The Cellar Restaurant and Lounge, a fixture on the local dining scene for decades, has closed and the former Fort Dodge Country Club building that housed it is for sale.

“We’re not making any money,” Bernard Condon, the owner of the restaurant, said Thursday evening. “It’s just a hard business decision.”

A sign affixed to a door on the building at 368 Country Club Drive states “The Cellar Restaurant and Lounge has permanently closed as of 3/23/15. Thank you for your patronage over the years. We will continue to do catering through the Opera House at The Fort Museum.”

Condon said all parties scheduled for the restaurant will still be held.

The restaurant has leased the Opera House through the end of this year, according to Dr. Mike Bottorff, the chairman of the board for the Fort Dodge Historical Foundation, which owns the Fort Museum and Frontier Village.

The Cellar Restaurant and Lounge was originally in the Eilers Hotel in downtown Fort Dodge. After that building was destroyed by fire in 1994, it moved into the Budget Host Inn at 116 Kenyon Road. It remained there for about 20 years.

In 2013, it moved to the former country club building. That structure, erected in 1911, was thoroughly remodeled to become the restaurant. The renovation job produced a new kitchen, new restrooms and an updated air conditioning system, among other features.

Jim Kesterson, the owner of Kesterson Realty in Fort Dodge, confirmed that the building is for sale through his agency.