Cafe Amici evicted from Country Club

The most recent occupant of the restaurant space in the Bella Vista Country Club has moved out. A sign on the front door says simply, “Cafe Amici is closed permanently.”

On Sept. 19, the Bella Vista POA filed a complaint against their tenant, Cafe Amici LLC, in Benton County Circuit Court. The complaint states that Cafe Amici entered the lease agreement in January 2016 and failed to “keep current in obligations under the Lease.” As of Sept. 12, the defendant owed $11,548.75, according to the complaint.

On Aug. 26, owners were served a notice of termination on the lease and on Sept. 9, a threeday notice to quit was served.

A letter from POA staff attorney Doug McCash to an attorney representing Cafe Amici, Adrienne Kvello, in late August was included in the court documents. It states the POA was still looking to resolve the situation amicably if Cafe Amici paid the money that was owed.

In the final paragraph of the letter, McCash reminds his counterpart in Fayetteville that Cafe Amici operator Nik Paunov has stated that Facebook and other social media hurt his business. But, McCash wrote, numerous postings by Paunov and his wife may have “alienated the Bella Vista community.” One example is a post where Paunov referred to his employees as “retards.”

His comments not only hurt his own business, McCash wrote, but they cast a negative light on the POA.