The pink dive bar at 278 Dauphin St. started with founder Hayley Maulsby’s experience working hip Lower East Side bars in New York City, including The Village Idiot. She brought that no-frills concept home to the Gulf Coast and opened Hayley’s Bar in downtown Mobile in 1991 — a model that has now worked for more than a quarter century.
A Bar With Standards
Hayley combined low prices with quality, using canned colas instead of a soda gun so drinks never went flat, and the bar was among the first downtown to serve beer in bottles. She recalls being told she was crazy to open downtown; months later, some of those doubters asked for jobs. Co-owner Delane Bond later partnered with Hayley to keep the business thriving.
Employees stay loyal because the owners pay a living wage, and devoted customers love the everyone-is-welcome attitude. Generations of regulars have graduated, married and started families around the bar’s black-and-white checkered floor.
A Downtown Mainstay
Hayley’s helped push surrounding bars to raise their own drink standards and has watched Dauphin evolve toward a mini Bourbon Street alongside restaurants, The Saenger Theater and the CLA. More than 25 years on, the bar remains a consistent, welcoming landmark of the Azalea City.