The Best of 2011

No. 3: Jun Bo Shutters Doors

Richfield Patch looks back at one of the top stories of 2011.

The owners of Jun Bo Chinese Restaurant were ordered to immediately cease all liquor sales on April 12, 2011, after the Richfield City Council made its decision to not renew the restaurant and night club's liquor license that night. This restaurant had been a thorn in the city's side for many months and brought out some intense feelings from council members and city staff. “Never have I seen as bad of an actor,” Mayor Debbie Goettel said that April night. “There is no way that I want Jun Bo through this summer. … I will deny it immediately." "[The restaurant] is taking more of our resources…Just imagine if we had to spend an equal amount of time in [all other liquor licensed establishments]," Richfield Police Cheif Barry Fritz said in …

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Editor's Notebook

What's Jun Bo Got to Do With It?

What's the best practice for the city in dealing with liquor licenses for offending businesses?

Have no fear residents, liquor licenses for all restaurants, grocers, clubs, bowling alleys and bars up for renewal were approved by the Richfield City Council Tuesday night. The only exception was the Four Points Sheraton license, which was removed from the agenda at the start of the meeting. The council's easy approval of the licenses was nothing like its renewal session in 2010. As many of you avid Richfield Patch readers will remember, council members were confronted with the decision on whether or not to renew Jun Bo Chinese Restaurant’s intoxicating liquor license last December. The restaurant’s high number of police contacts—163 between October 2009 and September 2010—along with a state investigation into the restaurant's finances, …

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FOLLOW-UP: Jun Bo Chinese Restaurant Shutters Doors

After repeated trouble with the Richfield Public Safety Department and state tax collectors, the April 2011 revocation of the restaurant's liquor license was the beginning of the end.

Following an eventful several months for Jun Bo Chinese Restaurant, which saw the eatery’s liquor license revoked by the Richfield City Council in April 2011, legal issues with the state and the sale of its property to neighboring Menards for approximately $5 million in March, Jun Bo has closed its doors. Mayor Debbie Goettel, who was critical of Jun Bo at recent city council meetings, said the City of Richfield expected the restaurant to close following the April termination of the restaurant’s liquor license. “We knew they wouldn’t be viable without their liquor license,” Goettel said after the restaurant closed. "And so they just decided to leave, which is probably to the benefit of Menards as well." After opening in 2006 with vaunted …

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