A hold has been placed on liquor license transfer for Quail State, Fresno's first rooftop bar in this May 2021 file photo.

The California Board of Equalization has placed a hold on a liquor license transfer for Quail State in Downtown Fresno, spelling uncertainty for a possible sale of Fresno’s first and only rooftop bar.

That’s according to information from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Required signage about the transfer posted last week at the Pacific Southwest Building was later taken down.

Alcoholic Beverage Control is administering the pending transfer of a liquor license from owners Joshua and Hayley Islas-Wolf to Mandip and Amritpaul Singh of GM Group, LLC. A filing with the California Secretary of State showed Las Vegas as the principal address of GM Group, LLC.

 

Efforts to reach Joshua Islas-Wolf to comment for this story were unsuccessful.

The Board of Equalization administers California taxes including the assessment of real property as well as the Alcoholic Beverage Tax.

Two liens were listed on the California Secretary of State website against Quail State by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration — one exceeding $61,000 assessed from April 2021 to March 2022 and another for more than $23,000 on Aug. 23.

A lien is a claim against assets, typically for unpaid debt.

In August 2021, the owners of Quail State opened Saint Joaquin, a wine bar in Downtown Fresno. No transfer of license for Saint Joaquin was listed with the California ABC.

In early 2021, the craft cocktail bar Quail State opened on the second floor of the Pacific Southwest Building, featuring a balcony with tables overlooking Downtown Fresno. As the first rooftop restaurant in Fresno (it served food as well as drinks), its opening was hotly anticipated since first announced in March 2019. The pandemic and required work to get the space up to code pushed the opening back several months.

In April 2021, the bar fully opened with the lifting of pandemic restrictions set by the state.

During a March 2019 ribbon cutting with city officials including then Mayor Lee Brand, owner Islas-Wolf described the Quail State aesthetic as “Palm Spring resort, mid-century, gentleman’s lounge hybrid.”

“Downtown Fresno deserves something that looks beautiful, so we’re going to take the extra time to craft everything exactly the way that we want it,” he said.