Iconic Columbia Falls bar closes its doors
A musician plays guitar at the Columbia Bar in Columbia Falls during a past Heritage Days performance. (Hungry Horse News FILE)
An iconic Columbia Falls watering hole is no more. Columbia Bar owner and developer Mick Ruis said he closed the saloon after business hours on Sept. 17.
Ruis told the Hungry Horse News that employees will get a one-month severance package and the opportunity to take positions at Monaco, his restaurant and bar across the street.
Ruis said he was losing about $10,000 a month on the Columbia Bar.
“It wasn’t making any money,” he said. “It’s just not worth it.”
“I tried to make it work,” he added. “It wasn’t worth the aggravation and the liability.”
The liquor license has been sold to a person who is planning on using it in Whitefish, he said.
He said he was willing to lease the Columbia Bar building to someone who wanted to continue to operate it as a restaurant, as it does have a kitchen. Bartender Mike Scallen was well known for his taco night at the bar.
Ruis bought the Columbia in July 2023 from Cary Finberg.
Ruis said he would rather spend his money on the Boys and Girls Club or his wrestling academy. He and his wife, Wendy, bought the old junior high from School District 6 a few years ago and then gifted it to a local nonprofit. Today it is home to the Boys and Girls Club.
The bar had been in the Finberg family since Cary’s father Math and mother Norma bought it in 1965.
The building itself, however, is almost 100 years old. It’s one of the oldest buildings left on Nucleus Avenue, dating back to the 1920s.
It wasn’t always a bar. At one time it was a dance hall and Chinese restaurant.
The late Pete Darling, a former longtime resident of Columbia Falls, recalled owner, Mar Yu, throwing pennies to kids into the streets from the restaurant during the Great Depression.