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" It seems the deals that Elkington claims are near the end are really floating somewhere in the beginning to middle. "
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By Heather Gates
John Elkington last fall told the local press that he'd step down as Beale Street's CEO as soon as he completed several projects. Nine months later, he says he's close, now that "things" are kind of at the end. Rewind those tapes reporters. It seems the deals that Elkington claims are near the end are really floating somewhere in the beginning to middle. At least that's how two spokesmen feel who are closely linked to different deals that are allegedly near completion. "It's so far from the truth," Bill Warshauer, vice president of Pat O'Brien's, says in late June about whether a lease agreement to bring the famous New Orleans restaurant to Beale will be announced anytime soon. Elkington, however, said last month that he and his real estate management group, Performa Entertainment Real Estate Inc., were "in the final throws" of finishing the Pat O'Brien's deal and that it would be announced before summer's end. "It's been hard," Elkington says of the Pat O'Brien's deal. "We've had to work extremely hard to make it work here." In addition, Warshauer says most of the Memphis press has been prematurely informed about the deal. For instance, he says he recently received a press clipping about the proposed Beale Street location for a Pat O'Brien's restaurant. "I've never even seen a rendering," he says. Warshauer's latest response about the proposed deal is similar to an October 1996 statement in The Commercial Appeal in which he says the idea to bring a Pat O'Brien's to Memphis was no further than in the discussion stage. "We are in conversation with a group of people who are interested in buying a (Pat O'Brien's) franchise. That's it. Period," he says even now. Warshauer did say, however, that his group is interested in bringing a franchise to Memphis. "We looked at coming here three or four years ago. We put a deal together for the Front and Wagner location," he says. Warshauer didn't expand on why the agreement fell through. A spokesman for Buddy Guy's Legends, one of the two "deals" close to being complete, according to Elkington, has much the same to say about the status of the club's intention to come to Beale. "I have no idea how long it will take and even when it will happen. So until it is complete, we have nothing to say," says Scott Cameron, Buddy Guy's personal manager. Elkington announced in mid-June that his group "should have a lease (for a Buddy Guy's club) before the end of the month." "We've been working on it for some time," he says. "We had to do a lot of convincing. They've wanted to come here for some time, but they already have one restaurant and anytime you open another it's hard." The agreement to bring a Buddy Guy's to Beale also was mentioned on the Channel 5 news late last month.
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