Buffa’s Bar, which OffBeat and many other media outlets had reported would be closing, is still hanging on, according to Chuck Rogers, proprietor of the bar and music venue at 1001 Esplanade.

Buffa’s, like many small hospitality businesses, is suffering from the excessive heat and lack of business that they usually do during the long, hot, mostly tourist-free summers in New Orleans. But this year it’s been much worse (several other venues have told OffBeat that their business revenues are way down so far this summer as well).

Rogers and his family, who operate the bar, were told about a week ago that their landlord could potentially work with them on rent (the landlord is the Buffa family). Rogers said he had a line on some financial help to get them through this tough summer through a third party, but the third party wanted to be sure that the Buffa family would work with the Rogerses to potentially give them some breathing room by temporarily lowering the bar’s rent. The Buffa family would not cooperate by reducing the rent, so the third party “rescue” did not go through.

“This news of us closing has gotten totally out of control,” said Rogers. “Our family had been discussing our financial situation and some staff feared they would lose their job, and they posted that Buffa’s was closing on social media, and then it just grew from there. Many of the musicians we had playing here wanted to be sure that they also had gigs [Buffa’s pays local bands a guarantee, which musicians and bands depended upon], so they put the word out as well that Buffa’s was closing.”

It’s interesting that the publicity generated by the news of Buffa’s closing has turned out to be a positive for the small neighborhood bar. “Yesterday [referring to Sunday July 2] was one of best brunch days we’ve had,” said Rogers, “even better than what we did during Jazz Fest [traditionally a finanacial bonanza for local restaurants, bars, music venues and hotels]. We are selling more merchandise and today [July 3] has also been a very good day. I think this gives us some breathing room to get through the next few days and weeks.”

A GoFundMe account has been set up to benefit Buffa’s, and Rogers says they will reschedule all their music, which will be free [except for reserved seating privileges] from Wednesday through Monday of next week. “We can’t pay the bands a guarantee as we usually do, but we will be able to pay them a percentage of the bar ring,” said Rogers. “We’d definitely would like to see people get used to coming back to Buffa’s to hear the music we have at the bar by offering it free for the next few days.” And of course to drink and enjoy the menu at Buffa’s. “If we can build up some revenue, it will buy us some time to explore other options for financing and to keep Buffa’s open.

“If sales go up and stay up into September, we’ll be okay,” said Rogers. “In a month or so, if we’re in the same place, then we’ll host a big closing party. Right now, we are soldiering on, but we’ll just have to see what happens in the next week or so.” Rogers said that Essence Fest has no impact on improving their revenue situation because they are “too far” from where the action is with Essence Fest—whose attendees typically spend more money on Essence-sponsored events and markets in or near the Superdome, the Convention Center and the Central Business District and in the French Quarter, where the bulk of the city’s hotels are located.

OffBeat readers will remember that Buffa’s  successfully settled a problem with music “noise” in a lawsuit that was filed by neighbor Sidney Torres IV back in 2014.