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This venue is closed.

Rudy’s has long been the favorite of quitting-timers and downtowners venturing North. But when the seats are all taken there, extra U-booths can be found at this bar from one of beloved dive’s owners. Here, you’ll get the same free hot dogs and baskets of buttery popcorn or shelled peanuts. What you won’t get is that loveable dinginess. In fact, the vintage circus posters, lacquered floors, blue-and-green walls, and the fireplace (replete with stiff benches of weathered pine) would make this narrow space downright respectable if not for the MP3 jukebox blaring Counting Crows, the bottom-level brews on tap, and the Bourbon Street-worthy specials. (A $40 party pitcher of your favorite cocktail could serve a car-full of clowns.) Although the $3 beers occasionally lure in sideshow escapees, for the most part the clientele consists of suspenders-wearing World Wide Plaza slummers and older frat boys who ought to be caged. — Daniel Maurer