In a bittersweet ending, ReBar has closed. The gay bar that has been open on the corner of 30th and Upas streets for almost two decades abruptly closed Dec. 27 after a difficult business year.

John McCusker, owner of both ReBar and Club Montage, died suddenly of cardiac arrest in March while visiting Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort. The McCusker family immediately closed Montage and has since sold the club. The family kept ReBar open in the hopes of finding a new owner.

Business owners Cuong Nguyen and Adam Cook bought the bar, taking ownership on Nov. 1. They closed the bar after only two months.

“We tried to keep it open. It was just a business decision,” Cook said. “The only thing we can say is that it’s unfortunate for the community, but it was strictly a business decision.”

The decision to close ReBar came as a shock to the local community as well as the bar staff.

“I came in to work on Tuesday, and both the owners came in and they said they were going to close down the bar,” said ReBar manager Chuck Ferrante. “There was no notice to the staff. They were very callous about it.”

“Since the business owner had passed away, it had been operating in the red,” Cook said. “When there is no money coming in the door, there is no way to pay the bills.”

“I tried to tell them the bar has been there for 20 years, but they could care less,” Ferrante said. “I was disappointed, everybody was disappointed, and the leather community was disappointed.”

ReBar was better known as Wolfs, the long-established gay leather bar before McCusker changed the club’s identity almost two years ago. At that time, McCusker said the San Diego leather community was not as big as it once was, and the change to ReBar was to better represent the bar’s clientele.

Some people felt that decision alienated the leather crowd.

Reaction from the leather community about the closing has been mixed, and people have been reluctant to express their views on the record. Some were hoping for a revitalization of the once popular bar, while others said, “It wasn’t that bad of a closure.”

Rumors have circulated that the club would be transformed into a straight bar, according to Ferrante. However, Cook said there are no immediate plans for the building.

“As of right now, we have some consultants talking to us and [we’ll] see what we’re going to do there,” Cook said. “If and when we are able to do anything with the space, we’ll definitely let people know what’s going on.”

ReBar would have celebrated its 20th anniversary in April of this year.