Fans of dingy, timeworn, kind of smelly but easily loveable 24th dive The Attic will be depressed to learn that it closed as of Sunday night. The closure was expected, and was originally reported in November by Uptown Almanac, but it was unclear at the time whether the bar was being sold and could reopen in some similar shape or form. Now it sounds as though the owner, Roger Howell (an ex-owner of Mad Dog in the Fog) is taking his liquor license nearby to the upcoming Gashead Tavern, in the former Charanga space at 2351 Mission Street. And this means The Attic's next incarnation won't likely be as a bar, since liquor licenses in the Mission are notoriously hard to come by.
The building owner has allegedly been reluctant to make improvements or extend The Attic's lease beyond month-to-month, as The Bold Italic reports, which is a tenuous situation faced by numerous businesses in the always gentrifying Mission.
The Attic joins Pop's and Jack's Club (on the Mission-Potrero border) among divey 24th Street bars that have given up the ghost and will likely reopen in some very different, Edison-bulbed form in the near future.
In related anti-gentrification news, at the Board of Supervisors meeting today, Supervisor David Campos is going to be proposing that the area around the 24th Street commercial corridor be designated the "Calle 24 Latino Cultural District," in order to help preserve "the area's flavor and history."
