Haven Gastropub & Brewery in Pasadena announced Sunday its unexpected closure, leading to speculation among fans about the status of the flagship restaurant in Orange County.

Pasadena’s closure prompted the owners of Haven Gastropub in Old Towne Orange to disclose that the restaurants under the Haven Collective company had been split in recent weeks. Wil Dee and Greg Daniels continue to operate Haven and Provisions Market, both in Old Towne.

Their former partner, Ace Patel, recently took ownership of Haven in Pasadena and Taco Asylum in Costa Mesa. As part of the separation agreement, Haven in Pasadena was slated to rebrand itself soon, Dee told the Register on Monday.

Dee said the sudden shutdown, announced on the Pasadena restaurant’s Facebook page, surprised him.

“We didn’t know anything about it. It came as a shock to us as well,” Dee said.

Patel said he was forced to shut down the restaurant May 12. He announced the closure Sunday on the company’s Facebook page.

“We fought for our life in this building with a cursed history, and took every one of those jobs very seriously,” he said. “The banks who own the building forced us out through complicated circumstances, and sadly there was just nothing we could do.”

When Haven Collective still ran Pasadena, Dee said the original landlord had given the property back to the bank. He said the new landlord wasn’t easy to work with.

Patel was going to rebrand the Pasadena restaurant – from the name to the menu, Dee said.

“It couldn’t be Haven Gastropub. The name change and concept was going to be changing soon anyway,” Dee said.

Dee and Daniels assured Haven fans the Orange gastropub is on solid ground.

“Essentially, if anything, there will be a strengthening focus with more (of our) attention on those locations,” Dee said.

The Pasadena brewery produced a handful of Haven-branded beers. Dee said Haven and Provisions won’t be impacted by the brewery’s closure because both restaurants were “slowly weaning” themselves from serving those beers.

Patel, who also owns a gourmet sausage restaurant in San Diego, said Taco Asylum will keep its name. He plans a “top to bottom” menu refresh soon.

The original founders opened Haven Gastropub in Orange during the city’s international street fair in 2009. The elevated pub fare and exceptional craft beer selection made Haven an instant hit at a time when the slow food and microbeer movements were taking off.

The partners opened Taco Asylum in January 2011, and Haven in Pasadena in December 2011. Last year, Haven Collective took ownership of Bruery Provisions bottle shop in Old Towne and renamed it Provisions Market. Portola Coffee Lab is expected to open a satellite cafe inside the bottle shop and tasting room in five to six weeks.

Dee said construction started this week for the mini cafe, which has been in the works for more than a year.

Contact the writer: nluna@ocregister.com