Disney’s BoardWalk Resort is home to some of our favorite spots on Disney World property — even if it’s looking a little bit rougher than normal right now.
There are currently multiple vacancies on the BoardWalk, and we’ve been waiting on the edges of our seats to find out exactly what will be replacing the former locations. Up until now, Disney has remained pretty quiet on what they have planned for these spaces, but it sounds like that could all be changing soon!
During a recent panel featuring Disney World executives and Imagineers, it was revealed that Disney is almost ready to share news about what exactly is coming to the BoardWalk! Three locations have been empty for a while now, and now we officially know that new details will be coming soon. While we don’t exactly know when or how, we’re hopeful that we’ll hear something within the next couple of months — possibly at D23 in August, but we’re hoping it’s even sooner!
Jellyrolls, a dueling piano bar that opened on the BoardWalk in 1996, suddenly closed in April 2025. Disney finally started working on the building recently, and while we can tell that the entire thing has been gutted, we’re still wondering what exactly will be replacing it.
Officials for Jellyrolls confirmed that the dueling piano bar has secured a new location less than 10 minutes from its former home on the BoardWalk, so if you miss this iconic spot, you won’t have to go far to experience it once again! A grand opening celebration is planned for late summer or early fall 2026, and we will keep you posted as more information is revealed.
Another storefront on the BoardWalk, Promenade Fine Art Gallery, permanently closed in October 2025. When this news was announced, Disney shared that the gallery would be moving to a new location, but they weren’t able to share when or where that might be happening — and whether or not it would remain on Disney World property.
As far as what might be replacing the Promenade Fine Art Gallery, Disney hasn’t made any sort of announcements or hints just yet. We’re hoping we’ll find out what might be coming to this spot within the next few months as well.
Finally, the location formerly home to Big River Grille & Brewing Works on the BoardWalk has been sitting abandoned since January 2024. The space had remained entirely empty with no sign in front, no construction visible, and nothing to replace Big River Grille for quite a while.
Recently, construction has started on this space, but still — no announcements or mention of what might be coming to replace it. That’s a whopping THREE places on the BoardWalk that are just sitting empty, though at least it looks like Disney has started to make progress on two of them.
We’re not sure when the announcements will be made, or what exactly they will entail, but we’ll make sure to let you know when we do!
We’ll be on the lookout for more updates and changes coming to Disney’s BoardWalk! In the meantime, make sure you stay tuned to the Disney Food Blog for the latest Disney news and more!
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Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media panel on upcoming changes to the parks and beyond. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ









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