The owners of Andrew’s Bar, in St George’s Bay are calling it a day on the century-old watering hole that the family has run for five generations, citing construction and the pandemic as reasons for their tough decision.

Transformed from an army stable into a bar and haberdashery in 1909, the popular hang-out has survived intact as the area nearby was transformed by development into an entertainment hub and tourist hotspot.

But current owners, Simon and Andrew Chircop, told Times of Malta that a mega development will soon leave them marooned within a construction site and cornered between cranes for years.

The losses sustained during the pandemic have also dealt a blow to the iconic bar and restaurant and it no longer made financial sense to keep the place, the brothers said.

So they’re selling up.

“We lost so much money last year that, as soon as they start developing, it will break us.

“We were dead, no customers at all, and had to reduce our staff from 22 to eight during the pandemic,” Andrew explained.

“Now everywhere is going to be flattened when this project starts and we’re going to be left in the middle. Who’s going to want to come here with all the cranes and dust,” he asked.

His understanding was that the new owners will continue to operate it until the project begins but he had no idea about the fate of the establishment after that.

Andrew’s Bar will be leaving behind a loyal clientele who have been serviced by five generations of the Chircop family.

They start and end with men called Andrew, from the tailor for the British Army who saw some money to be made in serving British soldiers based nearby, to his great grandson who, along with his brother,  have decided to close shop.

An old photo of Andrew’s Bar (date unknown).

The sons of the current owners, cousins Andrew and Daniel, have also been working there for years and are, likewise, saddened by the closure.

Sifting through a pile of old pictures of the bar, Andrew said he was “heartbroken” and had made sure to snap a photo of his four-year-old daughter, Ellie Andrea, in front of the family heirloom before they pack up.

Fr Martin Micallef, who grew up in Paceville, was among those lamenting the closure of the bar, which he used to frequent as a child in the 1970s when his family went to St George’s Bay for a swim.

“It’s such a pity they’re closing. We used to go and buy ice cream from the bar as it was the only one around at the time. I remember an old, kind woman serving me,” Micallef said.

“More recently, I used to go there on a Sunday with my sister, after Mass. It’s very quiet on Sunday morning, very beautiful,” he said.

Alex Papagiorcopulo, who had been going to the bar since he was a teenager, also expressed sadness at the loss of a monumental part of the old St Julian’s.

“It’s quite a staple place in the area; it’s the Tony’s Bar of St Julian’s, so it’s sad to hear,” Papagiorcopulo said.

“I started going there when I was 15 and then again five or six years ago for breakfast.

“Andrew is a very nice guy, very welcoming. And it was very pleasant to have breakfast there in the sun and then hang around and read the paper over a pint,” he added.

Simon Chircop said the family was sad to be leaving their patrons and a place they had called home their entire lives.

“But where there’s a beginning there’s an end and this was the end for Andrew’s Bar.”

Asked what their great grandfather would have thought about this decision, Andrew said that, despite the man’s knack for business, the place was very sentimental to him.

“He would be rolling in his grave to hear the news,” he added with a half-smile.