Jellyrolls may be leaving Walt Disney World, but Dueling-Piano Bar will continue to make “sweet memories” with Florida locals on vacation in new (still private) locations, their general manager said.
The last day you will experience Jerry Roll at your current location on Disney’s Boardwalk will be April 19th. General Manager Amber Antel said the business that rents space from Disney and is not owned by the theme park giant will have time to leave the home for many years before the lease officially closes. Once that’s done, more information about the new location will be announced through its website jellyrollswdw.com or through social media.
In the meantime, it’s business as usual with a music nightspot. Many conventions appeared early on a recent Tuesday, with vacationers and patrons behind. The store closes at 1:45am. The eclectic music selection of the pianist saw a series of performances of “Wizard and Me” in “Wizard and Me” that leads to Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”
In the duel piano bar, pianists make all kinds of requests. On Tuesday, everything saw everything from the modern Chapel Lawn Tune to the Broadway “Gypsy” to the voluminous Singaporean and Lee Greenwood’s “American Blessings.” Part of the fun is watching a spinning pianist essentially play such a wide range of music.
Patron Michael Berger, who has been with Jellyrolls every few months since 2018, recalls the night he requested the lesser-known Huey Lewis song “Bad Is Bad.”
The pianist “learned about 15 minutes of songs,” said Burger, who drives with his wife from Newport Richie. “And now, he plays it every time we come without even requesting it.”
This format remains the same in the finale at Disney World on April 19th, but is still in its storage. Generally, four pianists play each night, but the entire eight-person condition plays. The doors open at 6pm, an hour earlier than usual, and music starts almost immediately. However, the $22 admission fee will remain the same and regular reservations will not be accepted. The seating is the first cam and is first served.
“We’re looking forward to a huge crowd in the final week,” Antel said, adding that the business has been active since the announcement of the closing. And she expects to feel cheerful.
“This is almost 30 years of celebration on the Boardwalk,” she said.
There are several other duel piano bars in Orlando. Most notably Pat O’Brien on Universal’s Citywalk and Howl on International Drive’s Moon. Neither Jellyrolls nor Walt Disney World have publicly commented on why the business has left the boardwalk, but Antel has shown that the move is not due to complaints about the long-standing location.
Disney has been cutting back on late-night adult offerings, dating back to the 2008 closure of the Pleasure Island cluster of bars and clubs, known as Downtown Disney at the time. The area, now known as Disney Springs, is officially closed at 11pm.
Disney is also rethinking the Boardwalk, a strip of shops and restaurants near Epcot. Atlantic Dance Hall, a bar with DJs and dance floors, is open past midnight, but usually only operates on Thursday Sunday. Sports Bar, the area’s ESPN club, was closed forever in 2022 and later demolished to make way for tea and cake shops. Several stores have won facelifts, along with the area’s signature boardwalk-in.
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Big River Grill & Brewing Works was closed forever in January. Like Jellyrolls, the restaurant is not owned by Disney and has rented space for nearly 30 years.
Jellyrolls opened in 1996, the year the Boardwalk debuted, and pianist Scotty Kilwein joined the musician’s terms in May 2002 nearly 23 years ago.
“So many people are talking about jelly rolls,” said Kilvein, now the longest current pianist in the business. “It’s great to know that so many people are making great memories there.”
He and Antel refer to the couple they met and married there, the annual family vacationers who have come to remember their now-deceased loved ones, and the guests who visit for their annual birthday celebrations.
“We’re in the business of creating memories and fun times,” Kilwane said.
He has his own personal memories. Kilvine met his future wife at Jerry Rolds. She is a Disney cast member and came overnight and tried to set up him with one of her friends. However, the romantic spark eventually flew in a different direction. They married in 2006 and have three children.
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Jellyrolls is responsible for his name. When Killwyne first joined the company, another pianist was named Scott. So he became “Scotty.”
“As a kid, I wanted to work for Disney, and I wanted to be a rock star,” he said. “Jellyrolls allowed me to somehow make those dreams come true.”
On Tuesday, Killwein played and sang everything from Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al Al” to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Follows,” performing a beatbox percussion solo in Oasis’s “Wonderwall,” and channeled Bettemidler in “I You Put You” from Disney’s “Hocus Pocus.”
For Burger, a Florida patron, the range of style and era means jelly rolls.
He plans to chase Jellyrolls into a new location.
“I’m there on the first day,” he said. “I found it because of its physical location, but now that I know what the jelly roll is, I’ll follow it everywhere.”
That’s what Antel is doing banking for both the patrons and the staff. Jellyrolls employs 40-50 full-time servers and part-time servers, bartenders and other personnel, in addition to six full-time and two part-time musicians.
“We have great staff and they work really hard,” she said.
It is unknown when the new location opens, but Antel said after Disney left, “as soon as possible.”
“We want to perfect it and create a great environment so we don’t open it right away,” she said.
Kilwein, who calculates that he will perform 4,781 times on Jellyrolls by April 19th, plans to stick. Like Burger, he believes the atmosphere makes the jelly roll special, not the place.
“It’s people,” he said. “The atmosphere, the guests, the team we have.”
“We are very grateful for all our guests,” Antel agreed. “We had a great run and we look forward to the next step.”
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