Downtown Boise bar and restaurant closed permanently after 18 years and ‘a lot of fun’

Cue “Danny Boy.” Or “Carrickfergus.” Or another sad traditional folk song.

Ha’Penny Bridge Irish Pub, which opened in January 2002 in downtown Boise, has closed permanently. The business will be listed soon with Arthur Berry & Co., according to managing partner Daniel Rhodes.

Ha’Penny had been shut down since the middle of March.

For nearly two decades, Ha’Penny was a popular destination for music fans flocking to the nearby Knitting Factory Concert House in an alley between 8th and 9th streets. Concertgoers would enjoy pub food at Ha’Penny before Knit shows, then return for a nightcap beer or cocktail afterward. Over the years, local and touring bands also performed at Ha’Penny.

Although the end wasn’t definitive then, Ha’Penny closed this spring one day before what normally is a huge money-making opportunity: St. Patrick’s Day. “That was kind of in the midst of the initial outbreak,” Rhodes said. “We were trying to be as responsible as we possibly could at that point. Packing 600 people in there for St. Patrick’s Day didn’t seem like the most responsible thing to do.”

After bars were closed by state and local government because of the coronavirus, Ha’Penny faced a quickly changing environment and staffing challenges, Rhodes said. The Knitting Factory’s shutdown during COVID also has had a significant effect on foot traffic in the area. After being “still kind of on the fence” for a while, Rhodes said, ownership came to the conclusion that Ha’Penny “wasn’t really feasible to keep open.”

Ha’Penny’s owners had taken over and remodeled a few years ago.

“... We put a lot of energy into that location,” Rhodes said, “and we had a lot of fun with it.”

This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 12:42 PM.