RTP-area local music and culture

["Jeff Hart" <jeffhoo1 AT gmail.com>]

n&o:

Local business briefs: Joe and Jo's to change hands

The popular downtown pub and restaurant Joe and Jo's Downtown is in the
process of being sold to someone who would continue to operate it as a
neighborhood night spot, according to Jan Hryharrow, a longtime Durham
resident who owns the building.

The restaurant's current owner, JoAnne Worthington, said Thursday she
could not comment on reports of an ownership change there. Worthington
and her then-husband, Joe Fitzgibbon, opened Joe and Jo's Downtown in
2002 at 427 W. Main St. By 2005 the couple had divorced and Worthington
became the sole owner of the restaurant, which has established a loyal
lunch and night crowd.

Hryharrow stressed the potential buyer had not closed on a new lease or
business sale, but he said the negotiations are close to completed. "I
suspect one way or another someone [new] will be in there next week,"
he said.