Hiawatha Happy Joe’s Abruptly Closes, Employees Left Unpaid

It is another story of a Cedar Rapids restaurant suddenly closing. Unfortunately, it is also the story of employees still waiting to be paid.

KCRG reports that according to Teagan Englert, the general manager of the Hiawatha Happy Joe's Pizza location at 1950 Blairs Ferry Road, the popular pizza restaurant suddenly closed two weeks ago. She stated that she was informed by the owner of the restaurant that he was closing the doors for good. Englert and other employees say that they never knew that the owner was struggling to make ends meet.

The Hiawatha Happy Joe's Facebook page and its Google listing both say the location is 'permanently closed.' Englert told KCRG that the owner stated that the restaurant hadn't been doing great for the past eight months. Most employees say that they thought things were running normally. Evan Englert, another employee, told KCRG that it is frustrating to get the news so suddenly. He told KCRG, "Why not tell us any point in between that eight months and that the 5th of September?"

And to add insult to the sudden closing, KCRG reports that the employees of the Hiawatha Happy Joe's are still waiting to get paid. Teagan Englert told KCRG that she reached out to the owner and asked if they were going to get paid. He stated, not at this time, and that there is nothing to give.

Happy Joe's owner Gabe Bark issued the following statement.

The two Happy Joe’s locations owned by my companies continued to operate hoping the economy in this area would improve. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and the two stores were forced to close. I’m sure it is of little comfort to the former employees; however, the companies have also not paid me during this time.

Another former employee told KCRG that seeing another local restaurant, Chrome Horse Saloon, announce weeks out that they were going to close, felt like a slap in the face by his former employer.

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