The Penguin Drive-In, which has been in the hands of owners Brian Rowe and Jimmy King for the last 10 years, will change ownership at the end of October.
Rowe and King will be moving about a block away to the Diamond Restaurant, which they are in the process of rehabbing, but Rowe told Creative Loafing leaving the Penguin is a shock.
“We have to go; they’re going to take over and we don’t know what they’re going to do,” Rowe said.
King and Rowe had signed two five-year lease agreements with the building’s owner, listed on the Mecklenburg County tax records as Ballentine Family Investments LLC. The current lease agreement was about to expire and Rowe said the building’s owners — who also own the name — came to him and King with an offer.
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This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2010.
http://www.famefoundry.com/save-the-penguin/