Lou’s is a very small little pub in the Lakeview district in Birmingham which is a great place to hang out with friends. It’s right in the middle of the entertaining district with lots of other bars and retaurants around. There is NO FOOD served here but you can get take out from one of the other businesses close by. Lou’s makes the best frozen Bushwacker drink around. they say it is the same recepie as the Florabama bar. Highly recommend you stop in for a visit.

– beachlover0817

When you put a bar inside a liquor store, it’s like you’re inviting customers to leave by reminding them they can just as easily buy a bottle of Jack and drink at home. And the thing is, the first time you walk through that door and Lou barks at you to hurry up and order, the only thing you think about is leaving.

But it’ll start to make sense when the after-work crowd descends on the concrete patio tables outside. And then Frankie strolls out there and hands everyone custom-made Lou’s Pub & Package ass cushions. Three hours later, when Lou is busting your balls and you’re laughing your quite comfortable ass off, you’ll start to wonder if you might be sitting in the middle of the least-profitable liquor store on the planet.

Written by: Neely Harris
Read article here: The Best Bars in America

Bring your dog. Free treats and ice water! Best porch for close friends.

– Anne

Ask the bartender to roll the dice. You pay $1.00 & have two chances to roll the dice and win a bag of cash. Tonight might be your lucky night.

– Melissa J.

Lou’s Pub & Package Store in Birmingham’s Lakeview District was sold Friday to family friend Michael Carpri

Lou’s Pub & Package Store, popular gathering spot in Birmingham’s Lakeview District for 21 years, was sold Friday.

The new owner, Michael Carpri, plans to keep the name and the staff. Carpri took over operation of the pub Friday afternoon.

“I’m planning on keeping everything the exact same – the name, the memorabilia, the prices, the clientele, the staff, everything,” Carpri said.

The pub’s previous owner, Louis Zaden, died of heart failure on Aug. 14, and family members have been running Lou’s since he died. He was 59.

With his booming voice, colorful vocabulary and outgoing personality, the beloved Zaden made his bar a Birmingham institution. Last year, Esquire magazine named it one of the best bars in America.

“I’ve got big shoes to fill, there is no doubt,” Carpri said. “I don’t want to do anything to step on Lou’s legacy. All I can do is continue the customer service and the scolding of the clientele that he performed so well.

Carpri, a friend of the Zaden family, has worked as a bartender at Zydeco and the Blue Monkey.

“A lot of people wanted to buy it, but I was really looking for a person who has a vested interest,” Nick Zaden, Louis Zaden’s brother, said.

The Zadens’ mother, Helen Zaden, still plans to drop by Lou’s on a regular basis, her son said.

“Mom is still going to come down here an hour or two a day, just to meet people and talk to people,” he said.

Lou’s Pub & Package Store, a popular gathering spot in Birmingham’s Lakeview District for 21 years, has been sold, a family member said today.

Michael Carpri, who has worked in the bar business at Zydeco and the Blue Monkey, will take over operation of the pub today, Nick Zaden said. Carpri plans to keep the name and the staff, Zaden added.

The pub’s colorful owner, Louis Zaden, died of heart failure on Aug. 14, and family members have been running Lou’s since his death.

Zaden, who was 59, greeted customers with “Hey, Baby!” and was known for giving customer a hard time — all in fun. The bar was named by Esquire magazine last year as one of the Best Bars in America, and celebrated its 21st anniversary this month.

Lou’s Pub has often been compared to bar in the TV show “Cheers,” where “everybody knows your name.”

We haven’t been to Lou’s as often in recent years, as having a preschooler does put a damper on alcoholic binges. Last time I was there, with my sister, Lou put on a big act of acting hurt, putting his nose up in the air and ignoring me before giving me a big smile.

As the Birmingham Business Journal noted in a 2003 article, Lou’s had a major role in the Lakeview renaissance, which began in the mid-1980s and has expanded in recent years.

An awful lot of people have an empty feeling inside today. Lou is dead. If you’re wondering “Lou, who?”, then you didn’t know him. But for countless people in Birmingham and across the country, Lou was a one-name legend like Madonna or Bono.

His full name was Lou Zaden and he was the owner and proprietor of Lou’s Pub and Package Store in Birmingham’s Lakeview District. For most of his patrons, Lou was a friend. For several others, Lou was family. Lou was found dead in his home Thursday. He was just 59.

Walking into Lou’s Pub felt like walking into the middle of a Broadway show, with Lou always commanding center stage. “HEY BABY!” he’d bellow to regulars and strangers alike. Lou’s Pub was the only place where getting yelled at made you feel welcome.

If you hadn’t stopped by to see Lou in a while, he’d greet you with a gruff “Where the hell YOU been?” or an overly sarcastic “It’s good to see SOME PEOPLE can make time for their friends every once in a while.”

You felt sheepish and ashamed, like you let your best friend down, and in some ways, you had. But after a little while, Lou would calm down and you would be fast friends again. Perhaps Lou’s greatest gift was that he was truly an old-school bartender.

Any idiot can pull a tap or pour a drink, but Lou took time to get to know each and every one of his customers. It wasn’t just the regulars, either. One of my college buddies from D.C. has been to Lou’s two or three times over the past eight years. Every time Sagar walked in, Lou remembered his name, where he was from, and what he was drinking. Same thing for my brother, Marc, from Boston.

It was remarkable, and I’ll never know how Lou did it. But that type of care says so much about a guy who really didn’t have to care. Now, Lou Zaden is dead. He’ll never yell at me again. Right now, I’d trade anything in the world to make that not so. Like I said, there are a lot of people who have an empty feeling inside today.