Kate McKnight, owner of The Republican, posted today on Facebook that the Downtown Fresno restaurant and bar will be closing its doors at the end of this month.

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McKnight and her former partner Ephiram Bosse opened The Republican in November 2015 at 2120 Kern St. in the former Downtown Club.

“This is an announcement I was hoping to avoid writing,” McKnight posted on Facebook today. “Sadly, The Republican is closing its doors at the end of this month. The reasons are many and I think you can understand that I don’t want to go into all of it. Ultimately, the overhead is too high and the total sales are too low.”

McKnight and Bosse had assumed ownership of the restaurant from former owner Nick Farid and renamed it The Republican in honor of the building’s history as the printing facility for the Fresno Morning Republican newspaper, one of Fresno’s first newspapers.

In her post, McKnight cited “some missteps early on” but added that the new restaurant had been building a “loyal customer base along with having some successful private events.”

“But it’s still not enough to pay the bills,” McKnight said. “I want to let all of you who have supported the restaurant & bar know how much I appreciate you. Info about the actual last day of business will come soon.”