Concho Railhouse closes after three months; manager cites building owner now facing harassment warrant

The Concho Railhouse is closing three months after it opened, and the manager who ran it says she walked away because of her dealings with the man who owns the building.

Jenn Wren announced the closure Wednesday night on the restaurant’s Facebook page. In an interview with TXKtoday, she said she left over disputes with David Peavy about rent and control of the restaurant’s finances, and because she and her staff no longer felt comfortable working in his building. She said she had gone a month without paying herself.

Peavy owns the 1940s train car at 305 E. Front St. that houses the Concho, along with the 1923 Banana Club and several other properties on East Front Street. Texarkana, Arkansas police confirmed Thursday that a misdemeanor harassment warrant has been issued against him. Police did not say what the warrant alleges. Peavy denies any wrongdoing.

Wren’s post called the closure “the right decision and the only decision to make” and said the experience was “something no business owner should ever have to go through.” She wrote that the business had been contacted by detectives on both sides of the state line. The post did not name anyone.

The Texarkana, Texas Police Department said it has no charges against Peavy.

Peavy, in a statement to TXKtoday, described the closure as a business decision. He said he financed deck furniture, televisions and inventory for the space, and that the concept did not catch on despite Wren’s work.

“I am hopeful Jenn’s unique abilities can be rewarded in the many opportunities that I’m sure she will be presented,” he said.

“No business owner should ever have to go through the bullshit I’ve had to go through,” Wren said she told Peavy before closing. “It’s not worth my time.”

Wren said the departures went beyond her restaurant. Along with her own staff, she said two employees left Kilwins and six left the Banana Club, both Peavy businesses on the same block.

The warrant came to light the same day. “We have one report which resulted in a misdemeanor warrant for harassment which is now going through the court proceedings,” a Texarkana, Arkansas police spokesperson said. Asked whether the warrant was for Peavy, the spokesperson replied, “Correct.”

Police declined to say what the report alleges, who filed it or when the warrant was issued.

Harassment is a Class A misdemeanor in Arkansas, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. The statute covers several kinds of conduct, and police did not say which section applies. A warrant is an accusation, not a finding of guilt.

In his statement, Peavy described an incident at the Banana Club in August that he said had been distorted on social media.

He said a server asked him to give guests from her table a tour of the bar, and that he agreed after she insisted. He said he led six guests behind the bar to show them a piece of steel stamped with the Carnegie name, in a space he put at 38 inches wide.

“I do not recall the server being there as my focus was on the tour,” Peavy said. “I may have bump as I went around, but I have no recall of touching in any way.”

Peavy said three other people present saw no harassment. He said two employees and the server left after making a scene, and that the story then spread on social media. He said he has been called names and received death threats since.

“If this was wrong, every person on a crowded elevator needs to be arrested,” he said.

Wren said she was at the Concho the night of the incident Peavy described when employees came over from the Banana Club upset. She said her security cameras recorded them arriving. Arkansas detectives later subpoenaed the footage, she said, and she turned it over. She said she declined to give Peavy the login to the camera system.

Wren did not witness the encounter Peavy described.

Text messages reviewed by TXKtoday show Peavy repeatedly pressed the manager of his Kilwins store to remove an employee who had walked out of the Banana Club after the incident and confronted him. The messages were provided by the Kilwins manager, who declined each request.

On the evening of Aug. 14, Peavy wrote that there had been “an additional problem” with the employee and that he needed her “to not work at kilwins when you can work that out.”

Three days later he asked whether she still worked there. The manager replied that she did, until more staff could be hired.

On Aug. 18, Peavy wrote: “Holland can’t be there after calling me a pervert and causing all this evil upon us.”

On Aug. 24 he asked whether the manager had “been able to cut Holland loose.” She replied the next morning that she had not.

On Aug. 27 he wrote: “Why are you still not adjusting the staff. I need you to deal with this. We can not afford this. Are you going to deal with this or am I going to have to get involved.”

The employee, who TXKtoday is identifying only by her first name, works at Kilwins and was among the staff who left the Banana Club the night of the incident. She is not the person Peavy is accused of touching.

Phoenix Surdi, who said she was an assistant manager at Kilwins, described the same demands in a public post under her own name Thursday morning. She wrote that management refused to fire the employee for something that happened at a different business.

Surdi also wrote that about $8,000 in credit card tips at Kilwins went unpaid because, employees were told, the bank account could not cover it. She said a portion was later divided among remaining staff and that employees who had already left never received their share. In the text messages, the manager refers to Peavy having told her there was not enough money in the account. Wren separately described the withheld tips.

Surdi now works with Wren.

The Concho Railhouse opened in June in the rail car that formerly housed Alley Cats Coffee Bar.