PORT ANGELES — Fanaticus Sports Grill closed its doors Monday after 2½ years of operation, announcing the shutdown with a sign on the building that Monday morning said “Closed we enjoyed serving you.”
Port Angeles native Warren Taylor, who owns the 1026 E. First St. sports bar-restaurant with his wife, Marissa, said he would “absolutely not” talk about the shutdown Monday morning, referring queries to building owner Edna Petersen.
About two hours later, the restaurant posted a goodbye on its Facebook page “with a heavy heart” and expressed gratitude to staff and patrons.
The posting did not give a reason for the closure.
“Warren has been offered a career change,” Petersen said Monday. “I knew they were looking at other options in their life.”
The Taylors “have been really good tenants,” Petersen added. “This is not an acrimonious thing. I’m sorry to see them go.”
Petersen said she and the Taylors have been discussing the potential closure of the approximately 7,500-square-foot restaurant “for a month.”
More than $500,000 was poured into renovating what had been a mid-1940s shipping warehouse, according to a May 16, 2015, Peninsula Daily News article, for which Warren Taylor was interviewed.
The Taylors had expected to employ about 30 people and generate $250,000 to $300,000 in revenue, according to the article.
Construction of the facade, consisting of thousands of layered stones, was supplemented with a $10,000 city of Port Angeles facade improvement grant.
“Without that grant money, it would have been hard for us to justify that extra cost,” Warren Taylor told the PDN in the 2015 interview.
The grant requires a minimum 50-50 match from recipients.
Warren Taylor was owner of Taylor Made Construction LLC when the restaurant’s opening was marked with a May 28, 2015, ribbon-cutting.
Taylor had told the PDN that once he opened the restaurant, he planned to manage it full time and hand over day-to-day operations of Taylor Made Construction to his lead carpenter.
“We all fall into certain positions in life,” Taylor said at the time.
“My main purpose for doing this is, I felt there was a gap in the community for family dining and sports viewing,” said Taylor, a former waiter at C’est Si Bon in Port Angeles.
Taylor Made Construction, incorporated Nov. 22, 2004, became inactive March 31, when the corporation was dissolved, according to the corporations division of the state Secretary of State’s Office.
Two federal tax liens totalling $158,921 remain outstanding against Taylor Made Construction and Warren Taylor, according to the Clallam County Auditor’s Office.
An Oct. 18, 2016, lien of $68,626 is against Taylor Made Construction for failure to pay payroll taxes, according to the lien.
A June 22, 2017, lien is against Warren Taylor for $90,295 in civil penalties for failure to file required employee-related informational forms.
Petersen said she expects to market the restaurant within the next couple of weeks.
The Bushwhacker restaurant at 1527 E. First St., another large eatery five blocks east of Fanaticus, has been closed and for sale since September 2015.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at [email protected].
