Just as a phoenix rises from the ashes, a new restaurant and event venue named Mallard will soon replace the burned Dixie Springs Cafe.

The landmark restaurant, which had served the Dixie Springs community just south of Bogue Chitto for 75 years, burned down in the early morning on Dec. 21. On Thursday and Friday, workers moved the old Bogue Chitto Methodist Church on Lee Street to the location of the former cafe.

Edward Malta bought the site shortly after it burned down, and he hopes by the end of the year to have a new venue open for fine dining and wedding events. He’s calling it Mallard in homage to the Dixie Springs Cafe, which he said had The Mallard as a nickname for many years.

“When the Dixie Springs community was first developed with my great-grandfather and his contemporaries, this was a resort area,” Malta said. “There was a bus stop, a hotel and a restaurant. I see this as being something that helps reestablish that sense of place here.”

Malta described the church as an architectural cornerstone for the new venue.

“It had the look of something that had withstood the test of time,” Malta said. “I knew that Dixie Springs Cafe was such a special place. It had so much care to it, and it had been there for so long. There was no way to rebuild something new and expect it to have that special feeling. There had to be something special about rebuilding it that would give it a historic, nostalgic vibe from the outset.”

Malta said his vision for Mallard includes an enclosed courtyard. His hope is to evoke the feeling of Jackson Square.

“When you step into it, you’ll step into something that has the same feel as New Orleans,” he said.

The move has been controversial for some. The Dixie Springs Cafe was known for its bar, one of the closest to Brookhaven residents before 2013. Malta said some are worried that the old church will be turned into a bar, but he said that isn’t the case. Malta also said the historic church had been neglected for some time.

“The place was boarded up with Plexiglas and had been vacated for many years,” he said. “It had started to rot, frankly.”

Malta said he hopes to show people he can build something that respects both the history of the Dixie Springs Cafe and the Bogue Chitto Methodist Church.

“I need to recognize that I’m building on something here,” he said. “I’m not building from scratch historically or from reputation.”