Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant – What’s in a name

You probably know “Lucy in Disguise” in Baton Rouge, but there’s a new Lucy, and she’s on Third Street. A longstanding institution in New Orleans’ Warehouse District, Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant got its name from a gorgeous red surfboard that owner Bruce Rampick bought on the Jersey Shore. He drove it back to his original Lucy’s in Manhattan and mounted the board behind the bar before the place opened in 1985. The next day, one of his co-owners walked in and said, “This looks like a retired surfers’ bar.” The name stuck, and the board can be seen still hanging at the New Orleans location.

As for “Lucy,” California native and veteran surfer Rampick jokes that she is the Polynesian goddess of surfing. “It was just a feminine name we all liked,” he says. “It’s pretty and kind of cool, and we tend to have cool, pretty women mostly at our bar, so I guess it fits.”