When the Riptide was the victim of fire last year, its owners were in the middle of seeking an entertainment license.

As the bar's team explains on their Facebook page, "When The Riptide first opened, the Entertainment Commission was not fully yet up and running. All previous establishments at that location were permitted for live music, and we were told that we were grandfathered in."

It sounds like that wasn't completely the case, hence they were seeking the formal permit. "We wanted to come into compliance so that we could continue to bring extraordinary bands and live entertainment we have been bringing to the Westside for the past 11 years," they write.

That undertaking, along with plans to expand the bar to add food, was interrupted by the disaster, according to Hoodline, but as the bar prepares to rise from the ashes, we're told that a thousand former (and future) patrons have written to the Planning Commission in support of the Riptide's entertainment license.

The meeting of the commission is on June 23, and although Riptide co-owner David Quinby says the group has received over a thousand letters of support on behalf of the Riptide, "five thousand is better," he says. "We are so close to reopening," the crew writes to Facebook, with Quinby adding to Hoodline that “It feels to me it’s going to be very very soon... The music will be back, and the family and the community will be back.”

Previously: Riptide Will Return In Late Spring