KC restaurant & bar closes in COVID-19: ‘With anger, shock and fierce disappointment’

As coronavirus cases surge locally and nationally, more restaurants are closing permanently or pausing for the winter.

Ollie’s Local, a classic American bar and restaurant in Union Hill, is the latest to join the closing permanently list.

Instead of the now often-used “heavy heart” and “great sadness” closing announcements, Ollie’s co-owner Eddie Crane said on Facebook that while those statements are “poignantly appropriate,” he is making his, “With anger, shock and fierce disappointment.”

“Covid came along, kicked everyone square in the teeth, and the landlord still wanted premium rent as soon as possible at a time when we couldn’t fully operate,” Crane said in a phone interview Tuesday. “So they elected to kick us out and take all of our possessions. The staff and people who love that place got no closure.”

Crane and a partner opened Ollie’s Local at 3044 Gillham Road in October 2015.

But Crane had to temporarily shut down the restaurant for two months for the shelter-in-place order in the spring, lay off his dozen employees, give most of the food inventory to staff and food banks, and shut off as many utilities as possible.

“We basically mothballed the restaurant as best we could,” he said. “Then, based on all my symptoms, I came down with COVID. My kids and then girlfriend — now wife — also were sick.”

He reopened Ollie’s Local in June under occupancy restrictions. But in late August, landlord ARAK Partners LLC filed suit against ECAC Concepts, doing business as Ollie’s, seeking $36,606 in back rent, taxes and possession of the space. They won a judgment in late September.

Crane said he didn’t fight the lawsuit because he was working with another restaurateur to take over the space and he would stay on as a partner and adviser. He paid $5,000 of the $36,606 due under the lawsuit.

“We couldn’t pay them $36,000 on the drop of a dime. While negotiations were ongoing and goodwill seemed to be had by all, it was my understanding the landlord was taking steps to take our possessions,” he said.

Ilan Salzberg, principal in ARAK Partners, said he paid an Ollie’s partner $2.7 million for the building a year ago and some of those funds could have been reinvested in the restaurant. Now a new restaurateur is taking over the space in the deal Crane helped to put together.

“It could have been a wonderful passing of the torch. Instead it is a botched hand-off. It’s a shame,” Salzberg said.

Crane agreed.

“It could have been an excellent hand-off for everyone involved. But it is just millionaires trying to get a few extra thousands of dollars,” Crane said. “I’m not an idiot. I worked hard to put that deal together. Why would I blow it up? They evicted us.”

This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.