Corner Pub Still Not Open Nearly 3 Weeks After Common Council Voted To Renew Its Alcohol License – The Business Has Now Been Closed For 19 Months

It is almost 3 weeks since the Common Council voted on 08/21/2024 to renew the alcohol license for the Corner Pub, but the bar is still not open for business. The bar has now been closed and not utilizing its license for 19 months since it first suffered water damage from a broken pipe in February of 2023. It is also now 14 and a half weeks since the 05/30/2024 deadline the establishment was given by the city to reopen in order to maintain its license.

I spoke with the Corner Pub’s owner on 09/03/2024 at which time she indicated they were aiming to be open for the 09/06/2024 Packer game, but I drove by there on that Friday and saw that they were still closed. I also drove by on 09/07/2024 and 09/09/2024 and saw that they were not open on either of those days.

Last week I contacted City Clerk Kami Lynch and asked her a couple licensing questions.

1. Once a business has been issued a license, how soon are they expected to open their business and utilize the license?

She indicated that once a license was issued it could not be non-renewed until the owner filed an application to renew it which could not happen until February at the earliest. In the case of both non-renewal and revocation of a license, that can only happen after a hearing has been conducted at the Safety and Licensing Committee, the committee determines the facts of the case, and the committee makes a recommendation to the Common Council on whether or not to revoke or non-renew a license.

2. In the case of the Corner Pub, because their license was just renewed, would they have another 1-year grace period before they would face the possibility of their license not being renewed due to abandonment?

Clerk Lynch indicated that the statutory license period ends on June 30^th so the Corner Pub would not have a full year before having to renew the license and facing the potential of having it not renewed.

There are a limited number of alcohol licenses available in Appleton. The Council’s decision to renew the license for the Corner Pub even after the owner had not taken concerted steps to repair the building until after the 05/30/2024 deadline to reopen had come and gone prevented a $600 regular alcohol license from being entered into general circulation for other businesses to pursue and instead left businesses having to apply for $10,600 reserve licenses. Now that license is still not being utilized 3 weeks after the Council voted to renew it, 14 weeks after the business’ original deadline to reopen, and 19 months after the business first shut down, and the city is not receiving any economic benefit from the Common Council’s decision to give that license to the Corner Pub.