Jimmy Buffett’s French Quarter Margaritaville location will close its doors on June 30 and will be replaced by a B.B. King’s Blues Club.
According to a statement on the Decatur Street restaurant, bar, and live music venue’s website, Margaritaville may be “changing latitudes,” but it won’t go far.
“We will always have a presence in the city that gave Jimmy his start. Margaritaville has had an awesome 22-year run on Decatur Street and we are not done yet,” Margaritaville’s Director of Domestic Operations Bret Brown said in the statement. “We have made the decision to vacate our current location on lower Decatur before completion of our new property in the interest of making way for another namesake live music venue, B.B. King’s, to become the next tenant at the historic Storyville Music Hall location.”
The new venue, which is currently being designed, will open sometime in 2015, according to the website.
Although details of the new club replacing Margaritaville have not yet been finalized, Tommy Peters, president of the B.B. King’s parent company, Beale Street Blues Company, said that the new B.B. King’s in New Orleans is a dream come true. “We’ve been looking in the New Orleans area for a location for years,” he said. “Frenchmen Street was on our radar, but when this location came up, it was a perfect fit for us. We’re looking forward to bringing a great blues club to New Orleans.” Peters says he has hired a local architect to redesign the space.
There are currently three B.B King’s Blues Club locations in Memphis, Nashville, and Orlando, Florida and a B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City.