6/22/2010 2:13:00 PM Water Street Brewery closing on judge's order to vacate downtown building in property dispute
Water Street Brewery will close its doors Friday, following an order issued June 18 from Jefferson County Superior Court.
The order, a writ of restitution, requires that brewery owners Mark Burr and Nina Law of Triple Mash Corp. vacate the premises and turn the emptied property back over to property owners Chris and Dawn Sudlow of Water Street Corp.
According to court documents, the court order stems from an ongoing landlord-tenant dispute dating back to October 2009.
In those documents, Judge Kenneth Williams ordered Water Street Brewery owners to pay the Sudlows $7,986 per month for rent, beginning October 2009, until further order of the court.
According to the motion for the writ of restitution filed June 7, the Sudlows assert that they had not received rent for the month of June. Moreover, they asserted that brewery owners had never paid rent on time – except for February 2010 – since Williams issued his order.
One of the previous co-owners, Harold “Skip” Madsen, had previously sued Burr and Law over financial matters.
Water Street Brewery is located at 639 Water St. in downtown Port Townsend. Their "Strange Brew Fest" each January has been one of the largest "off-season" draws of people to Port Townsend.
The site once housed the landmark Port Townsend bar, the Town Tavern, which was featured in the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman.”
[UPDATE: Click the link below for previous stories from the Leader's print edition and e-edition regarding Water Street Brewing Co.]
To the crew at Water Street Brewery: "Thank you for a real good time."
To the community of Port Townsend: Consider carefully the impact that this will have. Strange Brew fest drew a lot of needed off season business but it was just an obvious date each year when WSB's draw was easily noticed. I'm certain that I can come up with no less than 100 people that made the trip to PT largely because of WSB. Cold winter days at Fort Warden balanced with the warm atmosphere, good food, and drinks poured with unmatched care.
We easily make 4-5 trips each winter usually with another family or two in tow. Without Water Street that will drop to 1 . . . maybe 2. In this state we are blessed with many quaint seaside towns. Nurture that which makes Port Townsend unique. Places like the Town Tavern and WSB are a big part of that.
Posted: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Article comment by:
Local Patron
Taxes, rent, lawsuits and landlords aside there are basic reasons why a buisness fails. We have been faithful, local patrons for years. We have been regulars at The Rock the Dock concerts, have brought friends and family there and met with co-workers to relax and socialize and we did this for years. Excellant service, good food and fair prices kept us coming back. This all started to change a year ago. Service was still excellant, prices went up (as elsewhere) and food was still good and we quit going. The customer base started to change. This new clientle was aggresive in staking their claim. They made their presence known until we no longer felt welcome. We never complained to the employees or owners we just took our disposable income and moved on. We voted with our feet. The point is when your long time regulars stop showing up you may want to find out why survival may depend on it.
Posted: Saturday, June 26, 2010
Article comment by:
Jesse Rose
There was this place once where everyone knew your name, actually I should take that back, there was a place, twice where everyone knew your name. The first time it was a place I would have to sneak into under age once (or twice) to sneak a soda out of a Coca-Cola machine that I funny enough now own as well as the seat to a swing that amazingly never caused anyone to plunge to their death. Later I’d sneak into, again maybe twice, to enjoy a cold beer for which I apologize whole heartedly. The second time it was a place where I was met by the warm embrace of Mark, Skip, and Nina, who amazingly, were in mid-swing of resurrecting a part of my childhood.
Quickly,… more or less,… I was born here in 1972, if you were to see me pass you on the side of the street you probably wouldn’t recognize me. My Grandmother, Rusty North, my Father, Ronald Rose, and his best friend, Grant Logg were some of the founders of the Port Townsend Arts Guild, including when they had what is now the Flagship Landing, which then was an abandoned building, converted into a local’s craft shop. Since around 1989, if you’ve gone out to eat in this town there’s a high percentage chance that at one point my hands touched something you ate,… don’t worry I washed them. From portioning and wrapping Sally’s baked goods Helping Tom with Sausage Slinging Pizza Pies with the quad owners and again with the solo owner of Waterfront Cracking eggs at the Landfall, then the Salal Café.,… to being the first cook hired by Mark Tanney specifically for Blackberry’s. I was the Sous Chef at the Public House with Jeff Crumpton as the Exec. Then expanded and helped Duane Petzoldt with the conversion from wine/beer and appetizers to a full bar and menu at Sirens then finally of note in P.T., I was the cook at Water Street Brewing for what was roughly a 3 year period between which Woody Scanlon and Patrick Forrestal were the Head Chefs. I’ve seen a lot of things change here,… but I will stick with the things I know directly.
Water Street Brewing was a special place for a lot of people, as well as a thorn in the side for others. It was cozy, felt, like often stated, your own living room. A great ideal, something that the Town Tav had going for it as well, in fact something that will always be needed in this town in my opinion. Sometimes, unfortunately for Water Street, this plan occasionally backfired. Within my life I’ve come to realize a couple things about working in the restaurant business, first is it’s INCREDIBLY difficult to succeed in a seasonal trade without the local’s support, wages are rough to survive on, in the summer you know you’ll go through hell and back, and in the winter the loss of a job was highly likely. As a highlight there is a family of co-workers and an even larger extended family of dishwashers, cooks, waiter/waitresses, bartenders, and musicians that inhabited the evening. Not just till the bar stools looked like skeletons sitting on top of the bar through the foggy windows, but when the doors were locked and we would all find ourselves on the way in mass transit to some dishwasher’s dive, a cook’s hole in the wall, or sometimes where some bartender or wait staff had a place they were house sitting, I even remember a couple sail boats in there too. Occasionally there would even be some impromptu partying within the establishment’s walls but removed from the public’s eye. When as some would say, the lunatics had the keys to the asylum. I’ve been responsible for my share, it always would erupt when the establishment’s owners would be vacant, I’ll never forget the first time when Joanne explained that even if I had covered the staff’s tab and we were closed before midnight it wasn’t okay to have the staff bonding with the doors locked to the public. But I digress, back to Water Street.
There were some incredible things happening there, I first of all apologize if, as I type this I might use the terms we and us when referring to h2o (Water Street) because that’s exactly what we were, we were a family. Something that is amazing to find in an employer, but incredibly frequent within Port Townsend. Like all families, as you find during Thanksgiving, some of us have our issues, but we love each other regardless. There was this building steeped in history, from the shanghai tunnels I had played in, to the beginnings of a skate park in it’s parking lot. And now there were these three people that had opened themselves up to us in their adoptive hometown. They brought fantastic cocktails, hand crafted, award winning beer, and an excited energy that not only intoxicated their family of co-workers but attracted the patrons that were included and treated as an extended branch of the same family tree. Sometimes we found ourselves thrown into the chaos of Wooden Boat or the ever expanding Strange Brewfest. Once while in the midst I realized I hadn’t seen so many people crowded around the building since when I had to wait for my parents to get beyond eyesight to follow behind them with my friends and watch the firefighters battle a blaze while we jumped up and down on the hoses. We always emerged unscathed at h2o, sometimes a little worse for wear but we survived.
There’s been lots of talk about lawsuits, debts, arguments with the Sudlows (a name that appears oddly enough as a vexing force in both timelines), musings and rants we never probably will know the full extent or legitimacy of. What I consider to be a contributing factor to this scenario would sadly be the level of generosity that was gifted to people and the amount that was taken. It’s hard to run the best living room in town when your buddies leave their crap everywhere and don’t restock the fridge. Combine this with the flux of seasonal business, the loss of a ferry, the loss of a bridge, an outrageous lease, increased cost of food because of transportation, and an expanded price of hops due to a world wide crisis, I could see alleged bills being unpaid, or late, trouble with taxes, all of which is more than just a business owner’s problem but the common working man as well. They still tried, which I’m sure they did all the way till closing of doors Thursday night. We should appreciate that as well as the good times, the loud music complaints, the full hotels, and lines for breakfast joints to open. These people came and gave myself and yourselves a glimpse of some of the finer things a neighborhood pub could be, and occasionally from afar you’ve noticed the damage through the windows, wondering why the door isn’t opened and the clock says it’s noon. Sorry but we haven’t seen your cell phone yet, ask Dan, I dare you.
I left that place regretfully on odd terms, it was odd times, it had been over a year since I had seen anyone, I never ran into either of the three in this small town oddly enough. I arrived Thursday around noon knowing with all likelihood I would find them on the deck enjoying a margarita for the last time, instead I saw a beehive of activity emptying the familiar building. Wasn’t shocked of course because I was showing up to retrieve some Alden paintings of mine and a couple other items I hadn’t collected that time far ago when I felt uneasy about stepping back in after never getting the phone call about what role I would perform within the company if any. I was greeted by the smile of Nina and her as always cosmic way of being, told me she just knew at some point she was going to end up seeing me that day. We gathered my stuff, everything was chaotic again almost like Strange Brewfest minus the line. Mark never made eye contact or looked up from packing and sorting, never will know if it was out of anger, disappointment, or discomfort, either way, I wish the both of them luck in their ventures. And Skip where ever you are, get back to work and make some beer,… Always wanted to say that,… that sentence is a pretty big inside joke, but whole heartedly meant on every level.
I will always miss the building, and the environment of my childhood, and I will miss the former place of employment, the representation of so many good and occasional bad times that I had. I really find it hard to see that place attain a spot as close to my heart as it had in the past, no matter what it becomes or who operates it. Even if in ten years I find myself visiting a friend that just bought a freshly renovated condo on the second floor.
Sorry for the excessive rambling.
Posted: Friday, June 25, 2010
Article comment by:
Allen Frank
Skip Madsen-- Thanks for stepping up with input as an owner of this. Sounds like a nightmare for you that can only be settled in the courts. This article kind of paints the other 2 owners as victims. Hopefully the Leader will follow-up with you so citizens can get the whole story before running to the defense of the "victims".
OK Beer and a festive atmosphere are only part of the equation. Integrity and paying your bills on time are more important to me...especially if they are actually collecting sales tax not remitting it. That is a red flag and unacceptable. Same with withholding Social Security & Fed W/H and not remitting it. Are they current with the IRS??
Since the Leader has raised the legal issues, how about you interview Mr. Madsen and do a bit more digging to finish the job?
WEB EDITOR'S NOTE: We published a news story Feb. 17, 2010 on this subject. It's now linked to this story.
Posted: Friday, June 25, 2010
Article comment by:
Business Owner
To Simon: My business is not a bank. Be responsible and pay you bills on time and you won't have any problems. Also don't collect sales tax and then not pay it to the State. By the way it took me 6 months to get paid for $50.
Posted: Thursday, June 24, 2010
Article comment by:
Simon Cotter
Sorry to see it go.
Incidentally, every local paper has a douchey commenter using the name "business owner." They are always legends in their own minds. The also tend to drop grocer's apostrophes.
Posted: Thursday, June 24, 2010
Article comment by:
Skip Madsen
Unfortunately I am still on the books as being one third owner of this mess,even though I have been trying to get out out of it for the last few years! The other owners ( Burr and Law) refused to negotiate any kind of compromise including selling my share to them for one dollar. I tried to set up many meetings with them to work things out but they never showed. I paid twice as much money for the initial investment as they did, and then they locked me out of my own brewery over a year ago. I was unaware of the sales tax debt until the auction last year. When I looked into it I realized the taxes were not paid on time or not at all from the beginning. When I decided not to spend my whole life in the bar, my ingredients for beer were not paid. I had envisioned this venture to be a responsible Brewpub, not an all night living room for the homeless. The decibel level wasn't the only problem, the after hours partying just made matters worse. Where did the money go? Hmmm.
Posted: Thursday, June 24, 2010
Article comment by:
Bob MacDonald
Make no mistake, I have little sympathy with folks who don't pay their bills. But once again we are forced to endure a story with more questions than answers. Somewhere along the line, basic journalism has been trashed.
Is this a situation whereby simply catching the rent up would allow them to stay?
Or, does this mean the brewery has to move? And if so, did the "reporter" ask where the owners may relocate to.
Posted: Thursday, June 24, 2010
Article comment by:
D Thomas
Mark & Nina are some of the nicest folks around. True, they had financial difficulties lately, but what PT business didn't (between current economic times, the ferries & bridges). They gave it their all and tried so very hard, with great creativity, to keep afloat.
Their beer, food & Strange Brewfest are fantastic and will be missed so very much.
The building owners simply want the building for their own business and made it extremely impossible for Mark & Nina to be successful. I wish Mark & Nina the best of success in where ever they go next. I will never, ever spend a dime in the new Sudlow place.
As for the former brewer, his lawsuit was so that he could get out of his partnership with Mark & Nina, to open his own brewery. They were unable to buy him out.
This is a very sad day for the fans of Water Street, as well as for Part Townsend.
Posted: Thursday, June 24, 2010
Article comment by:
Beth Maegerle
IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS SORT OF IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR HAS GONE ON THIS LONG. HOPEFULLY THIS TYPE OF "CANCER" IS ON IT'S WAY OUT OF THIS TOWN FOR GOOD! LET'S SUPPORT THE LEGITIMATE BUSINESS OWNERS OF THIS TOWN.
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