DE PERE, WI (WTAQ) — A De Pere business is closing up shop after five years.
Proof Restaurant and Craft Cocktails, located at 127 N. Broadway, announced on Facebook that it’s shutting its doors for good due to hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Owner Tony Oczus says the shutdown, combined with a drop in business, led to the decision.
“We’d shut down for a couple months, and once we were able to open back up we had just experienced a massive decrease in business,” Oczus told WTAQ on Friday. “It just made sense for us to close down.”
“[The City of] De Pere did what they could in terms of bringing down the cost of some of the permitting to help us keep our costs down,” Oczus says. “De Pere has actually really been good to us…it seems like local municipalities did what they could.”
Oczus was still having to pay his bills in full with significantly less money coming through the door.
The Libertine, in Downtown Green Bay, is also owned by Oczus. The staff from Proof will be transferring there, according to the Facebook post.
Proof is just the latest in a series of local restaurants that have had to close up shop after months of shutdown. Black and Tan Grille on Walnut St. shut down earlier this month, citing COVID-19 related hardship. The Cannery Public Market in the Rail Yard district closed in May.
