ROGERS PARK — A staple bar-restaurant in the Glenwood and Morse business corridor is closing up shop, saying it could no longer survive coronavirus business restrictions.
Pub 626 at 1406 W. Morse Ave. will close for good at midnight Sunday, the bar’s management announced this week on Facebook.
The stay-at-home order that prohibited indoor dining coupled with the reduced capacity of indoor dining during the phased reopening made closing “impossible to avoid,” management wrote on Facebook.
“We tried everything we could think of, but it is just too late at this point,” the post read.
Pub 626 is the second Rogers Park restaurant to close for good in as many weeks, after Twisted Tapas closed last weekend. Both businesses have cited the coronavirus-caused economic slowdown and restrictions on businesses as the reason for closing.
Pub 626 was opened in 2015 by local entrepreneur Colm Treacy. It was the second business of Treacy’s at the Morse Avenue location, after he opened MorseL there in 2012.
Known as a neighborhood pub that serves food with a Southwestern flair, Pub 626 was a popular spot along the Glenwood Avenue Arts District.
But, as is the case for many other restaurants in the city, the coronavirus pandemic changed everything.
Treacy said on Facebook this summer that he sought to get an outdoor dining permit for Glenwood Avenue businesses, but was unsuccessful. He said Rogers Park businesses were losing diners to Andersonville, which expanded outdoor seating during the summer. Rogers Park eventually got an expanded outdoor dining area at Jarvis Square.
Treacy could not be reached for comment. His neighboring business, The Glenwood Bar, remains open, according to its Facebook page.
“The amazing Rogers Park community has kept us around for a while, but it is time to turn out the lights,” Pub 626’s management wrote on Facebook.
Pub 626 will be open through Sunday. Starting Thursday, it will get to stay open until 1 a.m. and increase indoor dining capacity to 40 percent as part of the city’s rolled back coronavirus restrictions.
It will hold a final Saturday brunch starting at 11 a.m. that day, and a final call celebration starting 7 p.m. Sunday.
Read all of Block Club’s coverage of businesses closing because of coronavirus.
Block Club Chicago’s coronavirus coverage is free for all readers. Block Club is an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom.
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Already subscribe? Click here to support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.