Does anybody know what happened to Barnacle Bill's and Wings 'n' More?

[sapphire]

The truly sad part is....the employees that showed up to boarded up stores. Barnacle Bill's always had their starting wage posted on their spinner sign outside, and for fast food, they were very generous, IIRC. It would have been hard for the employees to match that wage in a similar food establishment in SA. I want to say it was $9 or $10 an hour.....which is huge here for fast food. Maybe payroll was one of their problems?

[SoMuch2Say]

I have a "theory", backed up by an actual "family member" (i.e sister in law) of the Miller's. Vivian Miller (a daughter of Bill) ended up married to Louis Vance, they ended up opening the very successful Barnacle Bill's (along with money from the Miller family)... years later...an ugly divorce was about to erupt but instead of it becoming part of the gossip mill, the family decided to dissolve all Barnacle Bill's, split it up, pay off people & shut them up! The Miller's did not want to air any dirty laundry to the public, that's for sure!

Yes Barnacle Bill's paid well, but so does Bill Miller's... especially on the north side! Although I can tell you first hand, it is very hard work, with the added stress of having the founding family members (and all their off shoots) just a stones throw away from your store!

[Willsatx]

Its a shame they closed up, the food was pretty good.

[aj007]

ok maybe the place in alabama is not related at all then. It was not fast food seafood. To be honest with you when I hear similar to sea island, I do not think of good seafood. IMO

[raven69david]

The food was not that great. Little pieces, big prices. Plus they took the fountain drink machine away and started charging for refills. The only thing I liked was the shrimp gumbo and I still miss it.

[lsdude]

Originally Posted by Lol_Stacey

The story that I heard...which may or may not be "rural" legend is that the younger generation (believe the grandsons) of the original Mr. Bill Miller were running the Barnacle Bills, and the sons are still running Bill Millers.

There was some sort of riff in how things were being done, very well likely related to the above mentioned bad fish/ getting sued over child being ill info above (I just heard this part from you guys though, so I am assuming it could have a connection). At any rate, the grandsons got tiffed and decided to shut down with no notice to anyone, including as some have mentioned current employees that showed up to a boarded up restaurant.

It's amazing to me that a restaurant being sued over one instance of illness would cause them to shut their doors. It seems more likely there was internal feuding going on with the management of the restaurants.

I am sad they left....I miss their gumbo. I can't get decent (and less expensive) gumbo anywhere in town. People want to do gross things like put bell peppers and onions in it.

An article in the E-N said that Barnacle Bill's was closed by the IRS for unpaid taxes.

[ged_782]

Originally Posted by lsdude

An article in the E-N said that Barnacle Bill's was closed by the IRS for unpaid taxes.

How long ago was this article? Seems like the owners of Barnacle Bill's never publicly stated the reason they closed other than "we were no longer interested in running the business".

I did a search on MySA for the IRS closure of Barnacle Bill's, but came up empty. Did the IRS ever auction off BB's former assests?