By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Nightlife Blogger
San Diego’s nightlife-heavy Gaslamp Quarter used to have a Fat Tuesday parade that went down Fifth Ave. For many, it brought a true feeling of New Orleans right to their doorstep.
Now, another kind of Fat Tuesday is coming to the Gaslamp. A bar chain that started in New Orleans, Fat Tuesday, is going into the location previously occupied by Henry’s Pub, which abruptly closed in May.
Fat Tuesday – the bar – has been serving up sugary and very potent frozen drinks on Bourbon Street to partying tourists since 1984. Its drinks, like the Cat 5 Hurricane which its website describes as “a tropical tasting free spirit blowing into a party town near you,” come in branded clear plastic cups or in large and thin plastic tubes with a bulb at the bottom. In New Orleans and Las Vegas, those drinks can be taken out of the bar so you see people carrying them around Bourbon Street and the Vegas Strip, but that won’t be the case in San Diego.
Several years ago, there was a slushy drinks bar around the corner on Market & Sixth where Smoking Gun is now located but “nobody went to it,” a long-time local told PubClub.com
This time it might be a different story with the corporate power behind Fat Tuesday. It’s certainly in prime location to thrive, between barleymash and American Junkie. For all of its nightlife places, the Gaslamp actually has very few full-out party bars.
Kevin Wilkeson is a San Diego resident who has been to New Oreleans many times. No AI or ChatGTP was used to write this article.
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