One of Coronado’s most enduring neighborhood watering holes is preparing to pour its final round. The Little Club, a small but storied dive bar located on Orange Avenue, will close at the end of March after more than half a century serving sailors, locals, and generations of island regulars.
The closure comes after the building housing the bar was sold last year, setting in motion a chain of events that ultimately left ownership without a path forward to continue operating at the site. For many longtime patrons, the news marks the end of an era for a bar that became as much a social institution as a business.
Originally opened in the mid-1960s and purchased by Barbara Roswell in the early 1970s, The Little Club spent decades in the hands of the same family. Roswell, who bought the bar following her divorce, cultivated a welcoming environment that quickly became part of Coronado’s local fabric. One of her traditions, hosting Thanksgiving dinners for sailors stationed far from home, helped cement the bar’s reputation as a place where community mattered more than profit…