Employees of Jillian’s arrived at work yesterday to find a locked door, and a letter telling them to go to another store in Peabody Place mall to pick up their final paychecks.
It is going to be renovated into a Preston Lamm bar. Preston is known among Downtowners for closing Sleep Out Louie’s, a much-loved locals’ bar of almost 20 years, in 2007 to change it into a steakhouse. The renovated Jillian’s will be a sports bar, and Club Atlas will now become a new club with live music and DJ called Chill. Jillian’s had planned to change Atlas into an open-air bar called the Tiger Den, but it looks like that plan is now off the table.
With a real locals’ sports bar already Downtown (Calhoun’s), and four locals’ bars in the core (Bardog Tavern, Voodoo Room @ Orleans on Front, Flying Saucer, and Silly Goose), I doubt I’ll have a whole lot of new time to check out Preston’s new place or blog about it. You can find more info about the place in today’s CA.