Well, crap.
Just a day after Christmas and one of the East Valley’s best restaurants – Barrelhouse American Kitchen & Cocktails – has announced its impending closure on Facebook:
It saddens me to say that we must make preparations for Barrelhouse to close its doors. Recently, Chef Stephan Germanaud, a man in who’s hands we placed our trust and the future of the establishment, has left us without notice or forewarning, leaving Barrelhouse in a situation that is difficult to describe in the middle of the Holiday season. We put our trust in the wrong person, someone we would later discover was running away from an embarrassing trail of legal and familial responsibilities, only to add us in his wake. Unfortunately, our restaurant will encounter a loss that will most likely be impossible for our small family business to recover from, and it is a shame that the selfish acts of one man will undo everything that our loyal and hardworking staff have achieved in the past two years, but that is our unfortunate reality today.
Barrelhouse opened in March 2013 on the northwest corner of Alma School and Warner. It topped MXSW’s list of best new restaurants in 2013.
The exact closing date hasn’t been determined, but the restaurant announced it will be open through New Year’s, although it won’t be holding its New Year’s Eve dinner:
Our kitchen staff has been doing a tremendous job keeping up and will do so as long as possible. Unfortunately this means we will not be able to host our Annual New Year’s Eve dinner, it would be too overwhelming for our staff to execute a menu they’ve only seen on paper. … We will however remain open, at the very least, through New Year’s Eve.
Barrelhouse will be selling all its drink at happy hour prices all day every day until it closes.
