Famous War Eagle Supper Club Set to Close
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An Auburn staple is closing at the end of the year. The War Eagle Supper Club will shut it’s doors after 78 years.
Built in 1937, the War Eagle Supper Club has been serving the Auburn community for decades.
But the supper club will be closing at the end of the year, on New Year’s Eve. Owner John Brandt says he kept the news secret for weeks, only telling guitarist Rick Carter of the band Telluride.
“He said is it okay to tell everybody and I thought he was just talking about the band,” Brandt explains. “He put a note up on Facebook, ‘Telluride is going to be playing at the closing of the War Eagle Supper Club’, so that’s all it took.”
The news spread like wildfire. Brandt says he doesn’t want to close the supper club but he has to. The land the club sits on is owned by a company who now wants to lease it at a higher price. And Brandt can’t afford to pay it.
“I don’t think they’re going to put another bar here or they would have probably left us in here so I don’t have any clues what their plans are. I don’t want people to think I’m mad at them either. I understand that this property has value.”
Those who have been to the supper club, both older and younger generations, are now remembering the good times they’ve had there.
“I can’t believe it,” says Auburn fan Tony Wright. “It’s part of Auburn life.”
“It’s just a fun place to go,” his wife Yvonne says.
The bar, which shuttles drinkers to and from its South College Street location, is known for it’s live music and shot bus. And patrons say it’ll be missed.
“That’s a little disappointing hearing that,” Auburn graduate Austin Longshore says. “I definitely sometimes think about coming back when I visit town. So now being able to do that is a little disheartening.”
“A lot of people are very upset but I don’t want people to blame someone,” Brandt says. “Like I said, come out and support us and give us our last seven, however many months left.”
We asked Brandt for the name of the company that owns the land the War Eagle Supper Club sits on. He did not want to reveal that information because he says he doesn’t want them to face backlash.
Brandt says he now is looking for a new location for the bar.
There is a facebook page called “save the War Eagle Supper Club. Right now, the page has more than 5200 likes.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-the-War-Eagle-Supper-Club/754171901348708?fref=ts
