Portsmouth’s Humbolt Steel Corp announces plans to close
Owner of bar blames COVID-19 restrictions
After five years of beer and pizza, Humboldt Steel Corp will be no more.
The Olde Towne Portsmouth bar broke the news Monday on its Facebook page. “It is with great sadness and a heavy heart, but due to the COVID-19 restrictions imposed on us, we are closing the doors this Saturday and going out of business,” read the announcement.
The bar was known for dirt-cheap liquor and quirky “San Francisco-style” pizzas, not to mention live music and UFC fight nights. But today will be the final evening of service. Humboldt’s downtown Norfolk location had already closed in 2019; that location also closed briefly in 2018 during a landlord dispute.
Just a few days before the Portsmouth location’s closing announcement, Humboldt Steel had posted on its social account that it was looking to hire new bar staff. But owner Chris Bowman said that when he sat down and looked at his books this week, he decided he just couldn’t keep going.
“I realized I can’t take it anymore,” said Bowman. “It’s not worth it. I haven’t received a paycheck from that restaurant for almost all of 2020. I’ve been working for free, my general manager is working for free … Most of the time on payroll, I’ve been having to reach into my own pocket.”
As of Tuesday, the bar had already been pared to a skeleton crew.
“It’s 100% the pandemic,” Bowman said. “People like the food. They want to come here, and there’s business to be had. I just can’t serve them.”
He doesn’t want to put himself further into debt, especially when he fears things might get worse before they get better. In particular, he’s worried that Gov.Northam might bring back more stringent restaurant restrictions during the current surge in coronavirus cases.
“If there were light at the end of the tunnel, it would be different,” he said. “But I just don’t see it.”
Humboldt Steel’s troubles began at the end of last March, when the health district cited the bar for outdoor seating violations during the pandemic, after patrons kept gathering at outdoor tables.
Patio dining was shut down in the state of Virginia during the early months of the pandemic, until Phase 1 of the recovery. Bowman doesn’t dispute that there were patrons on his patio.
“We had a lot of people, older guys, all friends — they were getting food through the takeout window and then sitting in our outside seating. The health department told me I couldn’t let them. And I said, ‘How do I stop them?’ ” Bowman remembered.
He said that even after he removed chairs from his patio, patrons brought folding chairs and kept coming.
“They drank their to-go alcohol, ate lunch, had a good time. That’s what they do. And then the department came and pulled my license,” he said.
Humboldt remained closed by order of the Portsmouth Health District for a little more than two months, according to health department records. On May 4, after Bowman met the Health District’s conditions by gating off the patio, the business was again allowed to reopen.
But even with patios opened back up, Bowman said he’s lost many military and shipyard customers who were restricted from going out to restaurants. He also said that many of his longtime staff never returned, which he attributes to the federal unemployment supplement offered to workers during much of 2020. And his bar’s limited seating capacity made it difficult to turn a profit.
After months of propping up the bar’s operations with money he made at his other business, Blue HorseShoe tattoo, Bowman finally reached his limit.
Now, he says, he’s considering moving to a state with less stringent coronavirus restrictions.
“We’re killing people’s personal lives and dreams,” he said. “We’re killing them for something that isn’t going away.”