Southdowns Lounge back in business

Nearly a year after it closed, the Southdowns Lounge is reopening. Only this time, the bar is in St. Gabriel and not near the popular Baton Rouge neighborhood. The bar will hold a reopening this weekend at its new location on La. 30. “There was not any location in Baton Rouge that we liked,” says owner Rodney Cary. Cary says Southdowns has been well received by people living in St. Gabriel. “They don’t have anything like this out here,” he says. While the bar will still sell its popular Purple Haze cocktails, Southdowns plans to start selling pizzas in a few weeks. Cary says the layout is similar to the old Perkins Road location, which closed after the bar’s landlord decided to redevelop the old Southdowns Shopping Center. “The only difference is there’s not a dance room separating the two bars,” he says. For more about Southdowns, visit the bar’s Web site here.—Timothy Boone