There’s a chance that Morning Call, the nearly 150-year-old coffee and beignet stand, could team up with another old New Orleans institution to find its next home.
Bob Hennessey, who owns Morning Call with his brother Mike, said Monday that officials with the New Orleans Fair Grounds recently contacted him to discuss the possibility of the business relocating there.
“They (the Fair Grounds) reached out to us, and we were flattered by it,” Bob Hennessy said.
Morning Call’s days in City Park are numbered. It recently lost a 10-year lease in the park to Cafe du Monde and will close up shop there on Jan. 20. They must be out of the space entirely a week later.
The Hennessy brothers do not yet have a new location for Morning Call, and closing their Metairie store last May will see them homeless once the City Park location closes.
Fair Grounds officials did not respond Monday afternoon to a request for comment from WWL-TV, but the track’s general manager recently told a neighborhood group he thinks Morning Call would be a good fit, according to a report from the Mid-City Messenger, which first reported the news.
“We’d create a really, really cool Morning Call on the racetrack,” Shipley told the Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association last week. “I don’t know if this is going to go through, but it’s under discussion.”
Hennessey said he and Fair Grounds leader have another meeting set next week.
Hennessey said that while he likes the idea of a shop at the Fair Grounds, some concerns are that thoroughbred racing only happens five months out of the year. On the flip side, he said, slot machines are open year-round and there is ample parking and security on site.
“A lot of people might say, ‘The Fair Grounds? Who wants to go there?’” Hennessey said. But he said people also said that when they announced they were going to open a store in City Park.
Over time, though, Morning Call developed a large following there. In fact, the park’s location became so popular, the Hennessey brothers decided in part to close their Metiaire store because of its slumping sales so they could focus on the more lucrative City Park location.
Meanwhile, in addition to holding discussions with the Fair Grounds, Hennessey said he continues to look for a new location -- or locations -- for Morning Call all over the metro area.
He said he’s looked everywhere from the French Quarter, to Metairie, to Kenner, to Harahan.
“Nothing’s off the table,” he said.
Danny Monteverde can be reached at danny@wwltv.com.