Landry's Closes This Fall. Its Replacement Won't Open Until 2027.

Landry's Seafood House is closing at Broadway at the Beach this fall, ending a 31-year run that started just days after the entertainment complex itself opened in July 1995. Its replacement, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., won't have a firm opening date for months and isn't expected to join the lineup until 2027. For anyone who has eaten there on a rainy vacation day or taken out-of-town family for a last dinner before the drive home, that spot on the water is about to sit empty for a while.

Landry's and Bubba Gump are both owned by Fertitta Entertainment, the Texas-based hospitality company that also runs Charley's Crab, The Chart House, and Joe's Crab Shack, itself a Broadway tenant since 1997. Landry's Inc. is the nation's second-largest seafood restaurant operator behind Red Lobster owner Darden Restaurants, so this isn't a small operator walking away from a lease. It's a company retiring one of its own brands from a location it has run for three decades and replacing it with a different brand it also owns.

What Made Landry's an Original

Broadway at the Beach opened in July 1995, and Landry's Seafood House moved in within days of that grand opening. That timing matters here. Most of what draws people to the complex now, the distilleries, the arcades, the seasonal pop-ups, arrived long after the original wave of tenants signed their first leases. Landry's was part of that first wave, one of the handful of restaurants that gave the complex its early identity before it became known for anything else.

The building itself is set up for that kind of anchor role. Its semi-private dining space seats up to 96 guests and can split into smaller rooms, the layout of a restaurant built to handle both a Tuesday date night and a wedding rehearsal dinner. That's the kind of space that gets built once and rarely gets built again on a lease this size, which is part of why a rebrand rather than a full teardown makes sense for the ownership group.

The Corner That Already Turned Over

Landry's isn't the only original-era name changing this year. TBonz Gill & Grill closed at the end of 2025 and is currently being renovated for a relaunch as New Morning Breakfast, a project from Homegrown Hospitality Group. Two restaurants that shaped Broadway's early years are turning over inside the same twelve months, both through internal rebrands rather than a space simply going dark and sitting on the market.

That leaves Joe's Crab Shack as the last name from that original wave still operating under its original identity, having run continuously since 1997. If you've eaten at all three of these restaurants over the years, Joe's is now the one constant.

Here's how the turnover breaks down:

• Landry's Seafood House (1995) closes this fall, becomes Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., no opening date set, expected 2027
• TBonz Gill & Grill (closed end of 2025) is being renovated into New Morning Breakfast by Homegrown Hospitality Group
• Joe's Crab Shack (1997) remains open under its original name

Jenny Scharbrough, COO of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., addressed the transition directly in a statement to the Post and Courier:

"We look forward to continuing to serve the Myrtle Beach community for many years to come under our sister brand, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and are excited to share more details in the coming months."

That's a company talking about a multi-year handoff, not a quick coat of paint over a weekend.

What Actually Closes, and When

Landry's is set to close this fall, before the off-season remodel begins on the space. No opening date has been announced for Bubba Gump. The company's own language points to 2027, which means the physical building will likely sit under construction or simply closed through at least one full tourist season and probably two.

When it does open, the Broadway location will be the only Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. in the Carolinas. A location in Charleston's tourism district closed back in 2019, and the chain's nearest current outposts to Myrtle Beach are six restaurants scattered across Florida (Daytona Beach, Destin, Jacksonville, Madeira Beach, Miami, and Orlando) plus one in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Out of 21 U.S. locations and 11 more overseas, none of them have been closer than a full day's drive. That's a meaningful gap for a chain built around a movie that a lot of people watched growing up.

Broadway has kept adding seafood concepts even as this one changes hands. Another eatery called Big Fish is expected to open soon, alongside recent additions like Ole Smoky Distillery and Yee-Haw Brewing Co. and Voodoo Brewing Co. Seafood isn't leaving the complex. One specific 31-year-old seafood house is, and what replaces it won't be ready for a while.

The Gap Year

If you drive past that spot on Celebrity Circle this winter and see scaffolding instead of a hostess stand, that's expected. Landry's is closing as its ownership group replaces it with Bubba Gump; that kind of internal handoff takes longer than a simple change in tenants. A new operator moving into an empty storefront can often open within months. A company retiring its own 31-year-old brand and building a new one in its place, on its own timeline, is a different kind of project, and this one runs through 2027.

For now, the practical note is simple: if Landry's has been part of your visit to Broadway for years, this fall is the window to get back in before it closes. What comes after will carry a familiar name from the movies, just not for a while yet.

If you're weighing what a changing Broadway skyline means for how you spend your evenings here, I'm always glad to talk it through. Michelle Schneider — Let's Connect.