While nightclubs throughout the Bay Area are looking forward to the day they can reopen to raucous crowds, San Francisco’s reigning star said the city’s longest-running rock club will remain shuttered.

“Slim’s had its day,” said owner Boz Scaggs. “Maybe we could have changed things and kept it going, but that’s not our business and never has been. Slim’s did what it was here to do.”

Slim’s staff was informed on Wednesday, March 18, that the 11th Street nightclub will close permanently after more than 30 years. The decision had been made late last year, long before the coronavirus pandemic forced its immediate shutdown, Scaggs told The Chronicle in an exclusive interview.

Scaggs and his partners in Big Billy Inc. will continue to operate the Tenderloin jewel box, Great American Music Hall, where Slim’s staff will move once the city- and statewide shelter-in-place orders are lifted. But Slim’s is done.