The Lunar Inn in Port Richmond will close in December

Port Richmond’s Lunar Inn plans is closing, its owners announced on Instagram this week. The bar served up fun cocktails, a Craig LaBan-approved burger, an all-vinyl soundtrack, and a variety of natural wines sold by its adjacent bottle shop, Tiny’s (which will also close). Its last night of service will be Dec. 31.

“We’d hoped to make it much further in our journey, and it really hurts to think about all of this magic going away,” wrote owners Emily Kovach and Ryan Ellis in the Thursday post. “Saying goodbye will be difficult, but it’s our only viable option at this point.” They thanked the customers and staff past and present who built “the special community that has grown and evolved around Lunar.”

Customers and fellow business owners wished them well and shared appreciations on Instagram. “One rainy night a stray cat kept running into the bar and getting bounced,” one remembered, “We took him home and have had him for 3 years!” “Lunar was one of the reasons we decided to move to Port Richmond!” wrote another. “The block won’t be the same,” said another.

Reached by phone Friday, Kovach said the decision to close was one that she and Ellis had contemplated more than once as the nearly five-year-old bar weathered Richmond Street construction, the pandemic, and slow summers. While Lunar had been hitting its strides in many ways, she said, the numbers ultimately weren’t working.

“So many pieces have clicked into place that we’ve been dreaming of: a little bit more name recognition for us, our kitchen staff and our chef David [Roque] putting out killer food week after week, our bar manager Sean [Goldinger] really stepping our cocktail program up. ... Everything feels so right, except financial aspects.”

The Lunar Inn opened in spring 2019 with four owners — Kovach, Ellis, and restaurant-industry vets Erin Murphy and Sean McGuinness — and backing from A Frame Constructs, a design-development team that’s had a hand in restaurants like Martha, Sally, and Pizza Shackamaxon. It brought a more youthful vibe to Richmond Street, which has seen other new tenants move in — Launderette Records, Tshatshke Jewelry Studio, and Big Top Vintage — in the following years.

Kovach said 2022 was a rebuilding year for the bar and that she and Ellis hoped 2023 would build on that momentum. “At least for us, it has just not been that way,” she said. “There’s been amazing nights and busy weeks and really successful events and like all the things that we’re so proud of, but week over week ... it just didn’t work.”

They considered potential changes to Lunar’s model but ultimately didn’t want to compromise their values or vision for the bar. “It just felt increasingly clear, if we weren’t gonna go out on our own terms, it had to be now,” she said.

The bar is planning a New Year’s Eve party to say its farewell to the neighborhood.