Baton Rouge’s newest bar is off to a rockin’ start with about two weeks of business under its belt.
Radio Bar, located on Government Street, is catering to the 21-and-over crowd, serving drinks, cocktails and patron-selected tunes to the city’s young professionals.
Owned by locals Brian Baiamonte and Dave Remmetter, the bar is the first of its kind, allowing guests to select and rearrange the night’s set list through an iPhone app.
The pair said they have been planning the bar for about a year, organizing the concept, acquiring zoning permits and nailing down every detail from drink specials to light bulbs.
Baiamonte and Remmetter said they walked the Mid City neighborhoods surrounding their current location several
times, gathering support and petitioning to allow the bar to open on Government Street, before standing before a vote from the Metro Council.
Rezoning for Radio Bar was approved by a close vote, and Remmetter, who also owns Chelsea’s Cafe and Cuban Liquor, said they have already seen many community members support the business.
“It’s important to the neighborhood because they wanted it,” he said. “The community around here rallied for us to get rezoned. They wanted it, and we were happy enough to give it to open.”
The bar works like a high-tech jukebox, allowing guests to select songs they want to hear from a list of about 1,500 more “approachable” songs taken from Remmetter and Baiamonte’s personal libraries, using the smartphone app.
Baiamonte said people can also choose from a selection of songs from the entire music library that contains more than 20,000 songs.
The playlist also streams online via Radio Bar’s website.
Baiamonte said visitors can expect to hear music from a variety of bands, such as the Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, Willie Nelson and Led Zeppelin. The library also includes recent hits and will continue to grow with the bar.
“Dave’s been booking fans forever, and people send him tons and tons of music,” he said. “When I was 18 or 19, I started buying a couple CDs a week. It’s kind of cool, seeing young people get turned on to music that we thought was awesome when we were their