The Smiling Skull Saloon, located at 108 W. Union St., had its liquor license revoked by the Ohio Liquor Control Commission on Oct. 5.
Without a permit, the Skull is unable to sell and serve alcohol to its patrons, according to the Liquor Control website.
The Skull was found selling alcohol during a suspension period of its permit, resulting in a $10,000 fine or getting its permit revoked. The owners of the Skull failed to pay for the fine by Sept. 28, therefore getting its permit taken away, Sarah Creedon, executive director of the Commission, said in an email.
The Skull owners, Adrienne Whitney and Locke Wolf, told The Post in an email that they paid the fine, but the check didn’t arrive at the commission in time.
“The turnaround on that charge was swift,” Whitney wrote in an email. “Sept. 7 we were ordered to pay a $10,000 fine by Sept. 28 or have our license revoked. We sent the check certified overnight mail on Sept. 25 and yes, we have the receipts. It arrived Oct. 5. We have been closed since noon Oct. 7 per the order.”
The permit holder, Wolf House LLC., has had four cases prior to coming into contact with the Liquor Control Commission, Creedon said.
Wolf House LLC. has eight cases listed on Liquor Control’s website, with seven violations being active in the two most recent cases.
Some of the more recent violations included two counts of insanitary conditions and two counts of selling to underage individuals, Creedon said.
The underage individual charges occurred in 2021, but are just now being ordered legally in 2023. Two years ago, an undercover agent gave a bartender a fake ID–which the bartender missed–and now the instance is being broken up into multiple charges, Whitney said.
Even though the Skull doesn’t have a permit, Whitney said they are considering putting things like nitro cold brew and kombucha on tap.
Many Athens residents were disappointed to hear about the news. Multiple users expressed their concerns on Reddit, an anonymous social discussion website.
People talked about the Skull no longer serving alcohol and posted comments under the “r/athensohio” subreddit, commenting “RIP”, “SAD”, “This may be the worst news ever” and more.
“It’s a shame because I think it’s a great space for artists and people of all walks of life to kinda come congregate and enjoy, you know, whatever is going on in the evening,” Evan Seurkamp, a sophomore studying music production and recording industry, said.
Seurkamp is part of a band, The Laughing Chimes, which performed at the Skull in 2022 and was scheduled to play the weekend it shut down.
The owner sent an email out to many bands in Athens telling them the Skull was canceling all shows for the foreseeable future, Seurkamp said.
Whitney said they still have shows booked well into the spring and there will be a costume party with 12 acts during the Athens block party on Oct. 28, according to an Instagram post.
Whitney said that she hopes to be granted a trial reversing the revocation. If not, she and her brother, Wolf, will change the LLC and apply for a new liquor license.
This would require moving the location elsewhere, since under Ohio law the license cannot be granted in the same physical area. The process to obtain a new license is a long one, Whitney said.
Whitney and Wolf filed for an appeal but said it’s up to liquor control to see it forward.
