The Lucky Bean, a coffee shop located inside the old Borders store at Sanbusco Market Center, will close its doors for good at 6 p.m. Thursday.

On Christmas Eve, everything inside the Lucky Bean was for sale. Wrapping paper went for $2 and chairs, loaves of bread, jars of hot sauce and 6-pound cans of garbanzo beans were also for sale. Piles of books in shopping carts were being given away for free.

Lucky Bean manager Gene Tauer has been in charge since August, when owner Joan Glover moved out of state and turned over day-to-day operations to him. Tauer said that someone turned him in to the city several months ago for listing the cafe’s furniture for sale, at which point he stopped selling furniture.

Last week, Tauer said that Jeff Fanzo, a representative for Trigild Corporation, the San Diego, Calif.-based company that manages Sanbusco, told him and Glover they’d have to close because the business was breaching its contract by holding events throughout the old store, not just within the leased cafe space. Fanzo could not be reached on Monday for comment.

“We’ve had hundreds of events in the past four months,” Tauer said. “It was a social contact place. We had Psychic Saturdays, Mothers’ Day Out, and groups like nonprofits, knitters and architects held their meetings here.”

According to Tauer, Lucky Bean was told to leave for insurance reasons. Tauer said he was told by Fanzo that events held outside the cafe space were not covered by Lucky Bean’s insurance. “People have to walk from the door and through the store to get to Lucky Bean,” Tauer said. “What I want to know is whose insurance covers them between here and the door?”

“All [Trigild] cares about is dollars and cents and lawsuits and liabilities,” Tauer continued. “They just couldn’t control me. … In their defense, I wouldn’t have stopped [putting on events]. I’d like to open another coffee/consignment and theater meeting action place where I can have fun and not be condemned.”

A customer toting a guitar and a lawn chair came into Lucky Bean on Monday wondering what had happened. “It’s a really nice spot,” she said. “Especially in the summer. It’s a huge space where you can bring your dogs in and hang out.”

“No matter what’s happened, we made history in the old Borders,” said Tauer, laughing. “It was all in defiance and we loved it.”

Contact Adele Oliveira at 986-3091 or aoliveira@sfnewmexican.com.