The City of New Orleans has temporarily shut down Kermit Ruffins’ Mother-in-Law Lounge because it says the business repeatedly violated Covid safety restrictions by selling alcohol and by allowing large gatherings to occur under the N. Claiborne I-10 overpass. The City has not moved to Phase Three as has the rest of Louisiana, and Phase Two prohibits bars from operating and also prohibits large gatherings.

As reported by OffBeat the Mother-In-Law Lounge also initiated a series of livestreams on Facebook, which ended on Wednesday.

Ruffins purchased the Mother-In-Law Lounge at 1500 North Claiborne in 2011. When Ernie K-Doe’s wife and longtime business partner Antoinette K-Doe died on Mardi Gras Day 2009, Betty Fox, Antoinette’s daughter, took over, but could not keep the bar open. When Ruffins saw boards over the windows, he knew he had to do something.

“I was driving around one day, and I saw that it was closed, and I thought that looked like a nice corner to have a nice bar,” he says. “I want to reopen K-Doe’s place and help keep his legacy alive. I love that neighborhood.”

The City spokesperson issued the following statement: “After ignoring repeated calls and warnings to stop violating the rules and guidelines relative to the opening of bars, the owners and management left us with no other option  but to immediately shut down venues [who violated the rules] by means of formal legal notice, i.e., cease and desist orders.

“These specific locations identified as: 1500 N. Claiborne Ave, better known as the Mother in Law Lounge and 1544 N. Claiborne Ave, were both operating as bars and selling alcohol without the proper license.

“These two locations have contributed to major problems with large gathering of massive crowds under the N. Claiborne bridge between Esplanade and St. Bernard Ave. The primary concern was the threat of potential community spread of the Covid-19 virus, in addition to other concerns of public safety.”

Ruffins told OffBeat that he intends to comply with the City requirements and said that they had been cited because the bars had parties at his establishments. He also informed us that the Wednesday night livestream would be his and the BBQ Swingers’ last livestream on Facebook, because Facebook was shutting down livestreams on Facebook Live as of Thursday, October 1.