ESPN Club permanently closes at Walt Disney World's BoardWalk to be replaced with The Cake Bake Shop by Gwendolyn Rogers

Gallery / 2 Photos
ESPN Club overview

Posted: Friday March 11, 2022 3:34pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney World's ESPN Club on Disney's BoardWalk is now permanently closed.

Disney has announced that a new table service restaurant and bakery, The Cake Bake Shop by Gwendolyn Rogers, will be joining the BoardWalk and sources indicate that the ESPN Club will be the location.

ESPN Club overview

ESPN Club opened at Walt Disney World in July 1996 and offered classic American pub cuisine, sports entertainment and shopping, along with live tv coverage of sporting events. The club closed along with the rest of Walt Disney World during the pandemic and has not reopened since.

The Cake Bake Shop by Gwendolyn Rogers has two existing locations in Indianapolis, and you can see those menus for an idea of what to expect at the Walt Disney World location.

The Cake Bake Shop by Gwendolyn Rogers

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

WorldExplorer1 day ago

Lots of mint paint left over from M. Mouse Merchantile, I see.

mastromjm1 day ago

Screendoor reopened today. Interesting color choices

DJM2 days ago

Never happen. There isn't enough parking, and Lexin who owns the downtown wants RIDICULOUS rent for the space. Many attempts were made to do something with the space and all have failed.

aladdin20073 days ago

I didn't realize changes were being made to the store there, I thought it was fine and nice the way it was, but of course because it was nice it has to go, as such. Speaking of that also wondering about the Emporium, that entire back quadrant through to casey's walled off. Do we start cringing now how thats going to turn out?

ToTBellHop3 days ago

Ah, the Boarddwakd, home of on-theme locations like Cake Bake Shop.

Disney Analyst3 days ago

Hot take, if I was in charge... I'd be trying to remodel that bar ;) Maybe some more subtle colours, less circus, less tacky. ETA: I used Bing, please don’t write to corporate about me using AI to express what I would design.

jmuboy3 days ago

100% accurate in your assessment - 1990s Disney at its BEST.

mattpeto3 days ago

lol. Hey, that's still theming far beyond anything Carousel Coffee came up with.

MisterPenguin3 days ago

;) (Yeah, I know it's gone, but it happened.)

mattpeto3 days ago

The BoardWalk Inn pool bar is a great example of theming done well.

FiestaFunKid3 days ago

I agree with your point, but saying Carousel Coffee has a theme b/c it has pictures of carousels on the wall - is being extremely generous to Imagineering.

castlecake2.03 days ago

I think the issue is they’re designing things to match a theme rather than being part of an overall story. Carousel Coffee for example, it has a theme with the carousel photos on the wall, but it doesn’t drive the story of the resort forward. I came up with a story for it a while back, it should have been designed to look like the repair shop of the person who takes care of the boardwalk carousel and dressed to match. This looks like the same issue the shop refurb is going to have, it looks nice, but what’s the story? Saying that the story also doesn’t have to be in your face as a guest, but it should be used as the plot line of the design.

Tha Realest3 days ago

Because it’s more attractive to private equity folks who will be looking at acquiring the resorts and/or the DVC

Jrb19793 days ago

Why are they so obsessed with going the generic route for a lot of things now. What made Disney different was the theming. They have been going away from that for everything outside of the parks.