Downtown Dayton music venue loses liquor license

Canal Public House faces liens for unpaid sales taxes, does not appeal final revocation order

The Canal Public House did not file a final appeal by Thursday’s deadline to an order that effectively stripped the music venue of its liquor license, Samuel Porter III, executive director of the Ohio Liquor Control Commission, said Friday.

The failure to appeal means that Canal Public House — which has not hosted any shows in recent weeks at its space at 308 E. First St. — has lost its license to serve alcohol. Attempts to reach the club’s owners Friday were unsuccessful.

Both the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control and the Ohio Liquor Control Commission cited unpaid sales taxes in denying Canal Public House’s request to renew its liquor license.

Like other restaurants, bars and retailers, Canal Public House charged and collected sales tax on its transactions with customers. Businesses are required to forward the sales tax payments they’ve collected to the Ohio Department of Taxation on a timely basis.

The music club’s tax delinquency was cited in June 2015 by the Division of Liquor Control as the agency’s reason for denying Canal Public House’s application to renew its liquor license. Subsequent appeals had allowed the venue’s owners to continue to serve alcohol, but its appeal to the Ohio Liquor Control Commission, a separate agency, was denied for the same reasons in an order mailed to the concert venue on March 3.

And earlier this week, two state liens for unpaid sales taxes — one for $13,948 and another for $10,164 — were filed by the state against Canal Public House Corp. in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

Phone and email messages left earlier this week for Canal Public House’s attorney in its proceedings before the liquor-control agencies were not returned.

In a March 6 reply to a Facebook user who had asked on the concert venue’s Facebook page, “Are you still open,” Canal Public House owners wrote, “The bar is closed temporarily. We will publish more details as they are made available.”

From 1981 to 2013, the music venue operated as Canal Street Tavern under its founder, Mick Montgomery, who sold the business in April 2013.

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