The Southern Food & Beverage Museum on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard in Central City has permanently closed its doors, two years after celebrating its 20th anniversary.
A spokesperson for the board of directors of the National Food & Beverage Foundation, which oversees the facility, said Wednesday that the nonprofit institution was unable to overcome financial obstacles created by the pandemic and hurricanes earlier this decade.
The museum operators owe their out-of-state lender nearly $5 million in unpaid principal plus interest and late fees on its mortgage, court documents filed in Orleans Parish earlier this summer show. Once the museum vacates the building, its debt will be settled, according to a statement from the museum board.
Ahead of the move, the board is making plans for what to do with the exhibits and artifacts the museum has collected, and it is brainstorming the future of the foundation itself, according to the statement provided by museum spokesperson Larry Lovell…