PORT ANGELES — After becoming a big draw for musicians near and far, The Lyre’s Club will host one more band Friday before its final last call.
Stephanie Anthony, the owner of the bar at 229 W. First St., Port Angeles, said that Friday will be its last night unless she has liquor to sell on Saturday or Sunday.
“By Sunday for sure, no mas,” she said Wednesday while cleaning the bar. “But it could end before.”
The last band to play will be Lazybones from Seattle.
Anthony, speaking casually about the bar’s fate, said she isn’t planning anything special for its last night.
She attributed the closure to the recession.
“When the recession word got out there, you could see the sales drop,” she said.
The Lyre’s Club, which has two employees, will be one of about a half dozen downtown businesses to close this year.
Sales down
Although she couldn’t nail down a percentage, Anthony said sales are down significantly from last year.
“It’s been a roller coaster throughout the whole summer,” she said.
After a year and six months in business, the 31-year-old Port Angeles High School graduate said she made her decision to close about five days ago.
She concluded that it would cost too much to keep it going through the winter.
“Winter sucks in Port Angeles,” she said bluntly, referring to both the weather and sales.
“I don’t see Port Angeles turning around for two years,” she added, referring to the local economy.
Anthony said that, when she opened the business in May 2008, she intended to sell it after three years.
But over the last week, she decided she would either have to “dump more money in . . . or just get out.”
And get out is exactly what she plans to do.
Anthony said she isn’t going to try to sell the business.
After moving out of the building, she plans to leave town to seek work in the service industry, perhaps in Seattle or even Alaska.
She has more than a decade of work experience in restaurants and bars, and has managed other drinking establishments in New Orleans, Alaska, Washington, Utah and California.
The Lyre’s Club — named after the Lyre River and a stringed instrument — was the first business she started herself.
Musical culture
When asked what the business has brought to Port Angeles, Anthony said, “Oh, definitely culture.”
She was referring to the musicians she hosted from Seattle and elsewhere.
“Pretty much all of the bands are from out of town,” Anthony said, adding that there is no other place in town that can claim the same.
She said she was proud of being able to say that about her business, and “proud of the bands, too.”
“It was a lot of funk, stuff you can dance to,” Anthony said. “That’s what I shoot for, stuff you can dance to.”
One of the owners of the building, Deb Homenko, said she can only hope that another business as good as the Lyre’s Club will take its place.
“I enjoyed the great atmosphere and music she had there,” she said.
Anthony said she decided to open the bar as soon as she saw a “for sale” sign in the then-vacant space while she was in town visiting family.
At the time, she was intending to travel to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to be a stewardess on a cruise ship.
She figured she could make a go at it and bought what remained from what was Crazy Fish Baja and Beyond.
“I couldn’t have done it as cheaply anywhere else,” Anthony said.
To her customers, Anthony said she would like to say, “Thank you for the support and support for live music.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
