Citing a landlord dispute, management of the Gallant Knight announced this morning that the club will be closing Dec. 31. However, according to a report circulating on Culturemap.com this afternoon, it appears that Vintage Lounge owner Amir Ansari will be taking over the premises Jan. 1, 2011.

According to a morning handout to the bar's staff, Gallant Knight got "hosed" by the landlord. A local businessman, who asked not be identified, said, regarding the owners of the property, that he had "tried to deal with those people before" and found them "very difficult."

He also surmised that "the lease could not have been cheap" and that "being open only three nights a week seemed like a bad operating plan for such a high-rent location."

In Rocks Off's mind, the Gallant Knight's closure actually doesn't amount to much vis a vis the music scene , since the once rocking R&B dance joint - the original signage proclaims "Gallant Knight - Live Jazz" - had been little more than a glorified Washington Avenue-type cover-band bar aimed at a middle-aged West University crowd since opening at its 2511 Bissonnet location last year.

The venue seemed stuck in a music rotation that featured cover bands with generic names like Hit Squad and Klockwork. They also booked soccer-mom faves Skyrocket! regularly.

The original club, a legendary dive on Holcombe where, one source told Rocks Off, "white couples used to go dance to black music," closed more than four years ago. Real-estate player and former Gallant Knight patron Stephen Schneidau put together an investment group that purchased the name and the contents of the former club. They reopened in summer of 2009, but the new place never had the feel of the former location.

Ansari indicated that he will keep the live music and the bottled-beer approach of the Gallant Knight, but that the new venture will be open seven days a week.