Popular Sun Prairie supper club forced to close for now
When Herreman's restaurant started the year, no one saw any trouble on the horizon. After all, the Sun Prairie supper club has been going strong for five decades, with waitresses who've been there for years and one hostess who's been there since the beginning.
But when owners Steve and Linda Fuelle were told earlier this year that the business was losing its liquor license and then informed Thursday morning by a special agent for Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement in the Wisconsin Department of Revenue that they would have to close, everything came to a halt.
The owners say they will reopen later this month, but the misfortune that fell upon the restaurant in the last few weeks has left employees shaken and the owners livid. Especially, they say, because it was caused by a single accountant.
The problems began in October 2006, when Steve Fuelle underwent brain surgery following an accident, and much of the burden fell upon Linda and a former accountant of the Madison accounting firm Ragsdale, Stiltz and Rueschline, who has worked as the restaurant's CPA for nearly 35 years. Linda Fuelle said the accountant was the first person she called when her husband went into surgery. But Fuelle said he became distant and hard to reach, and that she should have seen the signs then.
"With Steve laying in the hospital with his head torn open, I guess I didn't pay as much attention to the licenses and things like that." Fuelle said. "I was concerned with him staying alive."
While Herreman's continued to coast along for another two years, the business was blindsided in March 2008 when Sun Prairie city officials informed the restaurant that they were losing their liquor license because the restaurant had not filed its quarterly reports. When Fuelle tried to contact the accountant, she was told by his firm that they had released him. In the following weeks, Fuelle said she discovered that the accountant had not filed the restaurant's sales taxes, which the family says they paid through online accounts, or quarterly reports.
Fuelle asked for help from Ragsdale, Spitz and Rueschline, but was told they could do little for her without extensive details of the business' payments from the last three years. That was something Fuelle didn't have. The accounting firm refused to comment Thursday on the Herreman's situation or about any aspect of the accountant's employment with the firm. The accountant involved could not be immediately reached for comment.
On June 30, Sun Prairie revoked the restaurant's liquor license, but Herreman's opened anyway, Fuelle said. On Tuesday night, Sun Prairie police arrived at the restaurant, told all the patrons to leave and closed the restaurant for operating without a liquor license.
Herreman's opened again Wednesday serving only food. While some of the regular customers went elsewhere for afternoon cocktails, many would still come in for lunch. But the state Department of Revenue informed Heremann's managers on Thursday that the restaurant had to close completely, as it could not tax food without the liquor license.
Fuelle, however, insists the business will open at least once for a party on Saturday. Since the party, a wedding reception for a recently married employee, was paid in full before the restaurant was closed, the Department of Revenue will allow the restaurant to hold the reception.
Denise Sozio, Herreman's manager and the Fuelles daughter, said the current accountant has told them all the necessary paperwork will be filed and these issues should be cleared up by July 22. That hasn't stopped Herreman's from preparing for the worst, however.
"Employees were basically told that they can collect unemployment right now," Sozio said. "We're hoping that they want to come back. Some of these employees have been working here for 15 or 20 years. I had a bartender walk out crying last week because he didn't want to leave."
Fuelle said they'll do whatever the can to keep the restaurant open, but that she's wary of what could happen in the meantime.
"This is my life, this is retirement and when you close down for a couple of weeks, people start to forget about you," Fuelle said.
