The former Boot & Saddle is reopening as a cafe, wine bar, and venue called Solar Myth

Live jazz will kick off the former Boot & Saddle bar’s new era tonight in South Philly.

The iconic, Broad Street dive bar and music venue closed in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic struggles. In March, Mark Christman (founder of Ars Nova Workshop) and Evan Clancy (owner of South Philly’s Fountain Porter bar) told the Inquirer they signed a lease to take over the space.

The iconic neon sign on the bar’s facade and the name would remain, the Inquirer reported at the time. A recent Ars Nova Workshop Instagram announcing the first live show referred to the new venue as Solar Myth, “a new cafe, wine bar, and listening room slated to be full open in November 2022.”

“Ars Nova will have exclusive access to the venue formerly known as Boot & Saddle,” the post read.

Christman and Clancy could not be reached for immediate comment Tuesday. The iconic neon boot currently remains.

The Ars Nova Workshop will present the jazz trio of Zoh Amba, Luke Stewart, and Ryan Sawyer at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. On Thursday, the exploratory jazz outfit Trio-Convulsant will perform.

Boot & Saddle was born as a country-western bar in the 1950s, a popular hangout for locals and sailors stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The bar closed in the 1990s, then reopened in 2013, hosting music again. The venue closed in November 2020 when promoter Sean Agnew said he and partner Bowery Presents, a subsidiary of concert promoters AEG, had made the closing official as the live-performance business around the world had shown no sign of recovery.