After going up for sale for $159,000 in July, Juanita’s restaurant will close permanently on Dec. 20.
The music and entertainment venue was open for 30 years.
“This was not an easy decision to make, but the time has come to give up the fight,” Juanita’s posted on Facebook on Friday. “We know that we’ve made decisions many did not agree with, but we want you to know that above all we tried to deliver the best entertainment and best food we could. This has been a labor of love from the music we booked to the relationships we established with so many special customers, employees, and vendors.”
Juanita’s has gone through a number of changes in ownership since it opened at 1300 S. Main St. in 1986.
The restaurant was founded by Frank McGehee and chef Mark Abernathy, who now owns Loca Luna near Riverdale in Little Rock, as its creative force. The pair’s partnership ended in the late 1990s and resulted in legal disputes over bank loans and property.
McGehee died in 2005. Three years later, Johnny Weaver bought the restaurant from McGehee’s wife, Lisa McNeir. In September 2010, Weaver sold the operation to Jim O’Brien and Joe Cates.
Less than a year later, in 2011, the restaurant moved to the River Market. At the time, O’Brien said he and Cates couldn’t come to an agreement on lease terms with McNeir, who still owned the Main Street building.
But by 2012, O’Brien and Cates had listed Juanita’s for sale on Craigslist for $250,000. At the time, the owners claimed annual revenue of $1.4 million.
Juanita’s old South Main Street space is now occupied by the Oxford American magazine and the South on Main restaurant, which opened in 2013.
According to the Facebook post, Juanita’s has made arrangements for the shows scheduled in 2016 to be moved to the Metroplex Events Center in Little Rock and ticket purchases will remain valid for those shows.
Sign up for Daily E-news
