[Ed. note: This has been updated since press to include that Gary Sholar no longer owns Edward Teach Brewing LLC, according to Edward Teach law firm Brooks Pierce.]
WILMINGTON — A former brewery owner at the center of controversy in the last few years for an altercation with a local musician has now been arrested for assault against an employee at an area restaurant.
READ MORE: Two women involved in Edward Teach controversy dispute public apology
ALSO: Edward Teach defamation lawsuit against local performer resolved with public apology
According to the Wilmington Police Department, 49-year-old Gary Sholar, who once owned Edward Teach Brewery, was charged with misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury. Sholar turned himself in last Friday and posted a $1,000 bond.
Law enforcement were called to the scene of a Longhorn Steakhouse in Mayfaire on July 23 at 2 p.m. due to a victim who endured a head laceration. WPD indicated in its release that the restaurant employee said a customer threw a porcelain plate at his head and cut his scalp.
Detectives learned while investigating the incident Sholar’s dog was with him and being fed from the table. Upon being told by the employee that dogs weren’t allowed to be fed in a restaurant, due to it being a health code violation, a to-go bag was offered.
“The suspect then yelled obscenities and insults at the victim for an extended period of time,” WPD noted in a release.
The employee asked Sholar to leave due to being disruptive of other customers and when a plate was being removed from the table, Sholar allegedly grabbed it and threw it “forcefully” at the victim. Arrest records indicate the plate shattered upon impact on the victim’s head.
The employee was taken to Novant Health NHRMC by EMS and treated for a 3.5-inch laceration, requiring seven stitches, and a hairline fracture to the skull, near the jawline. The victim also had followup visits to Urgent Care for pain and to a neurologist for CAT scans.
PCD reached out to the Edward Teach lawyer, Thomas Varnum of Brooks Pierce Law Firm, who confirmed he isn’t representing Sholar for this incident.
“I can confirm that I and my law firm continue to represent Edward Teach Brewing LLC,” Varnum wrote. “Please note that Mr. Sholar no longer owns the brewery, contrary to statements in media reports today. This may be confirmed on the NC Secretary of State’s website.”
The N.C. Secretary of State’s August filing shows that authorized representatives for the company are Joshua Adam Brown and Brooks Pierce Law Firm. Rather than note Gary Sholar as a managing member, as done on Edward Teach’s last filing in May, the latest dated Aug. 1 lists Amy Ottaway instead.
Varnum said Sholar transferred full ownership of Edward Teach Brewing LLC to a trust controlled by his sister, Ottaway, who acts as the sole trustee. This happened before the July 23 altercation, pursued for “business reasons unrelated to that alleged incident,” according to Varnum. “At this time the brewery does not intend to comment further regarding the recent news involving Mr. Sholar, or its new ownership.”
PCD also reached out to Joe Zeszotarski of Gammon & Zeszotarski, who is representing Sholar in the criminal charges, but didn’t hear back by press.
Sholar is no stranger to controversy after being at the center of allegations in 2023 and 2024, accused of engaging in inappropriate and threatening behavior during a local musician’s Nov. 16, 2023 performance at Edward Teach Brewery. Sholar denies the claims.
He filed a defamation lawsuit against local musician Madonna Nash in January 2024 after her Dec. 29, 2023 Facebook post garnered thousands of comments and shares about the incident. This led to a decline in sales, with businesses boycotting the brewery, and prompting an ALE investigation.
Nash ended up taking down the post and apologizing last year in order to drop the lawsuit; however, her daughter, Asia Daye Norris who was involved in the altercation, stands by her recounting of the incident. Norris and her friend, Paige Grant, filed citizen-initiated warrants against Sholar. In 2024, the brewery owner turned himself in on the warrants and law enforcement charged him with misdemeanors, including two counts of assault on a female and two counts of communicating threats.
The ALE found there was sufficient evidence for the criminal charges and noted Grant and Norris’ interviews “credible and consistent” with one another, while describing “inconsistencies” in interviews of ETB employees and a witness who provided affidavits in favor of Sholar’s testimony.
However, the charges were dropped by the DA’s office.
During this time, the ALE also found Edward Teach was operating under an expired permit, though it was brought into compliance. Sholar ended up pleading guilty on misdemeanor charges issued by the agency for failing to superintend a business for which an ABC permit has been issued and he took an Alford plea to being a permittee that allowed disorderly conduct on the premises.
Sholar was given six months of probation, had to pay $100 in fines and complete the ALE’s Responsible Sellers Course, a training program on alcohol sales and service laws in North Carolina.
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