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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; After an application to transfer a liquor license to Hottle&#8217;s Pizza was twice withdrawn, the status of the downtown restaurant is unclear.</p><p>A sign on the door of the North Main Street business said it would re-open on Sept. 1 when King&#8217;s College students returned. But more than a week later, the sign remained in place, raising questions about the viability of the business that closed for the summer after opening for a short time last year in the spot where III Guys Pizza previously was located.</p><p>Attempts this week to reach Coleen and Michael Burns, the owners of Hottle&#8217;s, were unsuccessful. A woman who identified herself only as &#8220;Morgan&#8221; answered a phone number for the Burnses and said they were out of town.</p><p>The woman said the owners are trying to get a liquor license and &#8220;the neighbor next door filed an injunction&#8221; to stop them. &#8220;That&#8217;s been the holdup,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Thom Greco confirmed he protested attempts to transfer a liquor license to Hottle&#8217;s Pizza from the former Villa Grove Cafe on Grove Street.</p><p>As an existing license holder, AGG Services would be affected if the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board approved the application of Hottle&#8217;s Pizza, Greco said in his Feb. 14 protest letter. He also cited the proximity of a proposed new high school on the site of Coughlin high school.</p><p>&#8220;Why would they allow another liquor license with all those kids?&#8221; Greco asked.</p><p>According to the PLCB, Greco, a local businessman, is listed as a stockholder in AGG Services Inc., the holder of a restaurant liquor license for Heat bar. He also owns the building housing the bar on the corner of North Main and East Union streets, 15 feet from Hottle&#8217;s Pizza.</p><p>The existing high school and proposed one, along with King&#8217;s College, the Kirby Health Center and Vesuvio&#8217;s Pizzeria &amp; Ristorante, another licensed bar and restaurant, are located within a 500-foot radius of Hottle&#8217;s Pizza, Greco said in his letter of protest.</p><p>The St. Vincent DePaul Kitchen on East Jackson Street is outside of that boundary, but the indigent and homeless people who go there pass within the 500-foot radius, he said. &#8220;Many of these homeless are mental patients and have addictions to alcohol,&#8221; Greco said in the letter.</p><p>&#8220;The expanded serving of alcohol would worsen the location&#8217;s character and worsen the situation at an already unsafe area,&#8221; he said.</p><p>The PLCB has jurisdiction in a smaller area than the 500-foot radius, Greco pointed out: The state liquor code gives the PLCB discretion in approving license transfers if the new premises is within &#8220;three hundred feet of any church, hospital, charitable institution, school or public playground,&#8221; or &#8220;200 feet of any other premises which is licensed by the board.&#8221;</p><p>Greco protested the first attempt last November to transfer the license to Hottle&#8217;s and said Coleen Burns withdrew the application. He responded with another protest when Burns applied again in February.</p><p>&#8220;It never got to a hearing,&#8221; Greco said. &#8220;She withdrew it on her own.&#8221;</p><p>Greco provided a copy of a letter dated Thursday from the PLCB stating the application &#8220;has been withdrawn and cancelled.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The status of Hottle&#8217;s Pizza on North Main Street, Wilkes-Barre is unclear more than a week after it missed the Sept. 1 re-opening date posted on a notice taped to the front door. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_Hottle-s-sign.jpg</photo0><caption0>The status of Hottle&#8217;s Pizza on North Main Street, Wilkes-Barre is unclear more than a week after it missed the Sept. 1 re-opening date posted on a notice taped to the front door. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Hottle’s Pizza’s future unclear after liquor license applications withdrawn