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Tenderloin Bar And Music Spot Hemlock Tavern To Close In October

By Dave Pehling

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Popular Polk Street watering hole and live music venue the Hemlock Tavern confirmed Monday morning that it will be closing in early October prior to developers demolishing the building that houses the establishment.

The announcement was made on the bar's Facebook page, stating that the Hemlock Tavern and its liquor license had been sold to the developers who had purchased the building at 1145 Polk Street which also includes the bar in 2015. The developers plan to demolish the building, raising a new 54-unit mixed-use condominium structure in its place.

The future of the bar had been in question ever since the developers -- the Dolmen Property Group -- went public with their plans for the block after the purchase was made.

Managing partner Don Alan, who also owns the Casanova on Valencia Street in the Mission, told KQED that despite the Hemlock Tavern having a lease that runs until 2022, the decision was made to sell the business and the liquor license when the other tenants took buyouts.

"The Hemlock Tavern, in its current physical and metaphysical configurations, will cease to exist after the first week of October 2018," the Facebook announcement read.

The bar and the music venue will continue to operate through the closure, now set to happen after the venue's 17th anniversary party on Saturday, Oct. 6.

The adventurous booking by Anthony Bedard helped make the small back room venue one of the best intimate performance spaces in San Francisco, featuring everything from garage punk stalwarts like the Dirtbombs and Thee Oh Sees to stand-up comedy with Neil Hamburger, Todd Barry, Tig Notaro and Brent Weinbach.

In his own Facebook post, Bedard thanked the estimated "15,000 local/national/international bands and music acts that performed over 5,000 shows in our back room since October 2001."

"Running a live music venue was always a labor of love and we're proud to have contributed to the cultural life of San Francisco and the Bay Area," Bedard said in conclusion. "It was a great run."

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