CrowBar owner takes flight
Landlord says many fixtures and furnishings went with him
The CrowBar is gone. So are the tabletops commissioned from artists. So are sinks and the audio system.
Building owner Charlotte Capling said she walked into the bar on West San Francisco Street on Thursday morning and found the space stripped and in disrepair.
She said she believes the downtown bar cleared out either Tuesday or Wednesday.
The lease was ending July 31, and
Capling said the business had not paid rent for about six months.
As the nation’s economic fortunes turn darker, the bar is the most recent Santa Fe business to cease operations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Santa Fe, at least 18 businesses have or are expected to announce closings.
Rick Cassidy opened CrowBar in 2015 in half the space the Burro Alley Cafe once occupied. The Burger Stand now occupies the other half. Capling owns those two spaces and the building where the recently closed B&B Bakery was located.
Cassidy could not be reached for comment. A phone number he had was not functioning.
Capling and her team were working to clear the space Thursday.
She said she owned various pieces of furnishings in the space.
At least three former employees filed a wage theft complaint in September against CrowBar with the state Department of Workforce Solutions. Former employee Austin Girard at that time told
at least 10 current and former CrowBar employees had not received paychecks, had been underpaid and were paid pooled tips in the brief time he worked there last year, from Aug. 1 to Sept. 12.