It is the concept of a dinner theater or dinner/dancing that was the alure and great amenity.

However you can only see Dunning/Shaw and Rocky/Rollers just so many times.

Back in the old days where I lived we had a dinner/dancing venue that featured a Band Leader that produced a different show/theme each month.

GlennView Country Club has tried to do some dinner shows with the Old Katie Bell entertainers.

We always took first time visitors to Katie Belle's...the food was equal to the value you paid...and it was a nice intro to 'life in the bubble'

there was a story going around that the owner was the husband of one of the Morse girls and they were getting a divorce... if that was truly the situation, any subsidy money from 'the family' that may have been keeping it afloat would have been coming to an end

who knows, unless you were an insider, it's all speculation ...

it was a special place and there should have been a line outside waiting to get in, but there never was

Will not reopen

I have often heard that they lost money because people would sit there for hours and nurse one beer or glass of water forever and hog the tables. If that was the case then the new food-court style "Market" at Sawgrass Grove is in trouble.

But why was this a problem? No other restaurant in Spanish Springs would allow this. Seems like the management could have discouraged this problematic activity.

We loved Katie Belle's! We ate there many times - sometimes at lunch for the atmosphere, food, and music! It was beautiful! Attended many dinner shows there. Every time we had visitors, you can be sure that was a destination!! Brunch on Sundays - delightful! We really miss it! Wish they could bring KB back, but not in the South- we need something new in Spanish Springs! The Villages does such a wonderful job making sure everything is beautiful! It seems so much more attention is given to the Fenney area! Pay attention to the Northern section of The Villages!!!

IMHO KB's was utilized as a sales tool in the early days, drawing people to purchase in TV as "members only" entertainment, drinking, dancing and dining would be nearby at Spanish Springs. As new developments were being built further and further south it became a bit of a trek in a golf cart to get to KB's so it was not as much a draw.

I just read whebuilding is located.re The Villages just applied for a permit to put in 7 apartments where the old KatieBells building is located in Spanish Springs. I understood the council declined that request about a year or so ago.

You cannot unscramble the egg.
Kinda reminds me of The Pink Pony in Scottsdale, Az. It was PINK. Spring training. Sawdust on the floor. Spring training games on the radio one could hear the individual fans in the stands shouting. It's all gone upscale with tickets going for $40. The Pink Pony is now upscale-no longer even Pink. People used to park their horses outside.

It's all because the whole town is now upscale.
You have to change with the times I'm sad to say.

This subject is as old as dog poop. Not once has one offered up proof KB's wasn't making a profit including this entire thread so far. Just post an announcement by the Morse's or some TV department stating such.

In stead we keep posting "hearsay" about Villagers drinking water causing the closure. Well if that is true the same Villagers still live here so how is anyone else going to make a profit ?

The Sharon Morse performing Arts Centered opened in 2015, Guess when Katie Belle's closed and moved upstairs - right 2015.

I totally agree The Morse's can do whatever they please and do not have to answer to us. It very well could be they wanted to put something in that was more profitable with less work then the previous venue But stop putting the blame on The Villagers. People are posting like they know the answer. Most of them never stepped foot in the old KB's - hearsay !

The only exception I have to my statement about the developer is free to do as they please could possibly be a verbal contract (if you want to call it that) may have been broken. In the early to mid 2000's time frame the first word out of you sales rep mouth was "and here is Katie Belle's, the flagship of The Villages. It is an exclusive residents only club." But the flip side of the coin is no reason they can't do the same with the town squares. For you newer people wasn't those squares part of the sales pitch ?

I went their several times for lunch over the last few years before it closed and it was always dead. It may have been packed in the early years before I got here but it was going downhill toward the end.

I always found it a hoot that people considered it a "private club" for 100,000 people.

People stood in line, then ordered a dinner to share and hogged the table all night ordering maybe one drink, that's how.

"We will stop building at 466A" "We will definitely stop at 44"

City Fire!

Near did get to KB's in the 5 years living here, How where their prices?