The new issue of The Bollard includes an article on the closing of Mama’s CrowBar.
It might be easy to let a bar in a city full of them close without much acknowledgement, shrugging and muttering something like, “Oh well, guess that’s how business goes these days.” But Mama’s was not just a bar. This place had a significant impact on its rapidly changing neighborhood, on the landscape of craft beer on the peninsula, and on the community that gathered around its taps. And the CrowBar isn’t simply going out of business. Its closure is the culmination of a long and tangled legal battle between Henley and the building’s owners — which is a particularly painful way for a well-loved establishment to meet its demise.
Today is Mama’s official last day in business.
Update: the Press Herald published an article on Tuesday about Mama’s CrowBar.
Mamas was a classic. The building was on the market for months, if I recall correctly. Why didn’t the owner get a small business loan and purchase the building?
Probably because it’d have been a not so small business loan as there are apartments above it. I was talking earlier tonight to someone hoping to buy half of a duplex on the Hill. She was quoted one hundred and sixty thousand for it.
So figure maybe a half million for the building. I say that’s a lot of loan to take out!
But…it’s doable. Business owners do it everyday. Two rental units above could have offset some of the costs.