For the second time in a year, a restaurant located at 528 18th Ave. N. in Columbus has closed.
A sign posted Monday on the door of the Caney Fork Restaurant, formerly Santa Fe Cattle Co., read: “Due to an unresolved dispute with our landlord we have been forced to close.”
The note, signed “Caney Fork Management,” notified employees their “final paycheck will be mailed to you on the normal payroll date.” The restaurant also closed its other locations in Tupelo and Leeds, Ala.
Prior to Caney Fork”s opening in February, managers said the Columbus restaurant would employ around 200 people, and would be the first in a new chain, with six restaurants to open across the South this year. The original Caney Fork, at Opryland in Nashville, is the only restaurant remaining open.
An armed security guard posted outside the door stated no members of Caney Fork management were inside the restaurant. Representatives from Caney Fork”s corporate offices did not return calls seeking comment.
The website nems360.com published an e-mail from Josh Weis, whom the website identified as Caney Fork”s vice president and co-owner, which stated: “We have closed our stores in Tupelo, Leeds and Columbus. We have been in a legal fight with our landlord as they have failed to provide us with the equipment promised in our lease to open so we were forced to sue them. As a result of our legal battle, we were forced to close the stores until the matter is resolved.”
The Columbus Tax Assessor”s office lists two companies as holding the lease for the Caney Fork property. Spirit Master Funding IV, LLC., of Scottsdale, Ariz, held the deed in 2007 and pays taxes on the property while Restaurant Acquisition Group of Tampa, Fla., leased the property in 2009.
Calls to Spirit Master and Restaurant Acquisition Group were not returned.
Santa Fe Cattle Co., the restaurant to occupy the property prior to Caney Fork, closed in October despite heavy customer traffic, as its parent company filed for bankruptcy. A Santa Fe spokesperson reported the restaurant was unable to renegotiate its lease.
Marc Barhonovich, owner of the original Caney Fork in Nashville and former co-owner of Santa Fe Cattle Co., renegotiated the lease on eight former Santa Fe restaurants to reopen as the Caney Fork chain. Barhonovich and other company officials did not return repeated calls for comment.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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