The Lafayette Tap Room, an iconic downtown blues bar and restaurant, closed its doors Saturday.

The Washington Street mainstay has hosted local and national music acts for roughly three decades.

Dick Manke, one of the Tap Room’s owners, said the legendary blues room has suffered since the street was closed for construction back in December.

Manke expressed frustrations in doing business within the city limits as a small operator.

“In December they told us it would be two weeks. All I’ve done is bang my head against the wall trying to get answers,” said Manke. “I rely on downtown traffic. It’s a drive-by destination, not a walk-by destination.”

The Lafayette Tap Room tried offering valet parking to get around access problems, but it never took off.

“And nobody is going to drop his wife off a block away at night in this neighborhood,” Manke said. “The street lights don’t even come on. It looks like there’s nothing going on down here.”

Manke said he has lost all of the traffic he used to get from post-Sabres game revelers and folks leaving other events at HSBC Arena. He estimates the street’s closure has cost him more than $100,000 in business.

The Tap Room is located in the Hotel Lafayette complex, which is facing its own challenges. Renovation plans there are in jeopardy as developer Rocco Termini battles Albany over delays.

In the meantime, owners of the Tap Room are scouring the suburbs for a new place to do business and a temporary kitchen in which to continue offering its catering services. They have been busy talking to agents and musicians from more than 100 bands to reschedule performances, which are booked six to eight months in advance. Each has committed to return to the new venue, wherever it may be.

“We’re saddened and frustrated because it was a beautiful room,” said Manke. “But we’re in the poorest city in the highest- taxed state on a closed street. And that’s just not working.”