Three years after Tom Thayer first tried to sell popular Frenchmen Street bar and music venue d.b.a., he finally succeeded.
On Nov. 15, a partnership that includes the owners/operators of two other Frenchmen Street clubs completed the purchase of the d.b.a. business. A private investor affiliated with the partnership purchased the 3,516-square-foot building at 618 Frenchmen St. in order to lease it to the new proprietors of d.b.a.
Those proprietors are Sophie Lee Lowry, the singer who owns Three Muses; Doug Emmer, co-owner of the Spotted Cat; and Bradley Clement and Cheryl Abaña-Emmer, who are married and manage the Spotted Cat.
A purchase price was not disclosed.
The sale has been in the works since September 2022, when Lowry went to lunch with Thayer to discuss a possible purchase. Originally, she, Abaña-Emmer and singer Meschiya Lake hoped to buy d.b.a. as an all-female partnership. They assembled a detailed business plan, but could not secure financing from either the Small Business Administration or a bank.
So Lowry and Abaña-Emmer pivoted to partner with Clement, Emmer and an investor friend of Emmer’s to put together the deal. Abaña-Emmer is the majority partner.
Little Freddie King begins a set at d.b.a. in New Orleans, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Thayer “had a lot of offers, but he wasn’t considering people he didn’t trust to continue the legacy of d.b.a.,” Lowry said. “It’s very important to us to honor that. We’re all friends on the street. We all have the same vision – take care of the musicians, take care of the culture bearers.”
News of the sale broke the same week that the Freret Street music venue Gasa Gasa closed its doors.
A Frenchmen Street mainstay
d.b.a. has been a Frenchmen Street mainstay since 2000. One side of the club is a bustling barroom with a vast assortment of spirits. The other side, with a low-slung stage, presents local brass bands, blues, funk and everything in between.
The late guitarist Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Treme Brass Band held down weekly gigs at d.b.a. for years. The Soul Rebels, John Boutte, the Tin Men, the Pinettes Brass Band, Little Freddie King, Aurora Nealand and the Palmetto Bug Stompers are all regulars.
d.b.a. also features occasional touring acts. It was the first local venue to host bluegrass phenomenon Billy Strings. d.b.a. was the launching pad for an epic night of debauchery during the 2012 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival starring Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine and Billy Squier. The likes of Stevie Wonder and Jimmy Buffett popped up unannounced on the d.b.a. stage over the years.
As recently as Nov. 5, Thayer was still sending out emails updating d.b.a.’s November live music calendar.
But by Nov. 13, all performance listings had disappeared from d.b.a.’s website.
The new owners plan to honor the shows Thayer already had booked, Clement said. d.b.a.'s doors had reopened within 24 hours of the sale.
Singer Sophie Lee Lowry, who owns the Frenchmen St. club Three Muses, is part of a partnership that bought the nearby d.b.a. in November 2023.
Going forward, the music will be similar to Thayer’s tenure, Lowry said. “It’s very important to me to add more female artists to the roster. We want to be very inclusive. We’re not taking anything away – just adding to it.”
The new owners also intend to increase the hours of operation. Some physical modifications are likely for the barroom's interior. Changes will happen “over time, not overnight,” Lowry said.
Given that she now owns or co-owns two Frenchmen Street venues, Lowry is bullish on the street’s future. “I have to be,” she said. “I always believe in the power of positive thinking. It will be all right. Frenchmen Street and New Orleans, we’re always all right.”
That positive attitude was tested during what many venue operators described as one of the slowest summers they’ve ever experienced.
“We were all like, ‘What is going on?’” Lowry said. “I was reevaluating my life and kind of freaking out. But we have all rallied and things are looking good. I’ve always had faith, and will continue to have faith.”
Tom Thayer's 23-year legacy
The sale concluded Thayer’s nearly 30-year association with the d.b.a. brand in both New Orleans and New York, during which he earned a reputation for treating musicians exceptionally well.
When the original d.b.a. opened in New York City’s East Village in 1994, Thayer was the first person hired by the venture's four partners/investors. A satellite d.b.a. later opened in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood (it closed in 2014).
Tom Thayer, owner of d.b.a., places a sign on a fence at the former site of the Frenchmen Street Art Market in New Orleans. Thayer converted the location into an outdoor music venue. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
In 1999, Thayer was dispatched to launch a d.b.a. in New Orleans. As the “sweat equity guy,” he got the Frenchmen Street d.b.a. up and running in time for the 2000 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
For the next two decades, he curated the nightly roster of mostly local music presented alongside a deep menu of craft beers and spirits.
Thayer gradually bought into the business. That process accelerated over the past dozen years as he settled the estates of several business partners who died.
One partner, Ray Deter, died in 2011 in a bicycle accident in Manhattan, two weeks after the New Orleans d.b.a. broke ground to expand its stage.
Another partner, photographer and dedicated New Orleans music fan Dennis Zentek, collapsed and died in 2014 in New York of an undiagnosed brain injury.
Peter Artaserse, d.b.a.’s primary capital investor, owned 80 percent of the Frenchmen Street building and 49.5 percent of the business when he died in early 2017 of complications from a fall down a flight of stairs. During the two years Thayer spent settling Artaserse’s estate, two minority partners also died.
“Each estate settlement was an adventure,” Thayer said in 2020. “You can’t write this.”
Tom Thayer, owner of popular Frenchmen Street bar and music venue d.b.a. in New Orleans, has used the club's dance floor as an office throughout the pandemic. He's now reconfigured his venue for live stream performances. Photographed on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020.
The value of the Frenchmen Street building had increased tenfold since 1999. Thayer had to take out a loan to buy out Artaserse’s share and take full ownership of the building in April 2019.
By then, years of dealing with lawyers and CPAs had exhausted him. And as Frenchmen Street shifted from a predominantly local crowd to a tourist destination, he found himself going to his club less and less.
Burnt out and ready to move on, he resolved to put d.b.a. on the market right after the 2020 Mardi Gras. He figured he’d close on the sale after celebrating the club’s 20th anniversary during the 2020 Jazz Fest, then open a new bar in a different part of the city, where he could once again serve a local clientele.
In March 2020, the business and building went up for sale. But the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent shutdown crushed the market for music venues. Initial interest in the sale faded as the pandemic dragged on.
After declining a few low-ball offers, he started selling d.b.a. merchandise online and reinvented the club as a virtual venue. He launched “d.b.a. Live,” a collaboration with the live-streaming platform StageIt.com, in September 2020, to livestream performances.
In May 2021, Thayer founded the “d.b.a. at Palace Market” series, staging outdoor concerts in a former Frenchmen Street art market. The outdoor concert series shut down by November 2021, as indoor music returned.
