Voodoo Lounge Bar & Grill

Voodoo Lounge Bar & Grill sits below street level on Southside Square in downtown Huntsville, an underground bar tucked beneath the Madison County Courthouse that has been drawing regulars down its winding stairwell since local blues musician Lance Almon Smith bought the business in 2007. Operating under the name Off the Eaten Path, Inc., the bar describes itself as Huntsville’s original underground bar, and the description fits, dim lighting, exposed brick, and a low ceiling give the place the kind of dive bar atmosphere that is increasingly hard to find as downtown Huntsville has filled in with newer, more polished cocktail lounges. The bar is now in its nineteenth year under Smith’s ownership, a run of stability that few other downtown venues can match.

Live music is the backbone of what Voodoo Lounge offers. The bar features performances every night of the week, with a lineup that leans toward blues and rock alongside local and touring acts, and the intimate stage setting means there is rarely a bad seat in the house. That nightly commitment to live music sets Voodoo Lounge apart from most of the newer bars near the square, few of which book a band or performer seven nights a week the way Voodoo Lounge has for years.

A small kitchen keeps a bite-sized grill menu running alongside the bar, so visitors are not limited to just drinks if they show up hungry. Weekday happy hour runs from 4 to 9 p.m. with daily drink and food specials, giving regulars a reason to come in early before the music starts. The bar keeps a solid selection of drafts and cocktails, priced and poured in a way that fits the dive bar identity, no frills, but reliable. Smoking is not allowed inside, though an outdoor area is available for guests who want to step out, a compromise that keeps the underground space smoke free while still accommodating smokers in the crowd.

Hours run late most nights of the week, staying open until 2 a.m. every night it is open, with Mondays and Sundays opening later at 8 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday opening at 4 p.m. That schedule makes Voodoo Lounge one of the more reliable late night options in downtown Huntsville, useful either as a first stop for the live music or a last stop after other bars around the square have wound down for the night.

Nearly two decades under the same local ownership have let Voodoo Lounge build a genuine regular crowd, the kind of bar where the bartenders and the house band both tend to know most of the room by name. For visitors looking for a proper dive bar in Huntsville, one with history, live music every night, and a location literally built into the ground beneath the historic courthouse square, Voodoo Lounge remains one of the few spots downtown that has not changed its character even as the blocks around it have.

The bar sits close enough to Southside Square that it picks up foot traffic from other downtown venues, but its underground entrance means it never quite feels like part of the street level scene the way a rooftop bar or storefront cocktail lounge does. That separation is part of the appeal for regulars, a short walk down a stairwell into a room that has kept the same lighting, the same brick walls, and largely the same nightly live music tradition for close to two decades. Anyone building a night out around downtown Huntsville’s more polished cocktail bars would do well to end, or start, the evening underground at Voodoo Lounge instead, where the phone at 256-539-0335 is answered by the same house that has run it since 2007.