NEW YORK - The Half King opened in 2000, an oasis of cozy comfort in a gritty neighborhood. The owners - journalists Sebastian Junger and Scott Anderson, and Anderson's wife, filmmaker Nanette Burstein - created the interior with 200-year-old wood from a barn in Pennsylvania.

“Chelsea was definitely pretty deserted, but we found the perfect spot,” Junger says.

“We wanted a community that we could hang out in and that we could have creative people all join together and come and eat, break bread, drink,” adds Burstein.

The Half King helped to create that community with readings, screenings and photography exhibits, drawing people in publishing and filmmaking. But the neighborhood began changing.

The old, abandoned railroad spur above the bar became The High Line, an international tourist destination that would draw people and then galleries and condos.

“I moved to this city 30 years ago and I've watched it change,” Burstein says. “There's less crime, there's a lot more money and it just became more homogenous.”

The Half King's rent, initially $9,000 a month, soared to more than three times that - too much for a neighborhood bar. And so the owners are closing in two weeks when their lease is up. Now the gatherings there are taking on a different flavor.

"It's almost like an Irish wake ... like someone died and people are coming in to pay their respects. It's really sad and very moving," Junger says.

The Half King was one of the first bars in the area to reopen after 9/11. The literary hangout became a first-responder hangout.

"There were a lot of policemen, a lot of firemen coming here, and it was a time he felt really connected to what was happening in the city in a way that was special, and kind of awful," Anderson recalls.

The local Assemblyman, Richard Gottfried, says the saga of the Half King is why he supports commercial rent regulation.

"The City Council is looking at a proposal that would require, entitle a store to ask for a renewed lease and require the landlord to offer them a reasonable rent increase and if they did not come to agreement there would be an arbitration process," he says.

There's been an outpouring of support for The Half King on social media as word of its impending closing has spread. One post on Twitter said, "A good run, but it should have been at least a 75 year run." There's a two hour open bar this Friday, and tickets can be bought online. The final toast happens on Jan. 26.