Dan Brown hopes that someone will step up and buy his business so it can continue, but he said it’s about time for him to retire, and without a buyer, Leonard’s Pit Barbecue will close.

Leonard Heuberger opened the business in 1922, and nearly 100 years later, the pandemic of 2020 all but killed the oldest Memphis barbecue restaurant.

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“I never was a rich man and now I’ve spent about what I had,” Brown said. “I’m doing about 31% of the business I was doing pre-pandemic.”

Brown has been hit particularly hard because for nearly a decade, he’s had a popular lunch buffet and in Shelby County, self-serve buffets are off the menu because of COVID-19 for now. He also had a robust catering business.

“Losing the buffet took about half my business, and there’s no catering left to speak of,” Brown said.

He listed the property at 5465 Fox Plaza Drive, the last Leonard’s to remain, with a real estate agent this week.

The first Leonard’s was opened by Heuberger at Trigg and Latham and sold pork sandwiches from a lunch counter for 5 cents. In the 1930s, Heuberger opened the Bellevue location, a place that many Memphians remember and think of as the original Leonard’s. It closed in 1991.

Leonard’s is the only place Brown has ever worked. He started there in 1962 and left when he was drafted into the service in 1967. He returned to work there in 1970 and by that time, Heuberger had sold it to an investment group. Brown purchased it from them in 1993.

“The first few months of the pandemic I was just losing so much money,” he said. “It’s actually better now, or at least it was up until the boil water alert, but I just don’t have the money to keep it.”

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He owns the Fox Plaza building but there’s a mortgage on it, so he has to pay that and maintain it.

“The main sewer line under the restaurant failed and that cost $25,000,” Brown said. “They had the floors jackhammered out. What if the air conditioner goes out this summer? I can’t keep doing this until there’s nothing left, until I can’t even go out and buy a Coke.”

He would like to sell the building and the brand to one person, but will entertain separating them.

“The property has to sell, because I can’t sell the name and then have to go out and get another job so I can afford the mortgage,” he said. “I’m almost 75 years old.”

But just because he can’t keep it going doesn’t mean he wants the business to close.

“I truly hope someone wants it,” he said. “It’s been good to me and could be to someone else. If people start getting out and the catering comes back, this will make money.

“I just don’t have the resources to ride it out, but don’t feel sorry for me. I’m the luckiest guy in the whole world. I’ve done what I wanted my whole life.”