Get ready for Lou’s Lounge, an event center slated to open November 5th at 80 East G.E. Patterson Avenue.
Kevin Helms, owner of KH 525 LLC and KH Executive Security Consultants LLC, is the owner of Lou’s Lounge as well as Lou’s Podcast (Speakeasy), which will open October 20th. He also owns Lou’s Patio, which he plans to open October 20th, at 525 South Main Street.
Helms, a former director of security for the Memphis Grizzlies, originally bought a small section of 525 South Main, which he converted to an area where Grizzlies players can watch TV, eat, and chill.
But, he says, “I ended up buying the whole building.” And, he adds, “I was not looking to go into this business, but I saw a need for it.”
Lou’s Patio is the space between his building and Earnestine & Hazel’s. “I wanted the green patio area. It just kept getting junked. People throwing trash in there. Homeless sleeping there.” The patio will be open to the public and feature live music on selected dates.
Helms converted the old Five Spot behind Earnestine & Hazel’s to Lou’s Lounge, which he plans to rent out for events, including birthdays, wedding parties, and corporate functions. The interior is designed by Glennys Bryant with GCD Interiors, who describes her decor as “a mixture of sophistication and grunge. For example,” she says, “We’ve got velvet on one wall, and right past it is 100-year-old brick.”
Lou’s Podcast (Speakeasy), which had been limited to Grizzlies players, is a private club where people will be able to buy memberships entitling them to a key fob to enter through Dvour Desserts, which is in the same building, or — speakeasy style — through a faux podcast studio.
Building a small entertainment empire originally wasn’t in the cards for Helms. He says, “I didn’t plan on doing this. It just happened.”
Helms also wanted to prove something: “There’s more to downtown than Beale Street.”
So, who is the “Lou” his businesses are named after? It’s his wife, Mindy, whose nickname is “Mindy Lou,” Helms says. “We’ve been together since high school. I’ve called her ‘Mindy Lou’ ever since.”
