How Bar Louie Bounced Back
Things were not looking great for Bar Louie in early 2020. The gastropub chain had in January closed 38 of its 134 locations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and put itself up for sale. Covid-19 would then envelope the U.S. two months later, which would eventually prompt more closures.
But Bar Louie quickly and quietly emerged from bankruptcy in June 2020, after secured lender Antares Capital LP purchased the company and acquired $82.5 million of debt. Since then the brand has been reorganizing, retrenching and revamping. Key to the turnaround is a refocus on the bar.
Beverage has always been a major part of the brand, says Ian Welby, Bar Louie’s vice president of beverage and execution. After all, it has “bar” in the name and the logo includes a Martini glass.
“I think in recent years we might have lost focus of that just a touch,” he notes. “I think we did what we had to do to try and get through the pandemic successfully.”
It’s now about getting back to Bar Louie’s core: delicious drinks, chef-inspired food and friendly service in a relaxed atmosphere. “We want to make sure that we keep the bar at the forefront,” Welby says.
“Our sales mix is 51% liquor, beer and wine versus food, which is pretty rare for a corporate concept — especially one our size. So the beverage business is our bread and butter; it’s incredibly important to us.”
Back to the ’90s
Bar Louie kicked off 2025 with a year-long celebration honoring its 35 anniversary. This includes offering several nostalgic ’90s cocktails, such as the Long Island Iced Tea, Sex On the Beach, Blue Hawaiian and Alabama Slammer for a limited time.
“I’ve been trying for some time now to get some of those ’90s cocktails in, whether it’s an LTO or on the menu,” says Welby. “I think it’s a really fun decade.”
To celebrate its 35 anniversary this year, Bar Louie will offer several nostalgic ’90s cocktails.
Martinis are a key component of the brand: It offers several signature Martinis as well as a Martini of the Month. Best-sellers include the Grand Lemon Drop, made with Deep Eddy lemon vodka, Grand Marnier and lemon; Diva (with Skyy pineapple vodka, Pama pomegranate liqueur, pomegranate juice and pineapple); and the Midnight Berry (Tito’s vodka, Peachtree peach schnapps, with a Twang nectarberry rim and blackberries).
Other top cocktails at Bar Louie include the Wild Berry Margarita, with Don Julio blanco tequila, blackberry, strawberry, Truly Wild Berry seltzer, Twang nectarberry and blueberries, and the Pink Flamingo Paloma (Casamigos blanco tequila, Deep Eddy ruby red vodka, agave, lime and Fever-Tree sparkling grapefruit). “Anything with tequila is incredibly popular,” Welby says.
Bar Louie also has a few Spiked Sangrias house mixed to order, and Spiked Dessert Drinks such as the new Whole Lotta Latte, made with Smirnoff caramel vodka, RumChata, cream, espresso and cinnamon. Cocktail prices range from $13 to $15 depending on the market.
Pairing up
Part of Bar Louie’s strategy to lean into adult beverages is to create alcohol pairings that enhance the dining experience.
For example, this past Valentine’s Day, Bar Louie launched a four-course, prix-fixe menu with curated wine and cocktail pairings. The meal included a 3-oz. pour of Fleurs de Prairie rosé with the first course, the From Paris With Love Martini for the entrée, and a 3-oz. pour of Josh Cellars cabernet sauvignon with dessert.
This follows the success of Bar Louie’s seasonal prix-fixe menu, which ran through December 2024 and featured wine pairings with each course while also highlighting new premium wines such as Kim Crawford sauvignon blanc and Joel Gott Palisades red blend.
“We had really great food and really great drinks before, but I’m not sure if we ever approached it as, hey, this dish and this cocktail would make a really great pairing,” Welby notes.
He also wants to cross-utilize some products to make it more efficient for the bars and lower costs, as well as eliminate waste and become a little more sustainable.
Bar Louie will be pairing burgers with specific beers. Examples include the Chef’s Burger paired with Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA; the Blazin’ Burger paired with New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Juicy Hazy IPA; and the Truffle Crunch Burger with Guinness.
The beer selection ranges from popular domestics to a variety of imports, with seasonally relevant brews that align with holidays and major events. For St. Patrick’s Day, the chain will highlight Irish beers such as Guinness, while introducing unique variations by mixing it with other selections. For example, the Snake Bite drink blends Guinness and Angry Orchard hard cider.
For St. Patrick’s Day, Bar Louie will highlight Irish beers, while introducing unique variations such as the Snake Bite, a blend of Guinness and Angry Orchard hard cider.
Wine isn’t a huge part of the beverage mix, but Bar Louie has upgraded its offering, adding brands such as Rodney Strong, Unshackled and Meomi. “We want to make sure that we give you a good Happy Hour wine at a good price point, but if you’re coming in and you want a higher quality product, we’re going to have that for you too,” Welby says.
Recognizing the MVBs
Finding and keeping bar talent remains a struggle for on-premise operators, and it’s no different at Bar Louie. The restaurant brand tries to focus on finding people with the right personality for service — those who are genuinely hospitable and like to have fun at work.
You can teach most people how to follow a recipe and build a drink, Welby says. “The reason I go to my favorite bar is for the bartenders and the servers and the person who owns that bar — you can find a draft beer or a cocktail almost anywhere.”
Ian Welby, Bar Louie’s vice president of beverage and execution.
Retaining staff is a bigger challenge than hiring, he notes. One thing that’s helped is Bar Louie’s most valuable bartender contest launched two years ago. It’s evolved to a two-day long event during which the 10 best Bar Louie bartenders from different regions all over the country compete on job knowledge, skills, speed, technique and more. This past year the MVB search was held at Campari’s academy space in New York and concluded with an original cocktail competition.
The program helps identify the best people in the company and retain the outstanding bar team members, Welby says. “Hopefully it attracts some new talent too.”
Bar Louie has also embraced technology such as 1Huddle, an app that uses mobile games for employee onboarding and training. It just started to work with FusionPrep, a platform that enables it to store and communicate recipes, builds, training documents, photos and videos.
Still, Welby says, “I think there’s nothing better than in-person training,” making some cocktails together, discussing why a drink is made a certain way, why they chose the specific spirit, and so on. Knowing the story behind the beverages gives the bar team another talking point with the guest, he explains, and increases the likelihood that they will sell those drinks.
Growing pains
Chicago restaurateurs Roger Greenfield and Ted Kasmir opened the first Bar Louie in 1990 as a neighborhood tavern-style spot. The chain soon expanded, reaching 46 locations by 2010 when it was acquired by Sun Capital, which owned the brand through 2019.
Bar Louie, which moved its headquarters to Addison, TX, about 15 years ago, had reached 134 units by 2019. “We grew really big, really fast,” says Welby, who has been with the company for 17 years, starting as a bar manager and taking over the lead beverage role nearly three years ago.
The overexpansion, along with declining revenue, hurt the company. By 2019, Bar Louie was trying to sell itself but failed to make a deal.
As such, the early 2020 bankruptcy filing, which cited an “inconsistent brand experience” as one of the reasons, was the right decision, Welby believes. The restructures and closures were painful, “but we did the best we could. All signs were pointing in the right direction for about 45 days, and then March came” with the pandemic, forcing more pivots.
Despite the Covid challenges, Bar Louie emerged from bankruptcy within six months. Since then, the chain has been focusing on improving all aspects of the guest experience. How is the post-pandemic business different?
There is some more price sensitivity with guests, Welby notes, and the late-night daypart has taken a hit as people don’t want to stay out as late. This was starting before Covid, he adds, but “we don’t see the late night as much as we used to; it’s a lot more day drinking or Happy Hour and into the dinner daypart.”
Bar Louie currently operates 64 locations, with plans to open more.
Another issue is that people — particularly the younger generations — aren’t drinking as much. “We’re navigating as well as we can, doing more with low-ABV, or handcrafted cocktails using spirit-free products,” Welby says. “It helps that some of the free-spirit products out there are outstanding.”
Bar Louie’s nonalcoholic cocktails, typically priced $9 to $10, include the Island Hopper, made with orange, passion fruit, sparkling water and lime, and the new Pineapple Upside Down Margarita, with Ritual tequila alternative, vanilla, lime, pineapple, grenadine and Sprite.
A quality-driven approach
The company currently operates 64 locations, but it’s planning to open more. “I would love to see us up over 100 bars again,” Welby says. “We’ve got some stellar executive leadership and some great people, and they’re giving us the power and the tools to be successful, so we can move in that direction.”
Brian Wright, former CEO of the Tijuana Flats restaurant chain, joined Bar Louie as CEO in September 2022. The company also hired Joel Reynders as vice president of culinary and executive chef in May 2023.
A menu update coming out in May will include new items such as a smoked cocktail and some inventive Margaritas. Bar Louie began partnering with Illy espresso for its coffee program last year, “so you’ll see some innovation around that,” says Welby.
Coffee might not be the biggest sales driver for a bar/restaurant, but the quality is more important than many people realize, he explains. It’s not only the coffee itself, “but if you’re using that product in a cocktail, you can tell the difference, and I think the consumer recognizes that,” says Welby. It shows that “we’re going to put care into every beverage that comes over our bar.”
Martinis are a key component of Bar Louie’s brand: It offers several signature Martinis as well as a Martini of the Month.
Whether a guest wants to hit the Happy Hour specials, or sip a nice glass of wine or Martini with a steak, or enjoy a few brews watching sports, “we’ve got all of it for you,” he says. And it’s all going to be top quality.
“We’re not afraid to use premium spirits, or to spend a little bit more money on some higher cost stuff,” Welby adds. “We’re okay with a slightly smaller margin to know that the guest is going come in and try this drink and they’re going to be blown away.”
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