Business

Mexican eatery will not proceed at Doc’s site

Doc's Taven plans scuttled
BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | The person leasing Doc’s Tavern (La Isla Bar & Grill) is in arrears on both the rent and taxes, according to a sign papered on the building.

The group trying to reopen the former Doc’s Tavern in Polish Town as a Mexican restaurant is more than $100,000 in arrears on various payments, according to a notice on the door of the building.

A Brentwood company headed by Delmis and Fausto Reyes had received an extension last year on a commercial alteration permit for the building. They also received a liquor license from the State Liquor Authority that runs through Oct. 31, 2013, and had erected a new sign, calling the business La Isla Bar and Grill.

But a notice posted on the door Jan. 23 says their company owes $119,000 — comprising unpaid rent, property taxes and insurance — to Roy Schoenhaar of Cutchogue, who owns the building under the corporate name Mile High, Inc.

Neither Mr. Schoenhaar nor his attorneys, Goggins and Palumbo of Mattituck, returned calls seeking comment.

“I gave up the business, that’s all I can say,” Delmis Reyes told a reporter Monday. “I saw the comments of the people there. I am truly unhappy about that kind of thing,” she said, referring to online comments posted on riverheadnewsreview.com and Facebook last year, when the News-Review wrote about the proposed Mexican restaurant.

Many of the comments were anti-immigrant.

Doc’s Tavern had been a staple in Polish Town for more than 50 years, but has been closed for the past seven years or so.

It had been renovated following a fire about eight years ago and briefly reopened, but then closed again for good.

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