Owner Louis Connelly is aiming to open his namesake bar, Louis Connelly’s, at 322 S. Cleveland St., this summer.
Connelly, a financial analyst by day and bar proprietor by night, is currently renovating the aged space to give it a much-needed touch-up. And while he claims you can’t force the creation of a dive bar, which develops its character over many years, he harbors hopes of Louis Connelly’s earning that moniker someday.
This is Connelly’s first restaurant venture, but he has had plenty of experience working in food service, from Chinese food stalls at the fair to Little Italy. When it comes to his own bar, he has a vision, and he’s looking forward to realizing it.
“It used to be — and I hope it still will be — kind of a neighborhood bar. It’s on the edge of Midtown. … Midtown cool kids, the yuppies, we’ll take ‘em all. Give us your poor, give us your hungry, we’ll take them in and feed them,” he says.
Because there is only a small kitchen, the menu will be small, but mighty, with excellent nachos playing a key role. “I’m a really big fan of nachos,” Connelly says. “There’s not a lot of bars that do really good nachos.”
He plans to have a fryer and make his own chips, in addition to burgers, wings, and maybe even egg rolls and crab rangoons, inspired by his time spent living in China. “Standard bar food with a little bit of weirdness” — and really high quality — is the goal. He’ll also be encouraging creativity, changing up the menu to keep things interesting and liven up the old dive from time to time.
