7/10/2009 6:00:00 AM Troubled restaurant to remain open Bank takes over Hawthorn’s Dining & Celebrations, new management in place
Greg Ardisson, an experienced business owner from Evansville, is the new manager at Hawthorn’s Dining & Celebrations, while Monica Swenson will stay on as front-of-house manager.
An experienced manager of a sports bar and grill in Evansville says he's thrilled to have an opportunity to run Hawthorn's Dining & Celebrations and hopes to turn the ailing business around.
Greg Ardisson was offered the job of managing the large restaurant/bar/banquet facility on Oregon's southeast side two weeks ago, after Union Bank & Trust Co. prevailed in a lawsuit against Hawthorn's Dining & Celebrations LLC and 1150 Park Street LLC, the entities that owned and operated the business.
The suit was heard in Dane County Circuit Court on June 24, according to Jane F. (Ginger) Zimmerman, an attorney with Murphy Desmond S.C., in Madison.
She said last Monday, the court appointed her "receiver" over both Hawthorn's Dining & Celebrations LLC and 1150 Park Street LLC. That allowed village of Oregon officials to renew a liquor license for the establishment, which the Village Board did in a special meeting early last Thursday morning.
That move came after the board voted last Monday to deny renewal of the license. The board did so to comply with a Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) order, which stated, "The applicant does not hold a valid seller's permit at this time. The Department does not intend to issue a permit to this applicant until all tax matters, including business registration, filing requirements and/or delinquent liabilities have been resolved."
After court proceedings last Monday, when the court appointed Zimmerman "receiver" over the business, the DOR contacted village officials and gave the OK for renewal of the liquor license.
"The court appointed me receiver over both the Hawthorn entity and 1150 Park Street, and so we were able to get the license in the name of Hawthorn's Dining & Celebrations LLC in Receivership, so it can continue to operate," Zimmerman explained last Friday. "Ordinarily, in many instances, you don't get the seller's permit. You continue to operate under the prior entity's seller's permit. But in this case, the DOR did not want to do it that way, and so we took our cue from them."
Zimmerman explained that when the court entered the receivership order, it also placed a stay against creditors of the business from pursuing collection activities.
"It gives the receiver an opportunity to get in, get things operating again, and try to figure out what the problem might have been," she said. "It's our intent right now to operate the business going forward ... The long-term objective is to get it operating and sell it. The bank would like to find somebody who will buy it."
She said with the exception of bringing in Ardisson to manage the operation, Hawthorn's staff will remain the same.
Ardisson has been owner and operator of The Night Owl, a sports bar and grill in Evansville, for 27 years.
He said Hawthorn's employees who stayed on have been able to keep their jobs: "We retained the original staff that were still here and elevated the people from within to key positions, and saved 25 to 30 jobs here in Oregon."
Ardisson, who's married and has two teenage children and an adult stepdaughter, said an official with Union Bank & Trust offered him the job of running Hawthorn's about two weeks ago.
"I thought it was a great idea," he said. "It's a little bit bigger than what I'm used to, obviously, however, there are some pretty basic principles that are industry standards: good food, reasonable price, good service and consistency. That's the basic formula for any establishment in the service industry.
"We have some changes to make," he added. "I'm not sure what they all are yet, but we're gonna keep the good things and add to that list."
Ardisson said he's planning to do "a bigger noon lunch trade, and we're going to build on the night business by bringing in some entertainment. We're planning to begin focusing on steaks; our initial inclination is to focus on steak" dinners as a way to give the business a stronger identity.
He said one of Hawthorn's strengths is the facility itself: "It's absolutely gorgeous."
And he confided that owning and operating something like Hawthorn's - a $1.7 million, 10,000 square-foot building - has been "a pipe dream" of his for many years.
"I tried to do a restoration project in Evansville at my establishment, but it came in at $324,000 over budget, and I just didn't want to stick $1 million into that building," Ardisson said. "So that was a learning experience for me. I lost a lot, but it was a good learning experience."
When Hawthorn's was for sale after former owner Leo Matern and his partners decided to give up Valentine's Restaurant, which they opened in October 2006, Ardisson looked into buying it "but couldn't put the numbers together to make it work for me."
"It was too big a risk with my young family," he said. "Low and behold, I got an opportunity that I didn't think I'd ever get. Plus, this is kind of a means to an end for me. If I can turn it around and get the numbers where they're supposed to be, I would be very interested in purchasing it. I get to find that out."
David Bookstaff and his partner, Geoffrey Sandler, bought the property in April 2008 for $1.4 million and opened Hawthorn's Dining & Celebrations in June 2008.
Why has a business had so much trouble succeeding in the Park Street location?
Ardisson said he doesn't "know all the reasons and the history."
"Make no mistake about it: Both previous owners were very knowledgeable about this business," he said. "I don't know if any of it was a fault of their own. The place is very big. There's lots of overhead associated with it. You pretty much have to be busy all the time. You can't be busy three-quarters of the time with a business of this size."
