If you've passed Club Deluxe (1511 Haight St.) recently, you've likely noticed the California ABC permit application up in the window, announcing a change of ownership. But diehard fans shouldn't fear.

In fact, the permit is simply wrapping up a process initiated around this time last year, when Deluxe's founder and owner, Jay Johnson, passed away after a long battle with cancer. 

"It's pretty cool," a bartender on duty told us last week. "[Johnson] decided to leave the business to one of his employees," Sarah Wilde, who's been operating Deluxe since Johnson passed away. 

The change of ownership permit doesn't herald a change in management, in other words; just the opposite. The bartender we spoke to, who's been working at Deluxe since June and who said she's the only current staff member not to have worked under Johnson, said that Johnson's decision to leave Wilde the business was the kind of thing Johnson was well-liked for among the staff.  

"Change is inevitable," Wilde told us via email, but "our intention is to maintain the essence of Deluxe, what made it such a unique place and what Jay loved about it. We're just going to polish it up a bit."

Johnson opened Club Deluxe in 1989, and ran it continuously for 26 years. The bar, now a staple of the Haight, hosts live jazz every night, and features specialty cocktails and small bites.