BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Taylor Hicks’ Ore Drink and Dine restaurant and bar has a new name, a new menu and some new ownership, the 2006 “American Idol” winner said Monday night.

This afternoon, Ore will reopen as Saw’s Juke Joint, a barbecue and blues bar that will be the third restaurant under the Saw’s brand started by Mike Wilson.

"The opportunity came up to partner with a great restaurant group, and we thought it fit the space perfectly," Hicks said Monday.

Wilson, who, along with Hicks, will be one of the co-owners of the new restaurant,

in Homewood’s Edgewood neighborhood in 2009, and

with chef and co-owner Brandon Cain in Avondale earlier this year.

Hicks and some of his business partners opened Ore in former Open Door Café location in Birmingham's Crestline Park in April 2011. Ore's final day in business was Sunday, Hicks said.

He declined to say why Ore closed, except to say that Saw’s Juke Joint will be a better fit for the space.

“I think the concept fits the area perfectly,” Hicks said. “We all know Saw’s has the best barbecue in town, and the juke joint concept is a home run."

The menu will feature the Carolina-style barbecue that Saw’s is famous for, along with smoked wings, fried oyster sandwiches, fried green tomato BLTs and other Southern dishes that have become popular at Saw’s Soul Kitchen, Wilson said.

At night, the new Saw’s will double as a blues club, and the owners plan to bring in regional musicians who pass through town, Wilson added.

“Taylor’s deal is music and my deal is food, and his music goes hand-in-hand with my food,” Wilson said.

Partnering with Hicks and Wilson as a co-owner of Saw's Juke Joint is Doug Smith, who formerly owned Smith's Oysters & Steaks in the same Crestline Park shopping center.

Steve Luther, a former chef at Fire in Crestline Village, and John Hall, who has worked at Gramercy Tavern in New York, will be in the kitchen, Wilson said.

Ore featured an industrial-themed decor that celebrated Birmingham's history as a steel city, but Wilson said he is in the process of making it look more like a dive.

“That’s in the works,” he said. “It’s going to have a more relaxed, casual, juke joint, hole-in-the-wall feel," he said.

The restaurant, which will open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, should be ready to open by 4 p.m. today, Wilson said.

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