Shuttered Gilbert brewery, former kitchen tenant locked in legal battle

Update: The criminal charges against Aaron Link were dropped on April 1.


In the wake of Flying Basset Brewing’s fall closure, the Gilbert brewery's owners and building landlord are at odds with the owner of its former in-house sandwich shop.

Philadelphia Sandwich Co. proprietor Aaron Link was hopeful he would stay in the space and continue to partner with the next tenant, Chandler brewery The Perch.

But disputes with Flying Basset over utility payments escalated into an October eviction that has left Link fighting criminal burglary charges. He responded with a civil lawsuit of his own in December, alleging breach of contract, overpaid rent, unreimbursed costs and that more than $100,000 of his kitchen equipment is being held hostage.

“I had three restaurants of equipment in that one space,” he says.

Flying Basset owners Rob Gagnon and Sara Cotton said in an email that Link’s complaint is a “very unfounded lawsuit.” They also contend that Link's valuation of his equipment — and his allegations of the proceeds that the owners and landlord received from the sale and new lease to The Perch — is “very inaccurate.”

Representatives from the building landlord Simplified Properties and its subsidiary, 720 Ray LLC, have not responded to requests for comment by Phoenix New Times. In a Feb. 7 court filing, the company denied Link's allegations. The Perch has been subpoenaed in the case but is not a defendant.

How Flying Basset, Philadelphia Sandwich teamed up

Flying Basset Brewing opened its doors in 2018 near Ray and Cooper roads in Gilbert. It was the brainchild of Gagnon, a pilot, and his wife, Cotton. The 10-barrel brewery and 200-seat pub was named in honor of Gagnon’s profession and the couple’s pet hounds, Lieutenant Dan and Angela Bassett. In addition to making beer, the brewhouse team also initially ran the kitchen, offering burgers, sandwiches and bar snacks to hungry guests.

In June 2021, Flying Basset announced on Instagram that it would close its kitchen indefinitely, citing rising food costs and staffing issues. Perhaps a byproduct of the COVID-19 era, some Valley brewers have teamed up with chefs who can take over the kitchen space and provide food.

“It's a common situation. You got people that are experts in one science, making beer, but not really knowing the food part of it,” says Link, who has run the sandwich company since 2006.

Link approached Flying Basset through its then-head brewer Joshua “Archy” Archuleta about catering. Link had a brick-and-mortar location in Scottsdale, serving cheesesteaks and hoagies that were particularly popular among the late-night crowd.

“We were typecast in that sense,” Link says. “We were looking to expand our audience.”

Link says he worked out plans for the sublease with Archuleta and his wife, who handled the brewery’s day-to-day operations. The terms of the sublease were then passed off to the owners and the landlord.

Link signed the sublease — agreeing to pay $3,325.17 per month in rent, as well as half the utilities, for use of the kitchen and its equipment. He began serving from the Gilbert brewer’s kitchen in March 2022.

At the same time, the brewery was earning notoriety for its beers. In May 2023, Flying Basset received a bronze medal from the World Beer Cup for its coffee beer, Alchemist Breakfast. That accolade would be followed, just days before Flying Basset’s closure, with a gold medal from the Great American Beer Festival Awards for a gose-style ale.

Committed to the Flying Basset kitchen until April 2031, Link began centralizing his operations in Gilbert, giving up the lease on the Scottsdale space in June and ghost kitchens in Tempe and Phoenix in August, and relocating equipment from those settings to Flying Basset.

Two weeks later, Link says he learned that the brewer would close on Sept. 30.

“The timing couldn’t have been worse,” he says.

Rent dispute emerges, along with a new tenant

Initially, it seemed the sandwich company would carry on until a new tenant was found. In its closing announcement on social media, Flying Basset said Philadelphia Sandwich Co. would continue operating in the space, moving to carry out orders starting in October.

With Flying Basset’s staff, including the Archuletas, gone after Sept. 30, Link says he sought to connect directly with the brewery owners and the landlord and find out who his potential new “roommate” would be.

The emerging suitor to buy the brewhouse equipment and take over the space was The Perch, owned by Rebecca Lavenue. With a flagship brewpub in downtown Chandler and a 20,000-square-foot space in development in Queen Creek, Lavenue was looking to expand production. She says she was open to taking over the primary lease from Flying Basset and maintaining a sublease with Philadelphia Sandwich Co. to run the kitchen.

“I wasn’t looking to take a kitchen over. I think Aaron did good food; people liked it,” she says.

Both Lavenue and Link confirm there were negotiations with Flying Basset and Simplified Properties regarding the lease. In response to the civil lawsuit, Simplified Properties says it engaged in lease negotiations with Link but notes “that the parties did not reach an agreement.”

Meanwhile, a dispute about past-due utility payment — $1,700, according to Link — was brewing between Link and Flying Basset's owners in October. Typically, Link received an invoice and receipts for the utilities — something he says he didn’t receive in October and was seeking to clarify with Gagnon.

“That was the problem … they sent me just the invoice with the amount on it,” Link says, adding that the owners refused to share further details.

Link says he was up-to-date on his rent payments — and in October discovered he had been overpaying by more than $350 per month since the start of 2023.

Despite these discrepancies and disagreements, Link believed he and the owners would work through them and settle the matter.

“I thought, I’m waiting for them to produce this stuff and get clarification,” he says.

Instead, Link received an eviction notice early on Oct. 31, followed by a call from a delivery driver with an order of about $2,000 of groceries ready to be dropped inside. The driver could not access the building.

“I went down to get my groceries inside, and I got in with my key,” Link says, noting that he had found the back door screwed shut but that the locks had not been changed. “My alarm code had been changed, so I called the police … to show the vandalism that had been done to the doors and that my alarm code had been changed.”

Cotton, too, called the police, telling them she could see Link, via a security camera, “in real time taking things from the building,” according to the police report.

Link says when police arrived he had his ID and lease to prove his right to access the building.

Cotton, according to the police report, had notified Link of his impending eviction 10 days and then five days before sending the lockout notice and “put(ting) a large chain with a lock on the front doors, chang(ing) the bolt lock on the back door.”

Link denies receiving the notices.

Police witnessed security footage of Link arriving at the building and getting out of his car with bolt cutters.

“A few minutes later, Aaron is seen walking back to his vehicle with the bolt cutters and chain, then putting them into the vehicle,” the report said.

Responding officers say they later found the cutters and chain under the seat of Link’s car, along with mail addressed to him, a watercooler, buffet food warmers and other small housewares that police allege he removed from the building. The items were returned to Cotton, and Link was arrested.

Link has been charged with two felonies: third-degree burglary and possessing burglary tools. The chef has pleaded not guilty, insisting that the lockout notice was improper. Although he has been offered plea deals, Link says he intends to go to trial. If convicted, his sentence could range from one to nearly six years in prison.

“I’m not signing anything that says I’m guilty of burglary,” Link says. “I was current on all my bills, and it was my business and they vandalized it.”

Lavenue says she didn’t know what transpired between Flying Basset's owners and Link, noting that it occurred before she took over the space, but she was notified by Gagnon that Link was evicted on Oct. 31.

“When they had a falling out, there was nothing I could do. It wasn’t my lease,” Lavenue says.

She moved forward with the purchase of the brewing equipment and a lease on her own, opening The Perch in the former Flying Basset space after Thanksgiving.

While the criminal case is pending, Link filed a civil suit against Flying Basset, its owners, Simplified Properties and its subsidiary 720 Ray LLC.

What does Link’s lawsuit claim?

In the suit, filed on Dec. 28, Link’s legal team alleges the brewery owners and landlord were “in cahoots” to get Link out of the property and bring in a new tenant. The owners of Flying Basset and the landlords have denied allegations of working in concert to oust the sandwich company.

The suit alleges that Link was erroneously evicted, that he is owed more than $6,500 in overpaid rent, spoiled food and costs he covered to fix an ice machine. Lastly, Link’s suit says that since Oct. 31, “Defendants have confiscated or sold over $100,000 in equipment and other property.”

Filed along with the suit was a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent any of the parties from selling or disposing of any property related to the dispute. Judge Katherine Cooper granted the order.

Lavenue says Gagnon collected most of Link's equipment before she moved into the Gilbert building. Some items were left behind, she says, such as bar stools. Lavenue says she would like to buy them but knows she cannot do anything until the dispute is resolved, adding that she’s hopeful the groups will settle and move on.

Since March 17, Link has taken to social media, sharing the allegations. The sandwich company’s Instagram also links to a page collecting donations to cover some of his legal costs. Link says if and when he gets the equipment back, he will have to sell whatever he doesn't need to take on catering jobs to cover his legal bills. Link says he’s also borrowing money and piling up charges on credit cards to stay afloat while he awaits resolution in these cases.

“They’re slow playing on the civil side because they know I’m choked out on resources,” he says. “We’re at a stalemate right now.”