Shaw’s Back Alley Waffles—named as such because yes, it’s located in an alley between Ninth and 10th Streets NW—caused quite the commotion earlier this week when its owner accused online coupon giant Groupon of driving him out of business. (The accusation got national attention.) Whether or not that was the case is certainly up for debate, but one thing isn’t—Back Alley Waffles wasn’t legally allowed to sell food to begin with.

According to a review of a D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs database, Back Alley Waffles never received a basic business license or Certificate of Occupancy, both of which are required for any budding restaurateur.

Moreover, without a Certificate of Occupancy, Back Alley Waffles could not receive the go-ahead from the D.C. Department of Health, which completes a “pre-operational inspection” of any food establishment before it opens. The Department of Health confirmed today that the restaurant not only had never been inspected, but that it had been given a cease-and-desist notice three weeks ago after inspectors received a complaint.

Owner Craig Nelsen admitted in a recent web posting that the rapid transition from art gallery to restaurant caught him off guard.

“I started serving waffles in my art gallery as a way to bring attention to my art and, hopefully, save my struggling gallery. The original idea was to give waffles away free every Friday night as a kind of delicious gimmick to get people there. That grew into Back Alley Waffles,” he wrote, saying that what started as four customers snowballed into lines out the door as word spread.

“It was an exhausting—and frequently embarrassing—process, but as the days and weeks went by we added staff, accumulated necessary equipment, steadily made improvements to the facility, filed necessary paperwork, bought a cash register, expanded our hours, began accepting credit cards, and bought a growing percentage of our supplies wholesale,” he added.

In an interview, Nelsen said that the entire permitting process would have taken up to three months—if not longer—but that he had faithfully intended to complete it. But in bringing the conversation back to how Groupon screwed him and the budding waffle shop, Nelsen said that the Chicago-based company was late in sending him his first batch of checks—and that as a consequence his check accompanying his application for a basic business license—which costs $324.50 for the first year—bounced.

“We had our knees knocked out from under us before we could complete [the whole process],” he ruefully said.

But even had Back Alley Waffles survived Groupon, though, it wouldn’t have made it back a health inspector. Nelsen, who says he never saw the cease-and-desist notice, would have been forced to close his doors until all the paperwork was appropriately filed and approved.