Swamp Bar at The Second Line is now open for business. This is the new pop-up bar in the space formerly occupied by Pantà at 2146 Monroe Avenue.
Swamp Bar and The Second Line, which is next door, have now become one.
“I’m taking the whole Second Line property here and creating this whole property as one identity,” says Derk Meitzler, Iris Restaurant Group director of operations. “It’s all Second Line restaurant now. This is the ‘Swamp Bar at The Second Line.’ It’s basically another bar area. Another dining floor plan area.”
Swamp Bar is “just a little bit more cozy. A little bit more funky. The music we’re playing is Meters and funky New Orleans stuff. A little different twist on cocktails besides the standards from Second Line.”
Meitzler will be cooking, but, he says, he basically will be overseeing Swamp Bar. “I took this project on as kind of my little ‘fun I get to do other than the other restaurant stuff I have to do.’”
The food is “a global Creole menu. Right now it’s a little Asian infused.”
Swamp Bar gives him a chance to “play with a small menu” in addition to featuring some of the Second Line items people love, including the traditional po’ boys and barbecued shrimp.
“I have a dish I’ve done off and on through my other places. I have a crawfish pad thai — our version of pad thai with crawfish and with fermented black beans. A different twist to it.”
He also included “a curry shrimp and grits with coconut grits and panang curry. I’ve added our greens to the dish.”
And Meitzler added “vegan influenced” Creole dishes, including “lemongrass tofu bites with black rice. And we’ve taken a twist on the po’ boys by just doing banh mi-style using fried shrimp, fried oysters, or pork belly and ham.”
Also, he says, “I’m playing around. I’ve started making crawfish dumplings.”
Looking to the future, he says, “I’ve got a late night menu planned if it comes to that.”
Bartender Sam Reeves will serve her signature cocktail, the “Sneaky Lil Bee,” which includes autumnal gin, lemon, honey, black chai syrup, and clove bitters; and her “Napoleon Complex,” which is made with 80-year-old rum, espresso, and ube syrup, and coffee liqueur.
“She’s also done some neat little mocktails.”
Decor includes some of the Pantà furnishings. “‘Pantà means ‘swamp,’ so it made it easy to flip the Spanish word for ‘swamp’ to the English ‘swamp.’ We still have the mural of the bayou behind the bar. We added a TV on the side. People can watch their favorite Grizzlies or Tiger game.”
They set up a lounge in the front window and they’re in the process of making the back area a “lounge, sit-down” area where people “relax, and have cocktails and nibble on food.
“We brought in black and white photos that connect to Second Line. New Orleans Second Line photos and photos of New Orleans. And we’re going to add more to it.”
So, could the Swamp Bar pop-up eventually become a full-fledged restaurant? “A good possibility,” Meitzler says.
Swamp Bar at The Second Line is open 5 p.m. ’till on Wednesdays through Saturdays.