Downtown Landlord Forces Dive Legend Bar 107 to Close

LA’s long-held dive bar tradition may well be on its way to becoming a thing of the past. Case in point: the upcoming closure of downtown’s Bar 107, one of the most beloved of the bunch. LAist has the full scoop on the impending shutter, complete with a little backstory.

Tucked in under the iconic glowing Old Style sign, Bar 107 on 4th Street has been a home for many of downtown’s young casual drinkers, long before the area’s revitalization. Vee Delgadillo opened the space in 2005 (much to Curbed’s chagrin), and has since gone on to helm the Down and Out and relative newcomer Little Easy. According to The Downtown News, she was pulling in as much as $2 million a year from Bar 107, but the money must not have been enough.

Working off of a month-to-month lease, Delgadillo was unable to come to terms with ownership behind the Barclay Building, who, according to her, hope to trade on the site’s success to run their own drinking establishment — at much higher prices, of course.

Currently operating under a 90-day notice to vacate, Bar 107 seems to be in the final throes of its life on 4th Street. As LAist notes, even with conditional use permitting and liquor license transfers, popping up a new Bar 107 somewhere else would be a risky proposition, and one that could take close to a year. When called, ownership for the building had no comment on the closure.

Expect a shutter sometime in the coming months.