Landlord seeks eviction of Wichita brewery; Next-door restaurant plans to take over space
The owner of a building being leased by a Wichita brewery has filed a petition for eviction with Sedgwick County District Court.
Gregory Neville, who owns the space leased by Augustino Brewing Company at 756 N. Tyler, says in a filing submitted Thursday that the brewery is behind on rent and that the brewery’s owner ignored a notice instructing him to leave the premises by 12:59 p.m. on Oct. 29.
The filing says that the Notice to Leave document was handed to owner Augustine Iacopelli on Oct. 26.
“As of November 4, 2021, the defendant has failed and refused to leave the premises,” the filing said. It asks for court costs and for a Writ of Restitution to be issued to return possession of the space to the landlord.
When reached on Friday, Iacopelli said he’d been “advised not to comment right now.” Neville’s lawyer, Thomas Lasater of Fleeson, Gooing, Coulson & Kitch, also didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Santiago Munoz, who operates his The Angry Elephant barbecue restaurant out of part of the space, said that he is now in negotiations with the landlord to take over the entire building.
He hopes to open a sports bar in the Augustino tap room space by late November or early December.
Munoz said he’s grown close with the Iacopellis and is sorry that they’ll be leaving but that he’s excited about what he can add to his business with the new space.
“I didn’t expect that, but it happening definitely benefits The Angry Elephant as a company,” he said.
Augustino Brewing Company, which opened in November 2017 as a brewery and restaurant, closed for five weeks in the fall of 2018 then reopened as a brewery and tap room only, concentrating its service on the smaller bar side of the business on the building’s north end.
Owners Augustine and Bianca Iacopelli said at the time that they’d decided they didn’t want to run a restaurant, and they eventually subleased the dining room and kitchen to Munoz, who’s been operating The Angry Elephant out of the space since December 2019.
Augustino Brewing Company was scheduled to open for business at 11 a.m. today.
I’ll let you know what else develops.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 11:08 AM.
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