It’s a sudden shutdown for one of Syracuse's most well-known restaurants.

The stairs taking you to Empire Brewing Company in Armory Square are locked up. Empire's website showing "closed" for every day this week but not sharing a reason why.

The owner of the building, Armory Boys LLC, told Spectrum News Empire surrendered the building Wednesday after business hours because they faulted on their lease. The company claims Empire hasn't paid rent for three consecutive months.

David Katelski, the founder of Empire Brewing Company, says prior to Armory Boys purchase of the buildings, the business paid an average of $10 per square foot. Once Armory Boys purchased the buildings, Empire was paying an average $33 per square foot for their basement space.

"Empire has paid over $300,000 more in rent and additional charges in the past 24 months versus the 24 months prior," Katelski said in a statement on Thursday. "It is simply not reasonable to expect Empire, occupying less then 20% of the total leasable space, to pay 100% of the Landlord’s mortgage.

Katelski also mentioned in their statement that Empire Brewing Company will be closed indefinitely.