The news had been buzzing around for the past seven months that Bougainvillea's Old Florida Tavern is closing for good. A reality that apparently hit some so hard that management finagled a month extension on their lease in order to give their 32 employees a little more time in finding new jobs. And so that a Last Call closing party could be thrown on February 28th.
It's an event that's still showcased on the bar's homepage which, with a simple click on
the announcement's banner, links to a Facebook event page which not only boasts an "official notice" of their closing and a 12-Step Program to get
one through the loss, but also displays a list of almost 700 confirmed guests
for Bougie's final fiesta.
We even decided to dedicate a Loon Over Miami column called "Bougie's
Boogies Off"
to the watering hole's sad demise in which we interviewed much of the
staff and patrons that all conceded that the charmingly laid back South
Miami dive was indeed shutting down.
Well, consider it all an early April Fool's Day joke (a prank the bar
played a year earlier on it's devoted clientele) because according to
Bougainvillea's owner, Loic Delvat, it's now staying open, indefinitely.
After several failed attempts at getting Delvat to comment on the bar's
demise before our column went to print (an issue that could have easily
been rectified by inserting the sentence "Bougainvillea's owner, Loic
Delvat could not be reached for comment" into the column instead of
immediately indulging in the mind-numbing post-writing tradition of
Bombay Sapphire, Dutch Masters, and re-runs of The Golden Girls) he
finally got in touch with us last night.
"We just found out two days ago that our landlady had a change of heart," says Delvat.
Uh huh.
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"We're not sure why exactly, but we think it may have something to do with the overwhelming support of our clients."
So, there you have it, kids - Bougie's is not closing after all.
Rejoice! And, Loic, we expect a complimentary bar tab next time we show
up.
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