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A local bar and community hangout has an uncertain future as its longtime owner plans to retire soon.
What’s happening
Longbranch Saloon, situated at 817 N. Main St. in Boerne, was purchased by the current Owner, Catherine Bentley, over 30 years ago.
She said she is planning to retire and will eventually sell the saloon in around one month.
“People have to retire,” she said. “But I desperately want it to remain the Longbranch Saloon after I leave.”
Bentley hopes that someone from the Boerne area will purchase her business and continue its tradition of community and fun, “keeping it as it is.”
If there are no local takers, she said she may have to sell it to a commercial developer that may want to build something entirely different.
“That’s the worst case scenario,” Bentley said. “We need something that keeps Boerne, Boerne.”
Regardless, Bentley is fond of the decades she has spent running the Longbranch Saloon.
“You don’t run a business for 30 years and not love it,” she said.
The saloon-style bar offers a unique variety of games like pool, shuffleboard and dominoes in addition to a dance floor and a jukebox, Bentley said.
The context
Longbranch Saloon isn’t the first small business in Boerne to change owners or close recently, either.
As previously reported by Community Impact, other Main Street businesses like the 259 Home Market have announced closures due to retirement.
Home decor store JAC'S Personal Touch will be closing its doors at the end of September as well, the owners’ daughter Suzy Spruce said.
