A former North Carolina brewery owner was arrested for allegedly hurling a plate at a steakhouse employee’s head after he was told not to feed his dog off the table.
David Gary Sholar, 49, the former proprietor of Edward Teach Brewing, was charged with assault inflicting serious injury on Aug. 7, two weeks after he allegedly attacked a LongHorn Steakhouse employee, the Wilmington Police Department wrote on Facebook.
Police said that Sholar had his dog with him while dining at the steakhouse on July 23 and began feeding the pup off the table.
A LongHorn Steakhouse employee noticed the behavior and informed him that it was a health code violation and that he needed to stop.
However, the employee did offer to place some of the food in a doggy bag for his pup to enjoy later.
Sholar then allegedly lost his cool and began yelling “obscenities and insults at the victim for an extended period of time,” police said.
The victim eventually told Sholar he needed to leave the restaurant, further infuriating him.
The employee then reached over to remove a porcelain plate from the suspect, when he “grabbed the plate away and threw it forcefully against the employee’s head.”
Sholar allegedly hit the employee in the head so hard that it shattered on impact, leaving the victim with a fractured skull.
The employee was rushed to the hospital, where he received medical treatment for serious injuries, police said.
Since the attack, the victim has continued to struggle with lingering complications from his head injuries, WECT reported.
Sholar was booked into the New Hanover County jail on Aug. 7 and released the same day on a $1,000 bond.
Facing a wave of community backlash, his former brewery was compelled to issue a statement clarifying that Sholar was no longer involved with the business.
“We wanted to confirm that on July 14, 2025, Edward Teach Brewing officially came under new ownership and the management of Amy Ottaway, a change that happened well before the recent incident and for unrelated business reasons,” the brewery wrote on Facebook.
Edward Teach said that they were holding off on announcing the change in ownership until all the paperwork was finalized.
The new owner of the North Carolina brewery is Sholar’s sister, according to WECT.
Following the assault allegations against Sholar, local restaurant owners of “Smoke on the Water” and “Fork ‘N Cork” have started selling Edward Teach Brewing beer for only $2 and plan to donate the profits to the injured LongHorn Steakhouse employee.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Diane Smith, whose family owns both restaurants, told WECT.
“What we want to do is to support the person who was injured, support their business, and to make a point that this is not OK.”
This is not the first time Sholar has faced community outrage for his actions or has had a run-in with the law.
In 2024, he was arrested for assault and communicating threats stemming from an incident involving a local musician that took place inside his former brewery in November 2023, WECT reported.
Sholar later entered an Alford guilty plea to allowing disorderly conduct on a licensed premise and failure to superintend. The court dismissed the charges of communicating threats and assault.
Sholar is set to appear back in court on Sept. 16 for the alleged LongHorn Steakhouse incident.
