Knowing now that McKay’s lease was ending “and giving us zero notice, it was devastating,” she said.
Suiter, 37, who was a bakery employee at the Pine Cone for the past year, said she doesn’t know whether McKay used the PPP money to pay his staff, but said he employed his son, daughter and wife full-time this past summer, when in the past they would just fill in.
She said McKay told his employees he was being audited and gave most of his servers backpay in their most recent paychecks.
“It was very, very difficult to swallow seeing the government-blaming sign he put up when he didn’t cite that as any of the many reasons he gave us,” she said.
Suiter said she wishes McKay would have gone to the owner of the Pine Cone restaurant in Johnson Creek to see if he wanted to take over the DeForest restaurant. She said McKay admitted to staff that he didn’t try to find a buyer in the community.
McKay told the Wisconsin State Journal that he is friends with the owner of the other Pine Cone, which is still operating.
The DeForest Pine Cone’s website shows that it had been in business for 49 years.
“Since The Pine Cone’s beginning in 1973, we have taken great pride in bringing you food that is of superb quality,” the website says. “We believe The Pine Cone is a living link to the times past when food was plentiful and prices were right. Upholding this standard and providing our customers with outstanding service is somewhat of a motto for us.”