12/20/2025
I wanted to take a moment to try my best to explain what happened and why we've decided to close our doors. This is a long, humbling post, so please bear with me.
When we decided to open the breakfast side of the restaurant, we were unaware of the challenges that we would face. We spent a lot of time training, which cost us a lot of money that we didn't necessarily have. So, we pulled it from the BBQ side in an effort to get the breakfast side up and going. After all, I was confident in our product, our team of amazing people, and the location (being connected to The Vortex). Once we got through training, we decided it was time to open our doors to the public. The first day we made just under $100... the whole day. So I said, "ok, this is just our first day, so let's see what tomorrow has in store". The next day came and went, and still we had limited sales. We tried to market in the local community, we tried to invest in our catering and other revenue streams, but to no avail, we just couldn't get it going. As this continued, we kept pulling from the BBQ side to try and keep the breakfast side going long enough to get the word out. I was confident we were going to build sales and eventually do great things. But that never happened, and eventually, we ran out of money. Bills started piling up, rent came due, and we weren't able to pay it. Utilities kept getting shut off and we kept having to pay more and more money, which was coming out of the BBQ side. This was detrimental to The Vortex's financials. The breakfast side bled us dry. But instead of throwing in the towel, we decided to not pay a few bills in order to keep our employees paid and keep the doors open. Again, I was confident I could build sales and get caught up on everything. But that never happened. It was a bad call on my part. I should have just shut the doors, but I had all these employees that were counting on me and believed in me. I was determined to keep this place going, but as time progressed, we became too far behind to get caught up. Our landlord and the utility companies worked with us so well and gave us so much grace, but at the end of the day, we couldn't continue to operate without paying our bills. So, we were forced to call it quits. The breakfast place was my decision (Jason). The desire to keep it open was my decision. The choice to not pay our bills was my decision. This was my fault and I am so disappointed in myself for the decisions I made. I'm not saying we wouldn't have had the same outcome, because the BBQ place wasn't doing very well either, but I could have paid our debtors on time, and not impacted their lives right before Christmas. I could have kept our employees and maybe gave them a little more notice. This was all in an attempt to invest in our community, invest in our people, and in our brand, but I allowed my pride to get in the way of making the right decision, and I will have to live with those decisions. We will get our employees their final checks, make payment arrangements on the rest, and eventually get everyone taken care of. But until then, it's going to be a long, bumpy road. I know God has our best interest at heart and he is guiding us to not only settle our debts, but propelling us into new plans and opportunities. It was never my intent to deliberately destroy this organization. I really believed in our people, and our food. But it became too much. This was nobody's fault but mine.
To my staff, I am so sorry. I appreciate all you've done throughout our tenure here. You all made this place. Our guests came to see you. Sure, they wanted the food, but you all are what made this place. I'm deeply sorry things worked out this way. You all deserved so much more that what we handed out. My prayer is that God blesses each of you with something so much better.
To our guests, I greatly appreciate the love, understanding, prayers, and support.
We love you all, and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
