A New Orleans-themed restaurant that was heralded as a key development in downtown Raleigh's revitalization closed Tuesday after months of speculation about shaky finances.

Yancy's on Fayetteville Street suffered from poor management and declining sales, said Harvey Yancey, the namesake of the restaurant and a shareholder in the business.

"When you go into a business, it's got to be run like a business," he said. "And it started getting shaky. And you still have to deal with the economy."

Still, Yancey said he's not done with restaurants and is already in talks with new business partners to open a similar restaurant.

"It's in my blood," he said. "I'll do it till I die. I don't know how to fix cars; I know how to do food."

Yancey has had a long history with downtown restaurants. He was the chef at Black Dog Cafe in the Raleigh City Market in the 1990s, and Yancey's Jazz & Blues Cafe, which closed in 2003.

The current Yancy's -- without the "e" -- opened in 2006.

The restaurant has been the focus of rumors since the February filing of YancyJazz LLP for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

An erroneous report two weeks ago that the restaurant had closed hurt business, Yancey said.

"Our sales [on weekends] dropped from $8,000 or $9,000 down to $3,000," he said. "You tell me how to do that paying $25,000 a month in rent."

In February, Van Miles bought out Yancey's former partner, Mark Valentine. Miles, owner of Vango Foods in Raleigh, is now the majority owner of the business.

Vango Foods took over operation of the restaurant in March, inheriting more than $100,000 in taxes owed and two or three rounds of payroll that were due to employees, Miles said.

The final straw was a notice from the landlord that the company's lease had been terminated as part of the February bankruptcy filing, Miles said.

"We were just going through the mail and saw it yesterday," he said Tuesday.

At lunchtime Tuesday, Yancy's doors were locked, and the restaurant was dark.

The TV in the street-level window was on, tuned to MSNBC, and the bright blue umbrellas on the patio tables were cinched neatly. Edwina Stover approached the locked doors, intent on getting her favorite Yancy's dish -- shrimp and crab dip. "I am so shocked," she said. "I promise, I don't want anything else to eat. I had my mouth fixed on it."

There is a chance that the restaurant could reopen, Miles said, if new funding is found and a new lease can be negotiated.

But Harvey Yancey is moving on to that new restaurant.

He wasn't ready to say where his new venture will be, but he hinted that it might be in downtown Raleigh and could open in as few as 30 or 40 days.

"I haven't been anywhere but downtown since 1989, and I love downtown Raleigh," he said.