The Liberties, the Irish bar and restaurant that has anchored the corner of Guerrero and 22nd streets in San Francisco's Mission District for more than two decades, has closed indefinitely. Owner Ian Duggan says financial problems have made it impossible to keep the doors open, and a lender dispute has left him burning through his own savings just to make sure his staff gets paid.
According to Mission Local, the bar had been expected to reopen after a planned Labor Day closure but instead has remained shuttered as Duggan works through what the outlet described as business challenges. He is now weighing whether to bring in a new operator who could keep the business running, though he has said he would prefer to keep running The Liberties himself.
At the center of the shutdown is a legal fight tied to a business loan. Black Olive Capital LLC filed a commercial breach-of-contract lawsuit against Duggan and several entities tied to The Liberties in Erie County, New York, in August, per Mission Local's reporting. Duggan has said the unpaid balance now totals nearly $160,000 once penalties, attorney fees and interest are factored in.
Frozen Paychecks and a Dwindling Personal Fund
Duggan told the outlet that liens connected to the dispute froze the bar's payroll funds, leaving employees waiting on money that was already theirs. “I'm paying lawyers with the last of my personal funds to get it released to them,” he said, describing his effort to get those funds unlocked so his staff can collect their final paychecks.
Despite the financial strain, Duggan said he hopes to find a way forward for The Liberties and has not ruled out handing the business to someone else if that gives it a real chance to survive. He has given no timeline for a possible reopening.
A Pandemic-Era Lifeline for the Neighborhood
The Liberties built its reputation on more than pints and fish and chips. The bar hosted bingo and trivia nights, live music and jam sessions that made it a fixture for Mission District regulars for years. During the darkest stretch of the COVID-19 lockdown, the business offered $5 meals and handed out as many as 9,000 of them to people in need, as reported by Mission Local, citing Duggan.
That community effort caught the attention of Silicon Valley's biggest philanthropists. In May 2020, The Liberties was one of eight Bay Area restaurants selected by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to receive a $100,000 donation, as reported by Palo Alto Online, money that helped keep the business afloat while it supplied meals to health care workers and other frontline staff.
Conflicting Accounts of When It All Began
Exactly how long The Liberties has been serving the Mission is a point of dispute. Mission Local reports the bar first opened at 998 Guerrero St. in 2002, while the business's own website states it was established in 2000. Either way, Duggan did not start out as the owner — he took over the business in 2019, just months before the pandemic hit, after years as a neighborhood regular and customer.
The closure adds The Liberties to a lengthening list of beloved Bay Area watering holes and restaurants that have gone under or paused operations amid rising costs and operational strain. Ginger's went on what it called an indefinite hiatus in October 2025 after losing a critical employee, while a dispute with a landlord helped end the 28-year run of San Francisco's only Irish bar and Indian restaurant combo, according to The San Francisco Standard. Even the Michelin-starred Osito could not survive the city's tough restaurant economy, closing last year after three and a half years in business.
The strain is not confined to San Francisco. In Portland, Oregon, the nearly 80-year-old Irish gastropub The Leaky Roof shut its doors unexpectedly earlier this year, a closure that OregonLive described as part of a broader wave of local bar closures in that city.
For now, the fate of The Liberties rests on whether Duggan can resolve the lender dispute and find a sustainable path forward, whether that means running the bar himself or passing it to a new operator. No timeline has been set, and the Mission District corner that once rang with trivia nights and jam sessions sits quiet.
