Asylum Building Owner Seeks Eviction of Bar Operator

EAST ATLANTA — The owner of the building that's home to the problem-plagued Asylum Restaurant & Lounge wants its operators to vacate the space.

Abe Asher, the Toco Hills landlord who owns several properties in the East Atlanta Village, including Asylum at 543/551 Flat Shoals Ave. SE, filed a dispossessory warrant with the Magistrate Court of DeKalb County on June 13.

In it he says the owners — Mike Comastro and Brian Michael Sawyer — have failed to pay the $5,500-per-month rent on the bar and music venue.

Asher seeks a judgement for the past due rent, which is a month behind, the currernt rent owed through the date of a judge's order to vacate and other penalties.

They have until July 3 to respond.

Sawyer, who opened the bar in July of last year and then sold a majority stake to Comastro earlier this year, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Comastro, who owns several Chicago's Pizzas outlets in Kennesaw and Smyrna, as well as in Jacksonville, Fla., could not be reached late Wednesday.

Asher, who told East Atlanta Patch he has three prospects who have expressed interest in taking over the Asylum space for their restaurant concepts, said he was tired of constantly chasing the owners for rent.

He said Sawyer fell behind in the rent last year and brought in Comastro with the promise that payments would be on time.

But he said the rents were late and he was receiving a stream of complaints from East Atlanta residents about the bar and its operations.

Having had his fill, he sought legal action.

Sawyer, according to Project Q Atlanta magazine, has a history of soured ventures.

Asher's filing was made a day after Atlanta police shut the bar, seized all the liquor and arrested manager Couri Antonio Williams.

Williams is charged with operating a business ouside allowed hours of operation, selling alcohol without a license, not having a business license, storing alcohol without a license and failure to display a license.

That followed a June 9 incident in which Stephanie Ramage, the Citizens' Advocate at Atlanta City Hall, alleged that Williams approached her and several other people sitting at a patio table at the Midway Pub — across the street from Asylum — and invited them to an illegal, $10, all-you-could-drink party at 3 a.m.