NEW ORLEANS — Buffa's Bar and Restaurant on Esplanade Ave has been serving late night bites and beers with live music for 84 years. Now the establishment is fighting to stay open. The owners blame increasing rent and decreasing tourism for the recent struggles to keep their doors open.
Word got around to patrons that the beloved bar may close, so customers started showing up Sunday and Monday to support the business.
"Kind of like Cheers where everyone knows your name, a friendly kind of place, great food and funky bar atmosphere," said Steve Johnson who stopped by for lunch Monday.
It's more than a workplace for Holly Jacker.
"I've been a bartender here since Katrina, so 18 years," Jacker said. "Besides burgers and red beans, the best, you know how many people I've met who have met here and got married? People on the walls, they come in on their 50th anniversaries."
The business opened in 1939 and has had several owners since, all who kept the Buffa's name. Cary Roger's and his family bought the business in 2010, but rent the building.
"It was my father’s dream to own his own restaurant," Rogers said.
Because it runs off both the Marigny and French Quarter grid, the bar has kept power and remained open through hurricanes.
"It's the only place that was 24 hours through all the storms," Jacker said.
"So people could come here get some AC when their power's out, eat something, charge their phone," Rogers said.
They survived shutdowns during the pandemic, but say they have not been able to recover from increasing rent, and decreasing business.
"After Jazz Fest, it just dropped off a cliff," Rogers said. "The summer's been atrociously hot and there's been no business. No one is coming in, which left us to choose do we pay the staff, buy product, or pay rent? We can't do all three with the sales coming in and we can't do business without having all three," Rogers said.
The Rogers let their 25 staff members know last weekend that they will likely shut down in a week.
"We are going to have a few bartenders work for tips only to help us sell off what we have product wise and Saturday more than likely will be our last day open," Rogers said.
The Buffa's owners are calling it a dire, but fluid situation, adding they aren't dead yet.
"I've been telling everyone the way you want to help Buffa's is send everyone you know here. Patronize us. We're part of the community, we're here, we want to stay here," Rogers said.
The Doyle Cooper Trio is performing at Buffa's Monday night. The owners thought it would be their last show, but since the announcement of the bar's possible closure and seeing the community's response, they have since decided to keep all of this week's scheduled shows. Instead of cutting hours like they planned, Buffa's will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. through at least Saturday, but hopefully longer if business allows, according to the owners.
Buffa's shared the following update Monday afternoon:
"Like many things on Social Media, rumors of our closing have been a little exaggerated. The situation is dire, that much is true. But we are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the community. We were busy enough on Sunday to postpone closing a little bit. Every day we can do that allows us to discover and explore other options. This is a very fluid situation, and we ask you share this statement on your social media page so word gets out that we aren't quite dead yet. Your continued support through this very difficult time is sincerely appreciated, and we will keep you posted."
On Tuesday, Buffa's presented a more optimistic tone about their future in a Facebook post quoted below:
"We are overwhelmed by the love and support shown by the community. This has re-energized the business, at least temporarily. THANK YOU!
Here's all we ask: make Buffa's a stop at least once a month. Tell your friends to stop in at least once a month. If enough people do that, we'll be OK. But do the same thing for other local, family-owned businesses. They are hurting, too. If you could find 3 or 4 places you love to go every month, and your friends did that as well, so many of the places we love in New Orleans would not be facing the ominous prospect of going out of business forever.
We tell our staff "we will deal with the future when it gets here," and then try to plan for it as best we can. But right now, we are ever so grateful for the support you have shown these past couple of days. We promise to hang in there as long as we can."
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