60 wild, wacky years of The Elbow Room and how owners have kept it a class act

The Elbow Room was always something special, even before everyone knew it.

In 1985, it was making the News Journal’s “best-kept secret” lists, and today in 2023, you’ll still hear it fondly described as a “hole-in-the-wall,” “hidden gem,” “dive bar” or “an if you know, you know" type of place.

Twenty-somethings fire up pinball machines, girlfriends in their 70s and 80s chat and nibble on delectable specialty pizzas and flatbreads. Children run over to choose from the stash of board games stacked on the shelf.

60 years later it may be more popular than ever, but it remains one of the few sacred Pensacola places that time hasn’t touched.

If you love The Elbow Room at 2213 W. Cervantes St., you have a dive bar somewhere in Paris, France, to thank. Because that’s where the bar’s founder, Navy veteran Jim Flynn, first discovered the bar during his deployment that gave him the inspiration for Pensacola’s version. Dark walls, red lights. He was mystified.

“Nowadays I guess we would call it kitschy, but back then, it was just unique for the time, maybe a little progressive,” Elbow Room co-owner Lesa Touchette said.

It was when Flynn traveled home in 1963 to reunite with his mother, Maggie Flynn – who at the time, owned an old-school diner called Maggie’s Café that was next door to where The Elbow Room is today – that he talked her into creating a replica of the French bar. The red spray paint still under lampshades, when the lightbulbs were the intended target, testify to the bar’s quirky conversion process.

When the new name was being thrown around, it was teased that The Elbow Room would be the perfect fit, since patrons would likely be sitting shoulder to shoulder in the former quaint café. Years later when the building’s landlord hiked the rent in 1984, Flynn did not give up his dream. Instead, he built an identical building next door to the one that he was renting.

The new location felt luxuriously spacious with it its extra 4 feet of width and open-air patio.

When it was time for the big move, the bars regulars showed up assembly-line-style alongside Flynn to roll the bar down West Cervantes Street and into its new home, its cushiony, red leather elbow pads still intact.

Bar regular Margaret Langford, 78, missed the entire spectacle because she was helping Maggie sweep up the place next door. But Langford’s late husband was the one who had the stroke of genius to run a pipe under it to make it easier to roll.

Her husband was the one who first introduced her to The Elbow Room when they first met in 1968, and you can still find her there every Thursday.

“There was no other bar in Pensacola like it,” Langford said, remembering her first visit.

But there are some songs she will hear come on, one being her karaoke pick, “The Heart of Rock & Roll,” that takes her back to everyone inside of The Elbow Room throwing their hands up and singing when the jukebox played it. In her mind, she is transported back to the days of wearing black leather high heels, skirts “above the knee” and the occasional dancing on the bar top when the crowd was small enough.

“That old jukebox had the best songs,” Langford said with a giggle.

Her black heels were such a wardrobe staple that Flynn swore that one left atop his car one night belonged to her. She insisted it was impossible. Too small, she told him, but it was too late. The story had stuck.

The lone shoe not only became a piece of Elbow Room folklore but a living New Year’s Eve tradition, where the battered size six and a half musty black pump is passed around to drink out of every year (with a hiatus during the COVID years).

Flynn liked to have a good time, but when his patrons were in his business, which was more like his house, there was a standard of decency and expectations to follow.

It started with the dress code, as Flynn would set the tone with a parlor vest and cloth napkin always draped over his shoulder. Touchette still finds herself following his “Jim-isms,” like topping off the remainder of a beer bottle in a patron’s glass once they have started to make a dent in it.

The bar’s “house rules” printed on the menu were largely inspired by Flynn, Touchette said. Staff members often find themselves making decisions by substituting the “J” in “what would Jesus do?” to “what would Jim do?”

Aside from the basic rules, such as prohibiting smoking or requiring a valid ID to be served alcohol, the Flynn-inspired rules are simple to spot.

#10. Always use a coaster (even on the tablecloths)!

#7. Watch your mouth! There ARE ladies present!

But it all comes down to the most important rule of all:

#1 Respect the establishment! AND, the people in it!

That was the biggest piece of the Elbow Room that Flynn fought to preserve. Much of his bar was considered “old-school” from the vintage "Star Trek" or Schlitz Beer signage to the no-TV rule (which Touchette was eventually able to reach a compromise on). The biggest thing he never wanted to change were the old-school manners and respect that isn’t always guaranteed in the modern-day bar scene.

“He would have let it rot here and die before he let just anybody buy it from him and change it,” Langford said.

That is, until Touchette changed his mind.

Although Flynn was reluctant to sell, Touchette was not just anybody. Her grandmother, a tiny little thing nicknamed “Mean Jean,” was Maggie’s neighbor. There were many a night where Jean stepped in as Maggie’s “security” on the nights she was working alone. If you’re dying to see a photo of the ferocious woman, there is a blown-up photograph of her smiling and wearing a coconut bra in the women’s wheelchair-accessible bathroom stall.

When she developed dementia circa 2007 or 2008, Touchette would regularly drive her. And without fail, every time they would pass The Elbow Room, she would say, “We can’t let The Elbow Room close.”

At that time, Flynn’s health was also suffering after he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the bar was only open when he was well enough. Sometimes the only way of telling if they were serving was if his car was in the parking lot.

Touchette, of all people, knew the importance of not changing the local icon. But she also knew the responsibility required for keeping it afloat. Eventually, she brought on co-owner Jonathan Owens to divide and conquer responsibilities, though Owens was no stranger to The Elbow Room either.

“My older sister would babysit me and I would come sit on the bar right here, and Jim would make pepperoni sandwiches for me while my sister was babysitting me,” Owens said. “My sister is 17 years older than me, so when she moved back from New York, she would come in, come hang out with her friend, Jim, and bring me with her.”

Touchette and Owens worked together to keep its charm while keeping the building up to par, repainting the walls before hanging everything back up exactly where it was again.

After Jim died in November 2016, the bar has still managed to remain virtually unchanged, largely due to their intentional care and staff, which they consider to be the bar's heartbeat. It’s still decked out in its French-inspired ruby lights and "Star Trek" memorabilia, the way Flynn liked it. The hand-written pinball scores are still on a poster. There is still a stack of records behind the bar for rotations. The red paint drips are still dried on some of the art on the walls. But there was one somewhat major tweak under Touchette’s reign.

In early 2022, the bar obtained its liquor license after 59 years of being beer and wine only. After years of inching toward the liquor license, such as playing around with champagne fruit juice “cocktails,” they were finally able to score a real liquor license. But the moment of truth came after, to see if The Elbow Room would still be The Elbow Room. To her delight, it didn’t change a thing, except provide more options.

“I had anxiety over it becoming too much of a bar atmosphere and not respectful like it is. But luckily - it hasn’t changed,” Touchette said.

To celebrate the bar’s 60th birthday this October, Touchette and Owens are working on bringing in the elusive Schlitz beer to sell throughout the month, decorating the patio area to resemble the Schlitz Palm Garden and have some special new merchandise for sale. The two invite customers, new and old, to spend October celebrating with them.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: The Elbow Room bar and restaurant celebrates 60 years this October