Popular Jax Beach restaurant closed until further notice

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Popular Jacksonville Beach restaurant Nippers Beach Grille has suddenly closed its doors.

Action News Jax first told you back in August the restaurant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The closure came as a surprise to several diners who drove up to the restaurant Tuesday night only to find the lights off and the doors locked.

“It’s a little disappointing,” said vacationer Jennifer Jones.

Her minivan full of kids came to a complete stop in the road when she realized the restaurant they’d planned to go to was dark.

“All the lights are off,” Jones said. “No one in the parking lot.”

Nippers’ bankruptcy attorney Adina Pollan said it’s a temporary closing until the end of the week so they don’t accrue any more debt while they make some big decisions about their bankruptcy.

Pollan said those decisions are based on whether they’re able to sell the business to any of the buyers she said they’ve been negotiating with.

“I was always skeptical. Anytime a business delays your checks time and time again, something is not quite right,” said Henry James, the father of a Nippers dishwasher who showed up at opening time on Tuesday to pick up his son’s check and found the doors locked.

Action News Jax asked James why his son kept working there if his paychecks were often late.

“Well, he was getting them. Like I said, if it’s Tuesday, they’d say, no, come back Friday.  Friday’s here, check’s here,” said James.

After Action News Jax told Pollan about this, she said the owner Rudy Theale was going to deliver that paycheck in person.

Theale said sometimes the money just wasn’t always there to pay his employees on time.

“They are getting paid every single dollar that they’re due as soon as the funds became available. So in other words, we would have – in some cases—we’d have to have, like, two more days of sales in order to generate the funds and then we would pay them,” said Theale.

Theale said paying his employees is now his top priority.

Pollan said the only employees who haven’t gotten paid right now are the ones who worked this past weekend.

In June of 2014, there was a shooting outside Nippers during bike night, leaving one man dead and another beaten.

Top Chef contestant Chef Kenny Gilbert designed and opened the Caribbean-inspired restaurant.

Nippers earned the distinction of “Best Caribbean Restaurant” by Folio Magazine within a year of opening.

Cox Media Group