Where everybody knew your name

Yep, it’s true: The venerable Normal St. Bar, a downtown watering hole famous for its close-knit community, has closed its doors.

The word from suddenly former employees (including in-house cartoonist/muralist Thorn Hart, who e-mailed a letter to the CN&R) was that owners Steve Boeger and his brother George were in a longstanding battle over who actually owned the place and that George Boeger had recently emerged victorious. He then summarily shut down the place, and operations ceased with little or no notice as of Monday (Nov. 10).

George Boeger confirmed that’s mostly true but also said the place is only temporarily closed and some employees would be rehired. The developer currently has a crew in the space to “update it, clean it and make it smell good,” and he says that it will reopen sometime next week under the name Off Normal.