Legendary Los Angeles Irish bar/restaurant Tom Bergin’s abruptly announced Wednesday night that it is closing its doors for good on Sunday. How is this possible?
Without giving a reason for the closure, the restaurant posted on its Facebook page:
We are sorry to let everyone know that this Sunday will be Tom Bergin’s last day of business. Please join us in our last few days; we’d love to see as many familiar faces as possible.
When reached by the Los Angeles Times, someone at the restaurant blamed “lack of sales,” saying, “The ownership wasn’t reaching the revenue needed to sustain itself.”
Tom Bergin’s during renovations.
New owners recently took control of the 77-year-old year old Fairfax fixture, shutting it down from July 2011 until April 2012 to retool the kitchen and clean the place up. The renovations took much longer than expected, even missing St. Patrick’s Day.
When it reopened it looked pretty much the same, but the food was more upscale than the usual Irish pub fare. Apparently it was not a hit with diners.
Perhaps it closed down for too long. People are creatures of habit; they couldn’t go there anymore so they moved on, then didn’t bother coming back when it reopened.
I’ll bet someone comes along and buys the place. A Los Angeles without Tom Bergin’s is unimaginable.