Square's Bar Louie to close; fine-dining restaurant sought

Bar Louie, a central bar/restaurant of the revitalized Overton Square district, will close as early as this week after landlord Loeb Properties bought out its lease.

"We just negotiated a buy-out of our Bar Louie lease,'' Bob Loeb said Monday. "They have been an under-performer in arguably the nicest space'' in Overton Square, the president of Loeb Properties said.

The development comes at the start of a big year for Overton Square: Hopdoddy Burger Bar should open within 90 days in a redesigned building across the intersection from Bar Louie; Chipotle also should open within 90 days in a new Loeb building a few blocks away on Union; Lafayette's Music Room is expanding; a planned, 100-room boutique Overton Square hotel stands a "90 percent chance'' of seeing construction start early this fall; and a landscaping project will include planting 20 oaks and other large trees to "green up'' Overton Square, Loeb said.

The landlord has some leads for refilling Bar Louie's 5,600 square feet at 2125 Madison with a fine-dining restaurant.

"I want to have fine dining in Overton Square,'' said Loeb, whose company seven years ago carried out a $40 million renovation of Overton Square with the help of a City of Memphis parking structure. "Except for Kelly English (owner/chef of Iris) and Bari, it's really more fast casual.''

Bar Louie opened in April 2013 offering mostly American food for a capacity of 157 customers inside and another 120 on the patio.

The restaurant occupies the middle of the curved building on the southwest corner of Madison at Cooper.

Early last year, Bar Louie Memphis filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize, the Memphis Daily News reported at the time.

Contacted early Monday afternoon, a Bar Louie kitchen manager said he had not been told the restaurant is closing.

Bar Louie has nearly completed five years of a 10-year lease. Loeb Properties paid "six figures'' to buy out the restaurant's lease, Loeb said.

The food is good, but the service was an issue, he said.

"They're current on their rent; we can't force them out,'' Loeb said. "But we can negotiate them out... The cheapest thing for us to do is come back with another Bar Louie franchisee who could use all the improvements there including the signage and menus and there'd be very little capital outlay to re-tenanting with another franchisee.

"However, we don't want another Bar Louie franchisee,'' he said.

"We've got a better list of new tenants than we ever had,'' Loeb said. "We just don't have any space to offer them. We're spending money to buy leases back and retool.''

He expects a couple of other underperforming businesses in Overton Square to be replaced soon.

Another Overton Square restaurant, Stanley's Bar-B-Que (formerly Schweinehaus) has filed to reorganize under bankruptcy. Loeb said a couple of other poorly performing Square businesses will likely be replaced.

However, the entertainment district is "successful by almost all measures,'' he said. "But like many things, there is room for improvement.''

Overton Square is making money, Loeb said, adding, "I can tell you in terms of being worth an economic return for the amount of time, energy and equity that went into it, it didn't make anybody else's Top 10, but it certainly did for us.''