NORTHAMPTON — The city has issued a cease-and-desist order to Haymarket Cafe for failure to obtain proper licenses before its recent reopening, effectively shutting down the Main Street eatery and leaving its future in jeopardy.

The notice was posted to the front door of Haymarket on Monday at around 3:30 p.m. According to Merridith O’Leary, commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, Haymarket owner Peter Simpson had been operating the business without owning the requisite licenses since the beginning of the year.

“Despite our best efforts to engage with Haymarket through multiple communications, including a mailed license renewal notice and two email follow-ups, we found it necessary to issue a cease and desist order on Monday,” O’Leary said in a statement. “Our aim has always been to support local businesses in meeting regulatory requirements while ensuring the health and safety of our community. We remain hopeful for a swift resolution that allows Haymarket to operate legally and safely.”

According to the city, Simpson failed to renew his food service establishment permit, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, and a common victualler license from the city’s License Commission that allows Haymarket to serve food and drinks. The renewal cost for a victualler license is $50, while a food service establisment permit is $150 plus $25 for every 25 chairs in the cafe.

The cafe has been a mainstay on Northampton’s Main Street for the last three decades, but has recently found itself in a turbulent period where the store has struggled to remain open. After Simpson had posted a GoFundMe in January asking for $50,000, ostensibly to help reopen the store and pay off several debts, many former employees came forward with stories that Simpson had denied them pay and exhibited erratic and demeaning behavior toward them, with health violations also observed by former staff.

Last month, Colby Wood, a former Haymarket employee who has since gone on to work at several Michelin-star restaurants in New York City, entered into a partnership with Simpson to try to revive the cafe. But an agreement between the two parties has fallen through, Wood said on Tuesday.

“I gave him some money and I don’t know where it went,” he said. “I’m incapable of doing business with him.”

Wood still expressed interest in taking over the business after the building where it is located at 185 Main St. is sold to a new owner.

“I’m hoping the new owners will contact me,” he said. “I still hope to open a new business.”

Simpson, responding to request for comment only via text message, admitted he had forgotten to renew his licenses for the building.

“I forgot to hand in my permits for 2024,” he said. “I’m studying for the safe serve test now,” he added, referring to the ServSafe certification required for a food service establishment in the city.

In previous interviews with the Gazette, Simpson said he was undergoing a stressful time in his life over the last few years, with his relationship with his partner ending after 27 years and having to deal with reopening the business after COVID-19. He also stated he had been homeless for several weeks in 2023.

On the cafe’s GoFundMe, Simpson had posted on Feb. 26 that the cafe was reopening, with more that $28,000 of the stated $50,000 goal raised. But with the new order from the city, the cafe is once again closed.

A previous inspection report by the city’s health department conducted in November of 2022 found several violations, such as mold in the cafe’s ice machine and a missing door handle on the cafe’s restroom. Those issues were corrected on a follow-up visit, records show. A later inspection, dated in March 2023, also showed the cafe had rotting vegetables and unprotected soup in the cafe’s walk-in pantry.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.