Featuring The Pool Boy
Happy’s Irish Pub

Pool Boy recently called Dive Bar Girl to complain about Happy’s. DBG has been avoiding writing about this
scourge for a couple of years now. Pool Boy was gracious enough to share his thoughts in this week’s column,
and spare DBG the pain.

PB: I remember the day I first heard about Happy’s. I couldn’t believe I was hearing Baton Rouge, Irish pub and
downtown in the same sentence. I had fond memories of the Thirsty Tiger, so I was stoked about this premise.

My first thoughts upon entering: 1) This is no pub. This is a bar, a loud, obnoxious, kitschy bar. 2) Wait, what
was that girl wearing? 3) See, this is why Baton Rouge can’t have nice things, because this is what’s popular.
4) *sigh* The girl who just served me that beer is too young to order one herself, as evidenced by the braces on
her teeth.

Why this hate for Happy’s? Well, there’s the blatant sexism involved in any breastaurant (breastaupub?).
There’s the embarrassment I feel when people recommend Happy’s to out-of-towners. Finally, there’s the fact
that, yet again, here was a chance to get a simple, unpretentious downtown drink, but it was spoiled because the
owner just couldn’t open a nice bar.

Perhaps this isn’t Happy’s fault. Maybe BR can’t support another Teddy’s or Thirsty Tiger or something without
terrible decor and short skirted servers. Maybe I should pin this on the poor taste of their customers. After all,
this is likely the same crowd who gladly suffer the bad food at Walk-On’s (same owners as Happy’s) when they
could be sampling the deliciousness of Sammy’s or the Chimes like the last generation did.

If you ask me to meet you downtown for a drink, I will always suggest Red Star or Houndogs. At least there the
character is unmanufactured.

There is one nice thing to say about Happy’s. Their popular running club regularly brings a large crowd of people
downtown on a weeknight.
Let’s hope they go somewhere less sexist for their post-run beers.

cherrythedivebargirl@gmail.com