The Sad Truth about Struts' Sudden Closure

 

The Shoals has seen some eateries come and go quickly, but Struts on Pine Street in Florence has to win the prize for brevity. Just what precipitated this gigantic fail after only two weeks?

Previously: Struts Goes Lame

Since the demise of Struts, we've had several readers lament the parking situation on the corner of Pine. While that may have been a problem, especially during the lunch rush, a dearth of spaces played only a minuscule part in the restaurant's closure.

The driving force behind the demise of the wings restaurant seems to be the owner himself. Pictured below is owner Todd Wheeler:

According to an inside source, Wheeler had problems from the beginning:

After all the remodels, Todd Wheeler, started running out of money so they (Tim Rhodes Properties) fronted him some money by buying the kitchen appliances and all of the food overhead. Then he was hit with some up front costs (around $25,000 but I’m not sure from where) and he thought that if he went ahead and opened and acted like everything was okay that he could make some money to pay that off plus some but he was greatly mistaken. So at the last second he told the GM what was going on and made whoever that was give the bad news to everyone. He also gave up his rights to the franchise completely. So now Tim Rhodes Properties is stuck with a completed restaurant that ended up being, and I quote, “the worst business deal they’ve ever been apart of” now they are looking for someone who would like to run/own a restaurant that is ready to go. The only thing I’m not sure of is if he actually went back to Hawaii or not yet or if he’s going to.

However, all is not lost. We understand that former Struts employee Matthew Cox is opening an eatery in that location called Cypress Row. We look forward to trying it, as well as reviews from our readers.