{"id":2226975,"date":"2026-01-08T13:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2226975"},"modified":"2026-01-08T13:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T13:12:12","slug":"classic-new-orleans-dive-bar-the-kingpin-celebrates-25-years-keith-spera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/classic-new-orleans-dive-bar-the-kingpin-celebrates-25-years-keith-spera\/","title":{"rendered":"Classic New Orleans dive bar The Kingpin celebrates 25 years | Keith Spera"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The thought process that led Steve Watson and Ben Sherman to open the Kingpin, one of New Orleans\u2019 classic neighborhood dive bars, in 2001 was relatively straightforward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe liked drinking,\u201d Watson recalled this week. \u201cWe figured we could drink and bartend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of not really knowing what we were doing. It took off on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n

A quarter century later, the Kingpin, tucked in at 1307 Lyons St., between Prytania and Perrier, is a much-loved Uptown watering hole with a side hustle in live music.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Kingpin celebrates its 25th anniversary with a full afternoon and evening of live music both outside and inside. New Orleans keyboardist John \u201cPapa\u201d Gros kicks off the festivities outside at 2:30 p.m. He\u2019s followed by trumpeter James Andrews at 4 p.m., Americana band Thousand $ Car\u00a0\u2014 which features Watson on bass\u00a0\u2014 at 6\u00a0p.m. and A Clockwork Elvis at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Kingpin Bar has grown into an Uptown institution for drinks after work or on a night on the town.<\/p>\n

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\n Staff file photo by MATTHEW HINTON<\/span>
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The party moves inside for yacht rock cover band Light Rock Express at 9 p.m. Admission is free.<\/p>\n

Watson and Sherman grew up together in Washington, D.C. Their parents were involved in bars and restaurants, so they were steeped in the hospitality industry. The duo were roommates in Madison, Wisconsin, before they ended up in Austin, Texas, where Watson played with the Neptunes and other bands.<\/p>\n

Eventually, they landed in New Orleans. After deciding the little room on Lyons Street would be a fine location for a business, they scraped together several thousand dollars, enough to stock the bar, pay three months\u2019 rent, and buy a couple of window AC units. With that, the Kingpin was up and running.<\/p>\n

From the get-go, the Kingpin featured Elvis Presley tribute band A Clockwork Elvis on the anniversary of the King\u2019s birth and death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Steve Watson co-owner of The Kingpin starts taking things off the walls to give away to patrons as part of a smoke out event around midnight when the new smoking ban went into effect in New Orleans, La. Tuesday, April 21, 2015.<\/p>\n

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\n Matthew Hinton | The Advocate<\/span>
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During the pandemic shutdown, the Kingpin started hosting outdoor concerts to give musicians work and fans a chance to hear live music again. Watson booked James Andrews, John \u201cPapa\u201d Gros and other musician buddies for the concerts, enjoying the process of \u201cbeing on the other side of the business\u201d of live music.<\/p>\n

As weather permits, the Kingpin continues to present a couple outdoor shows a month. In addition to A Clockwork Elvis, the bar\u2019s other standing gig is the biannual appearance by Light Rock Express.<\/p>\n

The Houston-based yacht rock cover band typically instigates mass singalongs in the packed bar. In addition to closing down Saturday\u2019s anniversary party, Light Rock Express will also be at the Kingpin starting at 9 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Members of the extended Manning and Landrieu families have been regulars over the years. Both Cooper Manning and Mitch Landrieu have served as guest singers with Light Rock Express.<\/p>\n

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Tyree “Squeak” Nelson performs with James Andrews in front of the Kingpin in New Orleans, Saturday, May 28, 2022. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com<\/a>, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)<\/p>\n

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\n Sophia Germer<\/span>
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Nicole Richie has partaken of the Kingpin\u2019s hospitality. So has Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki. When Nowitzki was in town for the NBA All-Star Game a few years back, Watson recalled, he had to duck down to pass through the doorway, then stuck around until long past sunrise.<\/p>\n

But the bar\u2019s main clientele has always consisted of locals from the neighborhood and beyond. They’re drawn to this uniquely New Orleans bar founded by a couple of transplants who found the city\u00a0\u2014 and the Kingpin\u00a0\u2014 to be very much to their liking.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been a blast,\u201d Watson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve enjoyed it so much. I\u2019m lucky to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The thought process that led Steve Watson and Ben Sherman to open the Kingpin, one of New Orleans\u2019 classic neighborhood dive bars, in 2001 was relatively straightforward. \u201cWe liked drinking,\u201d Watson recalled this week. \u201cWe figured we could drink and bartend. \u201cThere was a lot of not really knowing what we were doing. It took […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2226976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[128321],"class_list":["post-2226975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-hardwall"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Classic-New-Orleans-dive-bar-The-Kingpin-celebrates-25-years.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2226975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2226977,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226975\/revisions\/2226977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2226976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2226975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2226975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2226975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}