Something about the old Printer’s Alley bar piqued Louis Connelly’s interest.
“There’s just something about bars that are sort of old and run-down and dilapidated,” he says. “And the other people that are there are just looking to have a good time and not taking themselves too seriously.”
“You need some characters there for sure,” he adds.
Printer’s Alley was “a fun place to end the night. When every other place was closed, Printer’s Alley was open.”
Connelly is now owner of Louis Connelly’s Bar for Fun Times & Friendship, which opened February 3rd in the space once occupied by Printer’s Alley at 322 South Cleveland.
When he moved from Brunswick, Maine, to Memphis, Connelly didn’t dream he’d open a nightspot. “At that time in my life I didn’t really have enough money to even consider opening a restaurant or bar or anything.”
He used to stop in Printer’s Alley every couple of months. “I ended up there one, two o’clock in the morning. Nothing particularly bad happened while I was there. I guess it went through a series of different owners. I moved here in 2013. From when I moved here and until it got shut down, I got along with various bartenders and owners.”
He knew Printer’s Alley didn’t have the greatest reputation. “Not a good local spot to hang out,” he says. “Smoking inside, for one, turned off a lot of people. I knew that drug use was sort of rampant. I just knew it was a little bit of a shady bar. Overall, my experiences were positive.
“Now that I own it, people are telling me all sorts of stuff. Picking up ladies of the night or whatever.”
Connelly, who works at Evolve Bank & Trust, would “look at different websites that post businesses for sale.”
When he discovered Printer’s Alley, he called up the renter and went by the place. “It was pretty dilapidated as you can imagine.”
But it fit his budget. “I liked the history of the building and the spot. I don’t live in Central Gardens. I live in Cooper-Young. I always thought people in Central Gardens don’t really have a local spot to hang out.”
He signed the lease a year ago. “I got a guy in there and we drew up some plans and he started working on it.”
Connelly hired manager Mickey Blancq, a Memphis restaurant veteran.
And he hired Dustin Brantley to “help with the decor and the vibe. To get that right. He’s really punk rock.”
Brantley has been working in production design and set decoration in Memphis for the past 10 years.
He’s not a drinker, but “I’ve always been a big fan of dive bars and that culture and that feel,” says Brantley.
Searching in antique stores, private collections, and other sources, Brantley says he brought in a lot of advertising from the ’70s and ’80s, and historical pieces dating back to the ’60s.
He wanted “to honor the history” of the old Printer’s Alley space.
“Whether you’re a 70-year-old biker or a 21-year-old Midtown artist, I wanted people to feel like they belong here,” Brantley adds. “So, I just took that and ran with it. I wanted it to feel familiar in a way that all good dive bars should feel.”
Connelly kept some Printer’s Alley pieces, including a mural. As for renovations, Connelly says, “We took out the hallway that was next to the bathrooms to expand the kitchen. And then we covered up the brick wall that had a chalk wall on it on the other side with an actual wall to make it easier to hang stuff up like TVs.”
They put in a new bar. “That [old] bar was not worth salvaging. It was completely busted up. And we moved the bar from one side of the room to the other. It’s much more functional over there.”
He considered keeping the old epoxy bar top, which had pennies and old photos of Printer’s Alley customers attached to it, but, he says, “Hey, we’re going for a new bar. It doesn’t really make sense to keep pictures of people I don’t know.”
Connelly created a “full kitchen” by adding new equipment, including a flat top grill, a charbroiler, and a new stove. “They literally only had one kitchen stove. Like one that you’d have at your house.”
Blancq, Connelly, and chef Juan Amaro collaborated on the menu, which includes nachos, Philly cheesesteaks, and smashburgers. “Really solid bar food,” Blancq says. “Nothing too fancy. Just making bar food right.”
They had a great response at their grand opening February 3rd. “I think our whole vibe is different enough that we’re going to attract a new clientele,” Connelly says.
Louis Connelly’s Bar will close at 3 a.m. “We do want to stay open late.”
Not too many local bars are open late these days, he says. “The pandemic killed a lot of them. P&H is gone.”
“This is new,” Connelly continues, “but we want to make it feel like it’s been there for a while. It will take a lot more time to really get that feel. I think we’re starting from a really good place.”
