When the Anthology nightclub shuttered in January 2013, it was a bitter pill to swallow for many San Diego music enthusiasts. The closure of the Little Italy venue soon made a dent in the accessibility of high-caliber jazz and blues.
Recently, though, after a year of speculation and nearly being auctioned at least twice, an application for a change of ownership was filed by F & B Associates and posted at the India Street site on Jan. 29 of this year.
A call placed after business hours to F & B Associates was not returned, so it's not clear yet if the site would continue to be a live-music venue. However, a pending transfer from Anthology's owners to F & B Associates did include licenses for a "general eating place" as well as a "portable bar" and "event permit."
According to Hoovers.com, a business-information data base, F & B Associates is based on Morena Boulevard in San Diego and operates Best Beverage Catering, which has offices in L.A., San Francisco and three other cities. According to that company's website, "BBC is an industry partner [that] is able to skillfully and legally provide bar service for private and public events" and has operated "large-scale concession services for the music and sporting industries, most [notably the] Super Bowls of 2003 and 2005-10." The site also states that BBC has worked on such events as the Coachella music festival and the Vans Warped Tour, as well as at facilities like the Birch Aquarium and Mingei Museum in Balboa Park.
Last year was a tumultuous one for the San Diego music-venue community, with the news about Anthology followed by the closures of the downtown mainstay 4th&B, the EDM site Voyeur and the smaller, quirkily booked Void, which transformed into the Hideout. Then, in January of this year, music fans found out that the Griffin on Morena Boulevard was on the block and learned the worrisome fact that the liquor license at Brick By Brick had been suspended.
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