MONTREAL -- There will be no second life for recently shuttered Montreal bar Thursday’s.
The longtime Crescent St. staple closed abruptly on New Year’s Day, laying off roughly 100 workers with no notice. The bar had been open since 1973.
Bernard Ragueneau, the founder of Thursday’s and current owner of the building, said he won’t reopen the bar and is looking to sell the structure. Ragueneau said he sold the bar to Chris-Ann Nakis on condition that she buy the entire building, but the deal fell through.
Now, Ragueneau said he’s looking to get out of the bar business entirely and that the property taxes of $300,000 make it prohibitively expensive for anyone else looking to open a new bar on the location.
“To reopen the restaurant you have to change the brand, there’s a lot of things you have to do,” he said.
Nakis attributed the bar’s closure to changing tastes among clientele, telling CTV News that “Young people don’t go out as much as they once did.”
In a social media post one former Thursday’s employee said they plan to take Nakis to Quebec’s labour board over the abrupt layoffs.
