Ferry House reopens after being closed for $200,000 in overdue taxes

The restaurant closed on Oct. 11, but then reopened on Oct. 27.

Robert Trigg, Jr., the chef and owner of the restaurant since it opened in 1992, explained that he had fallen behind on his taxes due to a combination of factors. According to Trigg, the problem began in 2009 and 2010, during the recession, when he overextended himself and invested in other restaurants at the Peacock Inn and BT Bistro at the Clarion Hotel Palmer Inn on Route 1.

“I sort of stopped paying attention to the Ferry House,” he said. And while he was not paying attention, he said that some of his employees had been misallocating the restaurant’s funds. “Basically they were robbing me blind,” he added.

During this complication, Trigg contacted the state and found that the two state employees with whom he had worked before had retired. Because the new state employees didn’t offer him a payment plan to pay off the taxes, he said, the restaurant was closed.

This was not the first time Trigg had been warned about tax problems, however, according to State Treasury Communications Director Andrew Pratt.

“For several years, [Ferry House] had not met the requirements for paying their taxes,” he said. “[Trigg] received numerous notifications ... There were many efforts to make an arrangement with him to pay his taxes.”

The state had been in contact with Trigg since 2010, when Ferry House first fell behind on its taxes. Pratt said that this was the second effort to shut the restaurant down. According to Pratt, the Ferry House declared bankruptcy the first time in November 2011, but because the restaurant did not meet the requirements for bankruptcy, the court dismissed the case.

This time, Pratt said, “we went back to shut him down.” But Pratt said he believed Trigg must have filed for bankruptcy again in order to reopen the restaurant.

“Following a very lengthy legal process, [the state] can shut a business down,” Pratt explained.

However, a business should never fall behind on its sales taxes, he added. As restaurants collect sales tax, they are expected to set it aside separately.

“The money is immediately set aside and not mixed with other funds,” Pratt said. “There should never be an issue that the sales tax isn’t paid.”

Nonetheless, Trigg said he believes the closure was unfair.

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“They’ll say their side. I’m not going to argue with them,” he said.

But Trigg doesn’t wish to pursue legal action against the state. He claims partial responsibility for what happened.

“It’s my fault that I didn’t check on some certain things and put too much trust on certain individuals,” he said.

Since the Ferry House has reopened, Trigg has rehired old, trusted staff members. He has also hired an accountant, a new manager and a new bookkeeper.

“I’m out of Peacock Inn, out of Bistro, now cooking full-time where I belong,” he said. “That’s my trade ... I’m a chef, not a bookkeeper.”