Updated at 2 p.m. with comments from Bishop Cider Co.
Two popular spots for drinking in Dallas,
Cidercadeand
Peticolas Brewing Co. are ending 2017 on a sour note: The fire marshal shut them down right before New Year's Eve.
"Due to the rising popularity of the Cidercade and the increase in people coming through our doors, the City of Dallas is requiring some additional precautions to be put in place," reads
a post on the Cidercade's Facebook page. "We were instructed to close immediately and remain closed until we upgrade our fire safety infrastructure."
This news hits the Cidercade particularly hard, as they were gearing up for a New Year's Eve party for which tickets had just been sold out. Those tickets have now been refunded.
Joel Malone, co-founder of Bishop Cider Co., says he won't have a good idea of when they will re-open until he can talk to city officials on Tuesday (as offices will be closed Monday for New Year's Day). He says that when the Cidercade received its Certificate of Occupancy, the city said that they didn't need fire sprinklers. Now, apparently, minds have been changed.
"The problem is that a lot of times when dealing with the city of Dallas, people in different departments tell you contradictory things, so it's almost as if the left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing," he says. "So it's just a matter of trying to figure exactly what we need to do. One person says you don't need to do something and then later someone else shows up and says, 'No, you do have to do that.' So we just need to get everything straightened out.
Peticolas Brewing Co. posted a similar message Sunday morning. "Due to unforeseen circumstances, the taproom is closed until further notice. We had a visit from the Fire Marshal last night and need to upgrade our building before reopening."
Both locations stress that they want to guarantee the safety of their employees and customers.
It's a disappointing way to end the year, for sure," says Michael Peticolas, owner of Peticolas Brewing Co. Because of the holiday weekend, he says he hasn't yet looked closely at the marshal's notice and doesn't have a timeframe for when they will re-open.
"The timing of it seemed odd," he says, given that the fire marshal arrived at 9:30 p.m. on a Saturday night, but "it's just another hurdle in a long, long journey. These obstacles come up. [What matters is] how you overcome the obstacles."
