E. Claire’s Coffee House, The Rabbit Hole bar close, fixtures are auctioned
These two downtown businesses, E. Claire’s Coffee House and The Rabbit Hole bar, have been permanently closed, and the building is being cleaned out. Most interior fixtures and furnishings were sold recently through an online auction, and the building reportedly is being sold. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The building housing the two businesses is being sold, Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said Monday, but no sale has been recorded in county property records yet, and the purchaser has not been identified.
Purchasers of the items from the two businesses, sold through an online auction, were seen loading their purchases over several days from outside the businesses at 364 and 370 Market St. over several days last week.
There was also a large portable dumpster occupying two parking spaces in front of E. Claire’s, which has the 370 Market St. address. Houck said the building’s owner got a city permit to place the dumpster on the street for the cleanout.
Both businesses are in the same building, and have an interior doorway that allows for passage between the coffee shop and bar without having to go outside.
It’s not clear when the two businesses closed for good, as both of their Facebook pages have sparse entries, and the business owners could not be reached for comment.
Sheri Lynn Younkin of Oak Ridge opened E. Claire’s in March 2019, then followed with The Rabbit Hole on Sept. 2, 2021. Since 2008, she had operated an event venue in the same building, called Elizabeth Claire’s Event Center.
Both the coffee shop and the bar have had checkered pasts, including a raid by Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Control agents on The Rabbit Hole just over a month after it opened in September 2021.
On Oct. 18, 2021, TABC agents shut down The Rabbit Hole after the raid, which state officials said occurred because owner Sheri Younkin and manager Carol Hanna had not obtained a Tennessee liquor-by-the-drink license for the bar.
At that time, The Rabbit Hole was selling beer and mixed drinks made with hard liquor, which required the state license.
Younkin was charged by the state with “unlawful sale of alcoholic beverages,” as was Hanna. The business did have a beer sales permit from the city of Clinton, which was issued in Hanna’s name.
In November 2022, Sheri Younkin’s husband, James Younkin, who owns the building housing the two businesses, applied to the Clinton Beer Board and was approved for an on-premises beer-sales permit for The Rabbit Hole, which had remained closed since the October 2021 raid.
Shortly thereafter, it reopened, selling beer, but not liquor. No liquor license was issued to the business by the state, the TABC said at the time.
As for E. Claire’s, several of its employees had complained that they were never paid for their work in the coffee shop, and complaints were filed with the state Labor Department.
The Rabbit Hole did obtain a beer permit from the city of Clinton in the name of Hanna on July 26, 2021.
But Hanna said in late November 2022 that she no longer had any connection with The Rabbit Hole or the Younkins. She was charged with the same offenses as Sheri Younkin after the TABC raid of the business in October 2021, as she was listed as the manager of the business.
Younkin said at the time of The Rabbit Hole’s September 2021 opening that it would operate mostly separate from the coffee house, and would offer a range of activities besides the full bar.
There were two side-by-side rooms used for The Rabbit Hole, both just to the west side of E. Claire’s. But The Rabbit Hole has its own outside entrance, and had separate operating hours.
“Besides having live music most nights, we’re looking at doing several other things that downtown Clinton hasn’t seen, such as a dinner theater, murder-mystery dinner nights, karaoke and trivia nights, and even open-mike nights,” Younkin said earlier.
