If you have recently visited Disney World’s BoardWalk, you may have noticed an abandoned building.

The BoardWalk is home to live entertainment, a dance hall, shopping, and plenty of places to dine. While the BoardWalk recently welcomed Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs along with The Cake Bake Shop, a restaurant closed last year and has since been sitting abandoned, so what is going on?
If you make your way down the BoardWalk towards Jellyrolls, you may notice a blank facade. This area was once home to Big River Grille and Brewing Works. Here, you could find beers, burgers, steaks, nachos, and more. Big River Grille actually brewed its own beer on-site!

A third-party company ran Big River Grille, and their closing announcement happened suddenly as it was made a few days before its actual closing date on January 22nd, 2024.

Disney did not make any announcements regarding what would take the restaurant’s place, so it seemed odd that it had to close so suddenly. A third-party food truck operated outside the old location of Big River Grille for a limited time, but there has been no word of a new permanent restaurant opening in its place.

This is not the first time that Disney has closed a restaurant on the BoardWalk as the ESPN Club closed in 2022 after not re-opening when the parks re-opened after the pandemic. The difference with this closure is that a replacement was announced soon after. Although construction seemed to drag on, The Cake Bake Shop opened towards the end of 2024 in the old location of the ESPN Club.

At first, we wondered if Disney wanted to limit third-party restaurants that were operating on the BoardWalk, but this was debunked since both The Cake Bake Shop and Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs are operated via a third party and opened the same year that Big River Grille closed.

Well, this restaurant has been sitting abandoned for almost a year now, and we are still yet to hear about a replacement. We are not really sure why Disney decided to close Big River Grille so suddenly without any word about what would take its place. It would be nice if a new experience, shop, or restaurant would be announced, but we still have not heard anything yet.

We will continue to be on the lookout for any news regarding this abandoned building and the future of the BoardWalk, so make sure to continue to follow along with AllEars to stay up to date on all the latest Disney news!
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All Big River Brewing and Grille locations have closed. The restaurant originally started in downtown Chattanooga next to the Tennessee River, thus the name. They expanded to a second location in Chattanooga and the Disney Boardwalk location. The ownership expanded to include other restaurant brands across the country, but they got into financial trouble. They started closing locations all over the country of their various brands. Big River Brewing and Grille held onto two locations for a short time after the pandemic, but in the end, the Disney and original locations were both closed near the same time.