and Delgado believes the market is ripe for it.
“There is unlimited potential downtown for something like this,” Delgado says. “Think about it: we’re going to be in the shadow of the two new residential developments—the Capital One building and the Commerce Building … and the draft beer concept is hot right now.”
The Draft House will be Delgado’s third bar venture in downtown. In 2013, with Bayard and Walther, he opened Huey’s, a craft cocktail lounge at 350 Third St. Earlier this year, with a separate ownership group, he acquired Mud and Water at 175 South Blvd. and changed the name to Brickyard South. A fourth downtown project is in the works, but Delgado says it’s too soon to discuss plans. —Stephanie Riegel
