Nightlife in Thibodaux

Since 2003, Charlie Brown's Family Sports Grill & Bar has paired an extensive menu of grilled sandwiches, steaks, and seafood with a feast for the eyes made up of 25 large flatscreen televisions. The restaurant's buffalo chicken wings come with or without bones, just like the majestic buffalo chickens of yesteryear, and its charbroiled and grilled burgers are piled with enough delicious bacon, cheese, and sautéed mushrooms to distract children from the kids' arcade for a while. Dishes such as fried soft-shell crab and shrimp alfredo offer a seafood angle to the entree list, which also documents chicken-fried steak and 14-ounce rib eyes served, and 8-ounce filets served with with veggies and mashed potatoes. To help guests to wash down hearty meals and salute the local sports memorabilia draped on the walls, the bartenders have composed a long list of beers, specialty drinks, and wines.

Onezia indulges lounge lizards with an assortment of premium stogies, top-shelf spirits, and imported beer and wine amid plush leather furniture, plasma TVs, and live music. A custom-made humidor brims with a feast of tobacco logs, including Mike's 1950 Toro ($4.50), Brazilia Samba ($7.50), and Romeo y Julieta Aniversario Churchill ($9), named for Winston Churchill’s love of reciting Shakespearean soliloquies. Puffs pair up with tantalizing tastes of Myer’s Dark rum ($6), Patron Silver tequila ($8), and myriad scotches, whiskeys, and bourbons, including Crown Royal Special Reserve ($9), Dewar’s 12-Year-Old ($8), and Booker’s ($11). Talented barkeeps amalgamate the top-shelf brands to elegantly craft lemon-drop martinis ($7) and manhattans ($6–$9), whereas tropically flavored mojitos ($7) accompany traditional warm-weather activities such as snorkeling or capsizing a paper sailboat. Barley-quenching gullets can revel in the bar’s collection of imported and domestic beers, such as Newcastle Brown Ale ($4), whereas an array of wines nurses fruit-deficient bodies back to health.

A warm breeze ruffles the bayou grasses that grow beside the Petite Amite River, pointing pontoons and passersby toward a tropical haven lined with glowing tiki torches. Known as Riverfront Tiki Hut, this getaway teems with the scents of house-made sausages and the sounds of bands from ports near and far. Guests devour slow-smoked pork ribs in an air-conditioned interior filled with long marble bars and exposed rafters, pausing to savor sports highlights on a flat-screen TV. Outside on the deck, bartenders pour shots of rum in an island-style hut as guests drink in views of the dock or line up for rides in the restaurant’s bathysphere. On Friday and Saturday evenings, guests can take part in a crayfish boil or grab a bucket of worms to practice for the bar’s next catfish rodeo.

Ascension Community Theatre gathers gifted local actors and directors on the stage of the historic Pasqua Theater for acclaimed modern plays. The Pulitzer Prize–winning “Rabbit Hole,” directed by renowned Louisiana talent Mattie Olson, tells the tale of a family outlasting a major loss with elements of comedy flickering through the somber subject matter. Nicole Kidman was recently nominated for an Oscar for a film adaptation of the play, and Ascension’s staging shares the movie’s emotional complexity while swapping in real people for the holograms that take all but a few leading roles in most Hollywood films. Balcony seats unveil the best views in the historic Pasqua Theater.

Featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, Rivershack Tavern's historic 100+ year-old edifice envelops daring pub dishes and cold drinks served within a dart's throw of the Mississippi River. Classically trained chef Mike Baskind executes a robust menu that jump-starts waning taste buds with its snack-a-tizers such as fried green tomatoes ($6.75) and fierce alligator sausage ($6) that isn't afraid to talk back to mouths. Heaping sandwiches have playful monikers to delight diners and to conceal the meaty operatives' real names, such as the pastrami-filled Ben D. Rules sandwich ($9.25). A seven-sandwich-deep po' boy lineup includes crunchy delights such as a fried oyster po' boy ($11.75). The historic, worn-in setting surrounds patrons in classic wood-paneled tavern décor and entertains with its rotating calendar of live music.

Clouds of fog roll through darkened halls, concealing mercenaries tracking their target’s movement. Before their trap can be sprung, the unthinkable happens: their vests begin to vibrate as a giggling child yells, "Got you!"Laser Tag of Baton Rouge's family-friendly laser-tag sessions thrust players aged 7 and older into similar faux combat, peppered with flashing lights and thumping music. Players race through a 7,500-square-foot multilevel arena brandishing Gen 6 laser-tag weapons that dole out precise shots and automated score updates. Special scenarios challenge players to work cooperatively toward a shared goal; for instance, in the Fugitive mission, one or two targets must escape a group intent on their capture.

Between bouts inside the arena, players can test their gaming skills at the center's arcade, which is filled with contemporary and classic machines. Each game is outfitted with the Power Play system, a swipe-card-and-sensor combo that tracks remaining game credits, relieving players from the hassle of endlessly fishing for quarters. The arcade also leads to an observation deck that looks onto the laser-tag arena, giving spectators a giant's-eye view of the combat below.