The State Bar & Grub

For those of you that don't know, this is the place that took over where Louie's formerly was at the northgates of LSU. The concept is to specialize in cocktails and gourmet grilled cheeses. I was excited to give this place a try, so me and some friends decided to go after the LSU game last Saturday to grab some drinks and food.

The 225 magazine articles said "this bar is softly lit and intimate"... This was a severe understatement. The place is black. We were unsure if the place was open when we walked by it. The lighting, coupled with the 3 random dudes smoking cigarettes on the front porch, all but assured me that the place would be completely empty when we walked in. It was. It felt like they were practically trying to drive people away from the place.

After we seated, I asked to see a drink menu, but I was told they didn't have one yet, so the bartender came over and explained some of the house drinks to us. Luckily we were the only ones there or she would have had a rough go of it.

We ordered our food and drinks, which all of seemed to enjoy. It seems like more and more places are opening up that specialize in "gourmet grilled cheese". Just a pet peeve of mine, but if a gourmet grilled cheese has roast beef on it, its a roast beef sandwich.

When we finished our meal and were ready to get to a bar that didn't require night vision goggles, we asked for our bills.... Except they don't do bills. Instead the waitress had an ipad. She went around the table, one by one, telling us our total while we paid her while she stood at the edge of our table. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be the future of the restaurant business but I hope not. It was painful.

Next time we will likely opt to go elsewhere after games, preferably somewhere that doesn't completely kill the mood after an LSU victory. I really want these new places on north campus to do well, but clearly we weren't the type of customer base they were looking for.