TEMPE, AZ — Tempe Tavern has closed after 15 years in business, ending its run on the same day liquor control investigators were called in to examine the bar’s possible connection to a deadly crash. The closure comes as the business faces intense scrutiny from Arizona regulators and law enforcement over repeated alcohol-related violations and a license fight that has already stretched for months.
A lawyer for the bar said the shutdown was decided earlier this month, before last week’s fatal wreck, and not because of what he described as sharply reduced business caused by harassment from police and regulators. State officials, meanwhile, have tied the tavern to a crash case that left a grandmother dead while her family changed a tire along U.S. 60 in Mesa.
Investigators say the bar was part of the timeline before the fatal Mesa crash
Arizona Department of Public Safety officers arrested 21-year-old Zachary Penrod last week and accused him of killing a grandmother in the crash on U.S. 60. According to state officials, the woman was with family members on the side of the freeway while they changed a tire when she was struck and killed.
The Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control was brought in to assist after DPS executed a search warrant at Tempe Tavern on Sept. 16. Investigators determined Penrod had been drinking at the bar shortly before the crash, adding another layer to a case that has already drawn broad attention in the East Valley.
The case has not only become a criminal matter but also a regulatory one, as state agencies review whether the tavern’s business practices contributed to a deadly sequence of events. Officials have not said what specific drinking or service practices they believe led to the encounter, but they have linked the bar to the timeline they are investigating.
A prior fatal crash had already put the tavern under a spotlight
This is not the first time Tempe Tavern has been tied to a deadly crash. ABC15 previously reported that the suspect in a fatal hit-and-run last September was also drinking there before that crash. That earlier case helped fuel already growing concerns among regulators about the bar’s role in serving people who later ended up involved in serious traffic deaths.
The newest investigation now places the tavern back at the center of the same troubling pattern. For state officials, the overlap between drinking at the bar and later fatal crashes has become one of the most important issues in assessing whether the business should continue operating with its current license.
That history has made the closure more significant than a routine business decision. Even as the tavern’s lawyer says the shutdown was planned before the latest death, the timing has intensified public interest in whether regulators had been building a case for some time.
State raids focused on underage drinking and repeated violations
Regulators had already been pressuring the tavern before the Mesa crash. State investigators raided the bar twice last year on underage drinking concerns and found that 80% of all underage drinking arrests in Tempe over a two-year span happened at Tempe Tavern.
Those findings led to unusually harsh language from investigators. In March, state officials recommended permanently revoking the bar’s liquor license, citing 11 categories of violations and describing Tempe Tavern as a danger to the community. That recommendation signaled that the state saw the problems as persistent rather than isolated.
The repeated enforcement actions also help explain why the bar had already become a focal point for police and licensing officials in the city. The combination of underage drinking cases, prior raids and the latest fatal-crash investigation has put the business under a level of scrutiny rarely seen at a neighborhood tavern.
Lawyers say the closure was planned before last week’s arrest
The bar’s attorney said the shutdown was not a reaction to the newest crash case. Instead, he said the decision to close had been made earlier in the month, before the deadly wreck, and pointed to what he called dramatic drops in business tied to harassment from authorities.
That explanation stands in contrast to the sequence of public events, which included the search warrant, the DPS arrest and the liquor agency’s role in the investigation. Even so, the legal team has framed the closure as a business decision rather than an admission connected to the crash allegations.
For Tempe residents who have watched the case unfold, the competing narratives matter because the bar’s shutdown does not end the state’s review. The license dispute, the crash investigation and the earlier enforcement findings remain part of the record regulators are weighing.
Litigation against Tempe and state officials remains unresolved
Tempe Tavern’s lawyers have not said whether they will continue a lawsuit against the City of Tempe. The suit also names Tempe Police Chief Ken McCoy and DLLC agents among the defendants, and claims the bar has been targeted by police and regulators.
That pending legal fight adds another front to an already crowded dispute. On one side are city and state officials pursuing enforcement and criminal investigations. On the other is the bar, which has argued that authorities have singled it out while regulators have compiled a lengthy record of violations.
For now, the tavern is closed, but the larger confrontation is not over. The fate of the liquor license, the outcome of the crash investigation and the status of the civil case will likely determine whether the business’s 15-year chapter in Tempe ends quietly or with more courtroom conflict.