JANESVILLE — The owner of the Prime Quarter Steak House said he has no intentions of selling or closing the Janesville store.
Al Sanger, owner of Prime Quarter, 1900 Humes Road, joins a short list of Janesville storeowners and managers recently frustrated by a rash of store-closing rumors.
"Prime Quarter is not for sale," Sanger said. "It never was. We are not closing."
Like other business officials who talked the The Janesville Gazette, Sanger longed to know who would start such a malicious rumor, especially since things are so tough economically.
"This is doing more damage to the economy than anything else—these malicious rumors," Sanger said.
Prime Quarter restaurants operate in Wisconsin and Illinois. The first opened in Madison 23 years ago, Sanger said. The Janesville store will celebrate 20 years in 2009, he said.
Sanger did sell a Prime Quarter in the city of Milwaukee in August, he said.
Of all the communities he does business in, Janesville seems to generate the most closing rumors, Sanger said.
"We have no intention of closing Janesville (Prime Quarter)," Sanger said. "No intention of closing, selling or otherwise not being in business."