TYRONE — The Bull Pen Restaurant in Tyrone has been required to close until further notice due to a liquor license issue.

“We were just informed Friday by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board that the only way to guarantee the transfer of the liquor license is to put it into ‘safekeeping’ for a period of time. This means we are closed for a period of time while the license transfer is processed and we haven’t been told how long that will be,” stated a post on the Bull Pen’s Facebook page.

Chris Dutrow and Joe Russo — BP TYRONE LLC — signed an asset purchase with BPTYR LLC in October and began to operate the restaurant.

BP TYRONE LLC was required to obtain a lease and have the liquor license transferred to them before the sale could be completed, so BPTYR LLC still owns the business.

According to control board documents, a conditional licensing agreement was signed March 14 by Brice Mertiff, sole member of BPTYR LLC. That agreement between the PLCB and BPTYR LLC was for renewal of the liquor license.

However, the PLCB objected to the renewal of the license for several reasons. The incidents included, but were not limited to, fights, visibly intoxicated persons and disorderly operations.

In a request dated March 3, BPTYR indicated a willingness to resolve the matter rather than proceed to an administrative hearing.

The PLCB and BPTYR LLC then agreed that additional conditions be placed on the license.

According to the document, within 60 days of the approval of this conditional licensing agreement by the PLCB (it was approved April 9), the license shall be placed in safekeeping and shall thereafter remain in safekeeping until such time as it is transferred in accordance with the agreement.

The license transfer application is now listed as a pending transfer in the PLCB system so it is not known when the license transfer will be approved.

“We want this to happen as soon as possible. We have people out of work, we are concerned about our employees,” Dutrow said.