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Employees say they have not received final paychecks after restaurant closes unexpectedly

174 views · Published 28 December 2018 · 1:47 · Indexed 4 October 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2018 · News & Politics

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MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (WKRC)- The employees from Blast Furnace Pizza in Middletown said they are waiting for their final paycheck after the restaurant unexpectedly closed.

Michael Moore and Nick Azwol said business was good at Blast Furnace Pizza in the weeks leading up to its closure on Dec. 5.

"The heartbeat of Middletown is this block here and I kind of felt like we were a thriving part of that," Azwol said.

Moore said he found out about the closing through a phone call.

“Got up that morning and all the sudden I get a phone call from the landlord that said the place has been cleaned out," Moore said.

Azwol said he saw it firsthand.

"I came in in the morning to find out there was nothing here. I unlocked everything, came in the door to find everything, that there's nothing there," Azwol said.

Just a few things remained in the empty space Friday night.  A “for lease” sign sits in the window.

The building owner's daughter-in-law told the Journal-News the closing was a surprise to them as well.

"Some of us are not going to have a Christmas because of him because basically when you live paycheck to paycheck and have families, bills come first, like rent, insurance, electric, water and stuff like that. That stuff has to be paid," Moore said. "I have a six-year-old son at home who has three presents under the tree because of this gentleman.”

"The first thing I had to do was to try and figure out how can we get them jobs? So, me and the other managers just started talking to downtown Middletown, trying to get people jobs. Because, they don't have a lot of money and even if now, with a 2-3-week grace period depending on when they start, they're not going to have money from Christmas," Azwol said.

About half the employees have been hired by nearby businesses.

Local 12 talked with the owner, Ben Tirrell via text message Friday night. He said he is waiting for a personal loan to clear and will pay his employees when it does. He said he hopes that to be next week.

The Blast Furnace was set to celebrate its one-year anniversary 10 days after it closed its doors.

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