After a couple of years of on-again, off-again reopening announcements, Upper Haight swing bar Club Deluxe says that its reopening is back on again, with a couple new owners taking the reins and promising not to change anything.
Fans of Haight Street’s old-time swing-music bar Club Deluxe have been given a case whiplash by that bar’s last few years in suspended animation. The news broke in August 2022 that Club Deluxe was closing permanently, amidst what appeared to be a pretty messy fight between the club’s then-owner Sarah Wilde and that Haight Street’s building’s owner, Veritas Investments. Though within a month, that district’s then-Supervisor Dean Preston had apparently brokered a deal with the two parties for Club Deluxe to remain open. Yet, in April of the following year, that all somehow fell apart, and Club Deluxe again announced its permanent closure.
The last we had heard from Club Deluxe was the obviously unhappy Instagram post seen below, in April 2023.
Now the sad trombone is happy again? There’s new joy at Haight and Ashbury streets, as SFGate reports that Club Deluxe will indeed reopen again, now under the new ownership of one-time bartender Christian Beaulieu and Mr. Tipple’s Recording Studio founder Jay Bordeleau.
“It can’t be Club Deluxe without restoring its legacy of music and community,” Beaulieu told SFGate. “If you look at the 30 years that Deluxe booked bands, the styles and genres ranged widely. This approach will continue and expand. It’s going to get really exciting.”
The announcement is fairly short on specifics, and notably, there is no timeline given for the club’s reopening. SFGate simply reports that the two new owners “signed a lease to take over the former Club Deluxe space, and they plan to bring it back in all its glory, hardly changing a thing.”
There is no mention of whether Veritas Investments is still the landlord of the building, as that real estate giant has been in fire-sale mode for its last couple of bumpy years. Club Deluxe’s website appears to have gone kaput, and there have been no recent updates on any of the club's social media channels.
But we’ll certainly hope for all of this to pan out, and we’d love to hear the old Club Deluxe rocking to a new beat in the not-too-distant future.
Image: Chuck N via Yelp
