TEMPE, AZ (AZFamily) — Tempe Tavern is abruptly closing its doors and liquidating its assets days after state regulators linked the longtime college-town venue to a deadly crash on U.S. 60.
Online auction listings, including posts on Craigslist, surfaced Monday advertising a complete liquidation sale for an East Valley bar and restaurant. Photos and address details matched Tempe Tavern, which was advertising everything from barstools and tables to commercial refrigerators and beer taps. Patrons quickly took to social media to report the establishment was shutting down permanently.
Management at Tempe Tavern and their attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
On Tuesday, the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control confirmed investigators served a search warrant at Tempe Tavern and uncovered evidence that a driver accused in a deadly wreck had been served alcohol there shortly before the collision.
Two separate deadly crashes
The most recent crash happened early Wednesday, Sept. 16, along U.S. 60 in Mesa. According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, 21-year-old Zachary Penrod crashed into two vehicles parked on the shoulder while people were attempting to change a flat tire.
An 82-year-old woman was killed, and two other family members were hospitalized.
“She had been saying she knew she was getting old, her time was coming soon, but it’s really unfair that someone had to go like this,” the victim’s grandson, Javier Valenzuela, said outside Banner Desert Medical Center.
Penrod was arrested and booked into the Maricopa County Jail. Court records state Penrod told investigators he had three beers at a Tempe bar before getting behind the wheel. State liquor detectives subsequently confirmed they executed a search warrant at Tempe Tavern and found evidence linking Penrod’s alcohol consumption to the venue that night.
In December 2025, the bar was linked to a deadly motorcycle crash.
Tempe police said that 19-year-old Ava Bellowe was partying at Tempe Tavern minutes before allegedly hitting a motorcyclist and leaving the scene. She turned herself in several hours later, police said. She faces a felony charge of failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death.
The tavern has faced scrutiny from state regulators in the past, including previous state investigations into underage drinking.
Dram Shop Law
Legal experts say the timing of the abrupt closure raises critical legal questions under Arizona Revised Statutes § 4-311, commonly known as Arizona’s dram shop law. The statute allows victims or surviving families to hold a licensed liquor establishment civilly liable if the business serves an obviously intoxicated person or minor whose impairment causes injury or death.
“The dram shop law allows an injured person to go after the bar for overserving the defendant who injured the victim,” said Phoenix attorney Ben Taylor. “When there’s smoke, there’s fire. In this incident, it seems kind of fishy that a bar would close right after a major incident, especially a bar that has had prior bad acts by the liquor board and prior bad acts that people have known about.”
Taylor noted that closing down and liquidating assets does not shield an establishment or its owners from civil litigation.
“They’re going to look at everything to decide who is liable here—the bar owners and the person who was driving,” Taylor said, adding that plaintiffs can still pursue claims regardless of whether a business shutters.
While state records confirm the ongoing investigation into the venue’s service to Penrod, officials have not stated whether regulatory enforcement directly triggered the closure.
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