RACINE, Wis. — Charcoal Grill locations across southeast Wisconsin have closed, with signs appearing on doors and employees saying they were given little to no warning before the shutdown.
Watch Lauren Sklba's full report in the video player below:
Mason Andrews, a Charcoal Grill employee in Oak Creek, said the closure had been a long time coming.
"We lost a lot of services. Our food trucks stopped coming. Our wood deliveries weren't coming in," he said. "We had to go get supplies from other places."
Michael "MJ" Jansen, another Oak Creek employee, also said workers noticed warning signs before the doors closed.
"We didn't really expect it to actually close down, and then we started losing some of our suppliers for our food," Jansen said.
An employee who wished to remain anonymous, identified only as Angel, said the closure itself happened quickly on a Friday.
"I came into work, and we were told to shut everything down," she said.
Angel said the reason given was that the restaurant's seller's license had been revoked.
TMJ4'S Lauren Sklba reached out to the Department of Revenue to confirm this but had yet to hear back as of Tuesday afternoon.
Employees at multiple locations said they had seen other signs of trouble before the closure. Andrews and Jansen both confirmed an IRS raid at the Oak Creek location.
"And they just came to collect as much as they could back," Andrews said.
Racine County tax records show more than $35,000 is owed at the Burlington location alone.
Bianca Piller, who left Charcoal Grill's Burlington location months ago, said, "When you see something spiraling, going downhill, you’re not going to stay.”
But for employees who did stay at Charcoal Grill's various locations, they're now dealing with the fallout.
"We didn't get a heads-up; we didn't get any notices," Jansen said.
Angel described the financial uncertainty now facing workers.
"You get concerns like, 'Where am I going to get money? How am I going to get a new job? Where am I going to get a new job?" she said.
TMJ4 did reach out to Charcoal Grill owner Jeffrey Marsh but did not hear back as of Tuesday afternoon.
Despite the abrupt end, employees reflected on what the workplace meant to them.
"It really kind of was a family," Jansen said.
"Management, staff, we've just had such an amazing group of people that we got together," Andrews said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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