Big pink Marigny icon Gene’s to close this weekend

The Pepto-Bismol pink building at the corner of Elysian Fields Avenue and Rampart Street will serve its last po’boys and daiquiris this weekend. Gene’s Po-Boys will close Sunday, August 4, according to Gambit.

Eugene “Gene” Raymond Theriot opened the store in 1968, and its eye-catching design and over-the-top daiquiri names made it a local favorite. More recently, it’s become a cultish destination, making an appearance on The Simpsons and in Drake’s “In My Feelings” music video.

In February, Theriot’s son Eugene Joseph Theriot listed the store’s lot at 1040 Elysian Fields Ave. for nearly $5 million; the listing included the building, an adjacent vacant lot, and the business itself. According to the New Orleans Assessor’s Office, the building was recently assessed at $2.4 million.

The older Theriot told the New Orleans Advocate that the two-story building will likely be turned into condominiums. The intended development would join an increasingly gentrified corner of Faubourg Marigny that has seen the addition of a Starbucks (the neighborhood’s first) and an upscale Robert Fresh Market where a Schwegmann’s formerly stood, as well as streetcar tracks that link the neighborhood to the tourist-heavy French Quarter.

Beauty Plus, a longtime neighborhood beauty supply store across Rampart Street from Gene’s, also closed earlier this year after the store’s owners said their landlord planned to triple the rent.