Toby Keith Bar Closes In NY

Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill located in Syracuse’s Destiny USA mall has closed suddenly, making it the second honky-tonk bearing the country music star’s name to go belly up this month.

Photo: Alonzo Adams / Invision / AP

Toby Keith's Oklahoma Twister Relief Concert, Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Norman, Okla.

The business closed its doors at midnight Saturday, soon after a performance by country music singer Chris Cagle.

The restaurant had owed $300,000 in unpaid sales taxes to New York state, but resolved the problems last year. Boomtown Entertainment, the Phoenix-based company that operates the I Love This Bar and Grill chain, is in an ongoing legal dispute involving rent the mall’s owners say they’re owed.

The Toby Keith bar in Woodbridge, Virginia, closed May 2.

Entering 2015, Boomtown Entertainment operated the restaurants in 14 markets, with several others scheduled to open this year.