METAIRIE, La. -- It’s last call for Morning Call in Metairie.
The 24-7 beignet and coffee stand will close the doors of its Severn Avenue location in the coming days, probably by the first week in May, said Bob Hennessey, who runs the business with his brother Mike Hennessey.
“The climate in Metairie just isn’t what it used to be,” Bob Hennessey said Sunday, noting fewer customers, an increase in rent three years ago and stiff competition from other nearby coffee shops.
The brothers instead will focus their attention on Morning Call’s location in the Casino building in City Park.
“We have the volume in the park,” Hennessey said. “It’s off the charts.”
Another issue in Metairie, he said, was the closure of neighboring Lakeside News. Customers would pop in to eat donuts and drink coffee over their newspapers.
“We loved it,” he said of the relationship they had with the newsstand. “It was great. Then it went the way of the payphone.”
Morning Call opened in the French Market in 1870. It moved to Metairie 104 years later as the city began a rehab of the French Market and as Fat City began to heat up as a nighttime destination.
Since then, though, things have cooled.
“We were hanging on the last three years,” Hennessey said. “When we moved in 44 years ago, Fat City was the place to go.
“I’ve got people calling me saying, ‘Please stay open,’ but it didn’t work,” he said.
The City Park location opened in 2012 and has been hot since then, Hennessey said. He didn’t rule out opening another location if he and his brother can find the right spot.
“I’m always looking. I’m looking on the north shore. I’m looking in the French Quarter. I’m looking in Metairie,” he said. “Nothing’s off the table.”
He said he hopes to bring as many employees from the Metairie location to the City Park store as possible.
“We’re sad to go,” he said. “I wish we could stay (in Metairie).”