Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom on Skibo Road in Fayetteville closed for good on August 24, ending nearly a decade in business after former employees said the location had been wrestling with liquor licensing trouble for about 11 weeks before the shutdown. The restaurant sat at 2140 Skibo Road in the Fayetteville Commons shopping center, a stretch of retail that has seen plenty of turnover this year.
According to The Fayetteville Observer, former workers told the paper the closure followed weeks of uncertainty tied to a lapse in the restaurant’s liquor license. The Observer reported that staff pointed to licensing issues stemming from that lapse as the reason behind the sudden shutdown, though the exact cause of the lapse itself was not detailed in their account.
The licensing snag carries more weight than a simple paperwork delay might suggest. Under North Carolina statutes governing ABC permits, retail alcohol licenses require annual renewal, and a permit that lapses completely forces a business to start over with a brand-new application rather than just paying a late fee, according to the North Carolina General Assembly. For a bar-and-grill concept built around beer and cocktail sales, an 11-week gap without the ability to legally pour alcohol would represent a serious financial strain.
A History of Regulatory Trouble at the Same Address
This was not the Skibo Road location’s first brush with state alcohol regulators. In February 2018, the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission hit the restaurant with a 10-day permit suspension, suspended upon payment of a $1,000 fine, after finding that it had illegally transferred alcoholic beverages between establishments without prior written approval, per state enforcement records from the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. That earlier violation shows the location had faced regulatory scrutiny over its liquor operations well before this year’s licensing lapse forced its hand…