Tenderloin dive bar Edinburgh Castle Pub has been on the selling block for more than five years, with no apparent takers, and now a bank has reportedly foreclosed on the building and forced the bar’s closure.

The 66-year-old Tenderloin bar Edinburgh Castle Pub was already rumored to be not much longer for this earth since way back in 2019, when owner Tay Kim put the building and the bar up for sale for nearly $4 million. “Different crowd. Not a drinking one,” Kim said of the neighborhood’s clientele at the time. “The recent ‘tech’ transplants are not drinkers or social.”

One pandemic later, they are even less so. Broke-Ass Stuart was first with the news on Sunday that the Edinburgh Castle Pub has permanently closed. Per that website, the lending bank has foreclosed on both the bar, and the building itself, both apparently owned by Kim.

The Chronicle followed up to get some specific financial details. "US Bank filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the bar in February 2024 for a more than $700,000 loan made in 2009, records show. According to the lawsuit, Edinburgh Castle stopped making monthly payments on the loan in 2023," the Chronicle reports. "This June, a court appointed receiver took possession of the property, and an auctioneer was appointed to sell the building."

Taking a good, hard look at that timeline, it sounds like Kim had been making the loan payments for 14 years, but stopped when business went off the cliff during COVID. So we’ll hope Kim doesn’t take a bath on the foreclosure.

But the building will now be auctioned off, and we don’t have high hopes it will remain a bar. It almost certainly will not remain the Edinburgh Castle Pub.

That’s a cultural loss for sure, particularly because Trainspotting playwright Irvine Walsh used to frequent the place. The Edinburgh Castle even hosted the US debut of the theatrical version of Trainspotting, which was then adapted into a film. And in ways that may be culturally significant to some, the Edinburgh Castle Pub also served as a location in the American films So I Married an Axe Murderer and Venom.

Related: Edinburgh Castle For Sale, Owner Says Tech Transplants Don't Drink Enough [SFist]

Image: Ji K via Yelp