NEW ORLEANS – LOCAL 718, a “five-star dive bar” and restaurant concept from The Little Easy owner Brian Mullin, has announced two veterans of the New Orleans bar scene as its management team. Melissa Harrigan and Jeff Youngblood will be running LOCAL 718 when it first opens its doors on Bourbon Street in the former home of Johnny White’s Corner Bar and Hole in the Wall.
“I am grateful and fortunate to have Melissa and Jeff running LOCAL 718,” said Mullin, LOCAL 718 operations manager. “Both Melissa and Jeff are well known within the New Orleans bar scene. They’re well-respected within the service industry and have the experience and expertise to handle whatever madness Bourbon Street throws our way.”
Harrigan will serve as general manager of LOCAL 718. Having run numerous venues in San Diego and Tempe, Ariz., she is best known locally for her seven-year stint at Coop’s Place on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. “I am very excited for the opportunity to rebuild and develop a new concept at such an iconic location,” she said. “LOCAL 718 is going to be a fun dive bar that will fit in perfectly with the energy the French Quarter brings.”
Jeff Youngblood will serve as the LOCAL 718 beverage director. Like Harrigan, Youngblood is also returning to the French Quarter bar and restaurant scene. He spent years behind the bar at the venerable Erin Rose on Conti Street and before that he was the director of bars at the Hilton Hotel. “There’s no better street than Bourbon,” said Youngblood. “It’s going to be a privilege running this historic bar in this historic neighborhood.”
LOCAL 718 wants to serve people who live in the French Quarter and visit the French Quarter. The menu will feature red beans and rice, gumbo, and jambalaya alongside sliders, hot dogs and New Jersey’s famous French fries – topped with roast beef debris and cheese. LOCAL 718 will serve a wide variety of local and regional beers and expert cocktails “that don’t take ten minutes to make.” LOCAL 718 is a place to catch a Saints and LSU game, and also enjoy the best of what New Orleans local live music, stand-up comedy, and DJ scene has to offer. LOCAL 718 will be located at 718 Bourbon Street at the corner of Orleans Street.
