Pool Do's expands menu to become temporary restaurant

With a state mandate severely limiting its services, Pool Do’s Sports Bar in Morgan City has gotten creative as it recently transitioned to a Pool Do’s Restaurant.
While co-owner Rocky Roussell said the move only will be a temporary one as they will go back to being a bar after Gov. John Bel Edward’s mandate on bars being limited to curbside service is lifted, he said it is a way to pay bills and keep his employees on the payroll.
“I don’t know if we could make much money doing this, but it can help keep the place for us rather than lose the place, and it gives the girls some income,” Roussell said Wednesday. “Most of them are going to school and paying their way through school.”
One of those workers, Madison Doiron, is attending Nicholls State University in Thibodaux where she is majoring in mass communication and marketing.
“I pay for all my bills, and I live on my own,” she said, noting she depends a lot on her job for everything.
Fellow employee Taylor Verret has two children and just bought a house. She said that living off unemployment each month without enhanced benefits is not enough to live on.
“It’s been financially a struggle,” she said.
Then, there’s also the risk of catching the virus, Verret said, noting that anytime employees possibly may have been exposed through interaction with the public at work, they have to pay for the testing.
Pool Do’s is among a group of Acadiana bars that currently are battling Edwards in federal court to remain open as they were with limited capacity prior to Edwards’ mandate in early July that limited them to curbside service. Edwards argued the spread of the virus is linked to bars. A hearing was held in Lafayette in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on their preliminary injunction Monday, and they are awaiting a ruling on the matter.
The governor’s ruling already has been upheld in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
“I think it went as well as to be expected,” Roussell said of the western district hearing. “I don’t think we expected to overturn the governor. I think our main goal here is just to show that we do care, and we want to be open, try to put a little pressure.”
He said Pool Do’s simply wants compensation to try to stay in business with the restrictions in place.
While Pool Do’s offered a limited menu when it was operating as a bar, it has expanded its offerings with its new food permit as a restaurant.
“We try to increase it a little bit each week, try to get the kitchen a little bigger,” Roussell said. “We’re in the process of doing that. We’re not going to quit.”
So far, the change has not been bad, Roussell said.
“Actually, a little better than I thought,” he said of the restaurant, open to those ages 18 and older because video poker machines are not in an enclosed area.
Verret said that the customers have helped, too.
“Thankfully, we have a lot of loyal regulars, and everybody’s been really supportive (and) understanding making us into a restaurant,” she said.
The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.