While strict dress codes aren’t foreign to Baton Rouge bar patrons, some students believe downtown hot spots have been using dress-code violations as excuses to discriminate against their patrons.
Jasmin Hughes, a student at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, said she was refused entrance into Punchers Sports Bar, a downtown Baton Rouge hangout, about two weeks ago based on a “dress-code violation” for leggings.
Hughes said she had been to Punchers on numerous other occasions and was unaware of any dress code the club enforced.
“That night, the bouncer couldn’t give me a reason as to why my leggings were out of dress,” she said.
Hughes said she has worn leggings into Punchers before without problems, and on the night Punchers turned her away, she wore the same outfit to both Radio Bar and Roux House, two downtown establishments near Punchers.
“There were no issues with other bars that night,” she said. “I’ve never had an issue with dress codes in bars ever before.”
Hughes, a black student, was accompanied by a group of other African-American students and said she was the only person to be refused entrance into the club.
“I thought that this might be his way of trying to get us all to leave,” she said.
In response to complaints of discrimination, Puncher’s co-owner Mike Labat said all customers are welcomed at his bar.
“Come to Punchers any night of the week, and you’ll see a diverse group of people,” he said. “Punchers is a melting pot for downtown Baton Rouge.”
Labat said there is a loose dress code at Punchers similar to other bars in the downtown area — “We don’t want baggy clothes or flashy jewelry,” he said — but he couldn’t answer questions about specifics of what is appropriate. He instead encouraged patrons to call the office and ask if they’re in doubt.
“We can’t set the dress code in stone,” he said. “There [would] be hundreds of pages of what can’t come in.”
Labat didn’t have a definitive answer on whether tights are permitted in the bar, though he said women in tights would “probably not” be allowed inside. Exceptions will occasionally be made for customers attending theme parties, so tights might be allowed in the event of an ’80s theme, he said.
Hughes said another African-American woman wearing a polo shirt approached her outside Punchers the night she was refused entrance and told her she had also been refused entrance due to a “dress-code violation.”
Later that week, Hughes brought the incident to the attention of her fellow classmates at the law center, who said they had heard of similar incidents occurring in the downtown Baton Rouge area.
“It seems like other people know about incidents like mine,” she said.
Hughes said she considered contacting the bar’s management about the incident but decided against it after reading a couple of online reviews of the bar. 
“In one review, it seemed like it was a white person who heard the manager tell the bouncer that there were too many black people in the bar, and they needed to start turning them away,” she said. “Then, the next black person that walked to the door was turned away for a ‘dress-code violation.'”
Hughes said she’s seen a variety of inappropriate clothing at Punchers on regular nights that have gone unregulated.
“There doesn’t seem to be an established dress code,” she said. “I saw people with flip flops and
baggy jeans.”
Quentin Anderson, another
student at the law center, said he was refused entrance into Punchers on three separate occasions. He said he’s been turned away once for wearing white shoes, another time for boots and most recently for wearing a fraternity T-shirt, which the doorman considered “gang attire.”
Anderson said he has never been confronted about his dress at The Office, another downtown bar.
“Maybe they have different dress codes,” he said. “I’m not sure if it was on the basis of anything other than bad clothing.”
Labat said patrons may also be refused from entrance into Punchers if it’s too crowded.
On an average Friday night,
Labat said about 500 people frequent the bar, while anywhere from 600 to 800 attend on Saturday nights.
Labat said the bar’s maximum capacity is about 375, but it also has an outdoor patio area for additional customers.
In order to keep the bar’s capacity within the legal measures of the fire code, Labat said the doormen count the number of customers at the door, and management watches the club floor to make sure the club isn’t too crowded and customers are comfortable.
 
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Contact Kate Mabry at [email protected]