Downey's, which has sat at Front and South Streets since Jimmy Carter was in the White House, is one of two Philly bars to undergo a makeover as part of a new Spike TV series, Bar Rescue.
The show sends Miami-based bar/resto consultant Jon Taffer -- whose "Taffer Dynamics" system places him squarely in the Gordon Ramsay hardball league -- to sagging operations.
Downey's will close on Tuesday, May 10 for the work, and will reopen at 9 p.m. Thursday, May 12 to the oohing and ahhing and drinking public.
The episode is due to be televised "this summer," Spike tells me.
Updated: Vince Frankowski of Swanky Bubbles says his bar will get the treatment a week later.