Hotel operator Mike McLeod, who took over the bar with a group of Dunedin musicians in 2012, said it had been decided to close the Port Chalmers bar early next year.
''We have been thinking about it for a little while. It's been quite a hard year financially. We have been doing it for three and a-half years and we sort of feel like we have achieved lots of the goals we had for the business,'' Mr McLeod said.
Running the bar had been hard work for not much financial reward, but they still considered the venture a ''complete cultural success'', with the venue attracting some of the biggest names in alternative music in recent years, while also playing host to local bands.
The closure would leave a ''hole'' in the Dunedin music scene, but he believed there was room for someone to open a medium-sized music venue closer to the centre of the city.
In a Facebook post, Mr McLeod said it would be open to ''ridiculously overpriced offers to buy the business'', but would ''probably say no to most of them'' as it was only viable as a ''work-your-ass-off owner/operator venture''.
