The owners of the Ivy Room on San Pablo Avenue are in a good place for now after a trying year that saw the popular neighborhood bar and music venue on the brink of closing permanently during the prolonged COVID-19 emergency.

“You pay your payments for business interruption in case something like this does happen where you’re forced to shut down by sheltering in place,” Ivy Room owners say. “And then you get a denial for your claim”

Since taking over the Ivy Room in 2015, Lani Torres and Summer Gerbing have prided themselves on doing everything right. Transforming the venerable Albany dive bar into one of the East Bay’s liveliest music venues, they cultivated a devoted clientele with an exuberantly eclectic roster of acts. They’ve covered their bills, paid the artists who drew throngs to the intimate club and kept up insurance payments in case anything went wrong.