The Walrus Saloon has closed the doors on its home of 46 years at the corner of 11th and Walnut streets in downtown Boulder, but will live on as the re-branded late-night incarnation of the nearby Boulder Beer location.

In a Facebook post over the weekend, the bar at 1911 11th St. announced that Saturday night was its last.

“Without getting too much into the business behind it, the owner and the landlords came to an agreement recently and the Walrus will no longer live at that address,” the bar’s management wrote.

The Walrus, though, will not be re-opening on its own at a new location. Instead, the Boulder Beer brewpub, at 1123 Walnut St., will be re-branded as the Walrus — with a more party-like atmosphere — each night beginning May 24.

“At 10 p.m. every night, the Walrus staff, entertainment and, most important, YOU ALL can come experience our next phase,” the Walrus’s management wrote. “We are adding an amazing dance floor, sound system and light setup. We will have a patio (which will be awesome this summer!), huge ceilings, late night food, etc.”

Boulder Beer, in the space formerly occupied by the Walnut Brewery, currently closes at 10 each night.

Frank Day, the original owner of the Walrus, also owns Boulder Beer. The Walrus was the local restaurant mogul’s first foray into Boulder, as Day opened it as a restaurant — featuring a salad bar — in 1972.

Since then, the Walrus has morphed into a popular college bar that decades of University of Colorado students have frequented for dancing and drink deals.

“It has absolutely been a staple of Boulder nightlife,” the bar’s management wrote on Facebook. “On a nightly basis, tourists and people visiting Boulder come in and talk about meeting their wife there, or stories they heard about this amazing bar from a friend who went to CU in the ’80s.”

‘Atmosphere more than anything’

Adam Swetlik has worked at the Walrus for four years, but even before he was hired there, he frequented the bar as a student.

“That was one of our main dives,” Swetlik said Wednesday. “Aesthetically it’s not exactly appealing. But it was just the atmosphere more than anything. People were really there to dance and meet other people and enjoy themselves.”

Jake Shapiro, who just graduated from the Boulder campus a week ago, said going to the Walrus was part of CU tradition.

“I went there on my 21st birthday, I went there after every single football game,” he said. “Especially on Friday and Saturday nights, that was the place to be. You would always run into people you knew there.”

Swetlik said that while the Walrus’s late-night crowd mostly was made up of students, he learned as an employee that the downtown bar also had very loyal happy hour and evening customers.

“That happy hour crowd was a different crowd all to their own,” he said. “It was just people playing pool or just talking. It was just a hangout.”

‘It was ours’

A manager at Boulder Beer declined to answer questions as to exactly what the nightly Walrus “phase” will entail for the brewpub.

Kristen Teague with Boulder’s licensing office said Boulder Beer’s brewpub and liquor license allows the facility to serve all forms of alcohol, not just beer.

“I know that we all love Walrus because of what is has always been,” the saloon’s management wrote on Facebook. “But this will be very cool. We are constantly trying to find ways to offer Boulder’s nightlife crowd new and improved ways to go out, and this one is extra exciting. This will still be the party you love, just in a new and improved space.”

As for the Walrus’ now-former location, Teague said 1911 11th St. LLC — the owner of the multi-story building the saloon was housed in — has asked to keep the bar’s tavern license. A hearing on the license transfer is set for July.

Representatives of 1911 11th St. LLC could not be reached for comment this week.

BizWest reported that Scott Littlefield — who is the registered party behind 1911 11th St. LLC, according to state records — bought the three-story building at 11th and Walnut for $6.9 million in 2016. The real estate broker told the publication that he was going to renovate the upper floors, though, at the time, there were no announced plans for the Walrus.

In its Facebook post, the Walrus maintained that it was not “closed down” or “kicked out” of the building.

“It was a peaceful agreement on all sides,” the management wrote. “Everything is good there. The truth is, this will be yet another evolution for the Walrus.”

But while the Walrus will live on, Shapiro said it’s the end of an era all the same.

“It’s not going to be the same thing, and I love going to breweries” he said. “But the Walrus at its core was not meant to be like that. It was meant to be a college bar. It was not necessarily the nicest thing in the world, but it was ours.”

Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyars