Get ready for the Giggle Water. The owners of Mr. Paul’s Supper Club have transformed the sandwich stand at the back of their restaurant and sometimes pop-up bar into a whole new business.
Carnival Bar (3917 Market St.) will open April 17 in the former Po’ Boys and Jams location with a neighborhood-friendly menu and good-time-inspiring cocktails.
“We’re super excited,” said Carrie Erickson, who owns Mr. Paul’s along with her spouse/executive chef Tommy Begnaud and their business partner Courtney Briden. “We love our neighbors and wanted to open a neighborhood bar with kind of a casual, but swanky, Hollywood Regency vibe.”
The room has gotten a complete makeover, leaning into the old-school circus paraphernalia that Begnaud already has, thanks to his inspiration and art-collecting grandfather, the namesake Mr. Paul.
On the menu are snacks like pimento cheese poppers and deviled eggs as well as the burgers that have garnered an enthusiastic following. Prices will mostly range from $9-$15.
Behind the bar is beverage director Nick Kosevich, who will keep the frozen Irish coffee around, but the rest of the drinks lean into whimsy, like the Giggle Water: vodka flavored with cherry blossoms, cherry bark vanilla, cotton candy seltzer and citrus bubbles. There’s also a “miraculous color-changing cordial” with gin, rhubarb, butterfly pea flower, and ginger or popcorn margaritas — two words we haven’t heard together before. Those prices are mainly $15-$16. A trio of NA cocktails are also on the menu, including an Old Fashioned for $14.
The slim space allows for seating at the 14 bar stools with three high-top tables and a 12-seat patio that will come back soon.
For now, the bar will only be open Thursdays through Saturdays from 4 p.m. until close, when it isn’t booked out for private events. People will want to follow @CarnivalBar on Instagram for up-to-the moment information on hours.
