Dan's Papers - May 8, 2009 - Restaurant Battle

Last week, I wrote a story about a restaurant in Sag Harbor that fell into my hands because the prior owner failed to pay for his advertising in Dan's Papers. I'd taken him to court. He ignored court. The judge gave his decision to the sheriff and he ignored that. There was an auction outside his front door and he ignored that. So there, when the sheriff told me that I could have the restaurant for the money owed, I took it. Now there was a journalist who couldn't even boil water owning a restaurant. I got out of that as soon as I could. Free at last.

There are lots of restaurant stories.

Long ago, I was in a restaurant in Bridgehampton having steak and fries one evening when the kitchen caught fire and soon, with lights flashing and horns blaring outside, the firemen arrived and proceeded to lay hose between the tables.

"Excuse me, excuse me," one of the firemen said. White smoke was soon billowing out from the swinging doors to the kitchen. After that came the burnt wet stink. Our waiter appeared.

"At the end of the meal," he said proudly, "the owner wishes to offer you dessert on the house."

A few years later - I wasn't there when this happened - at a restaurant in Montauk on Labor Day weekend, the owner came out of the kitchen, stood on a chair and announced to his packed house of diners chattering away that everybody should get out, he'd had it and he was going home.

"It's all no charge. Just leave everything. Go," he shouted hysterically. Then he got down, slammed the door behind him, after which the diners got up, leaving the food on their plates, and quietly left along with the waiters, kitchen staff, maitre d' and cash register girl. What a night that must have been.

(Details for both of the above upon request.)

The first restaurant altercation this year took place out front of Madame Tong's on Elm Street in Southampton last Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny day. The staff and owner were there, busily running around getting the place ready for a grand opening. Then this guy and two workmen show up with plywood, hammers and nails. They announced they were boarding up the building.

Ed Kleefield, the restaurant owner, who everybody knows as Jean Luc, called the police and said that this man was trespassing. The police shortly arrived. A big dustup followed.

Turned out that Jean Luc knew this guy. He was Lyle Pike, the owner of Sagaponack Realty, who had lent him a huge sum of money last summer to help keep Jean Luc open. He and Pike disagreed about the amount soon after that, and when it got nasty, an argument ensued. Pike asked for the keys to the restaurant and Jean Luc gave him two checks for $295,000. This was a month ago. The checks bounced. Pike went to the police, and shortly after that Jean Luc turned himself in to answer charges that he was writing bad checks. Jean Luc also went on the offensive. He contacted the media. "This guy is a concrete cement contractor with a criminal record," he said. It made Page Six. He's to be in court on May 18. Now he had called the police on Pike.

"This is just a civil matter and we are working it out," Jean Luc said to the police, when asked about the other arrest. "But I want this man arrested for trespassing."

"The place is MINE," Pike responded. Apparently, in addition to the bounced check, Jean Luc had signed over the lease. He produced it.

But Jean Luc had a trump card. He had gotten an order from a judge that prohibited Pike from ever coming to his restaurant.

"I'll show it to you," Jean Luc said, and ran into the restaurant and returned with it. Pike asked to look at it, and seemed puzzled as he read it through.

"I've never seen this before," Pike said. "It also says the owner of the building is barred. And it's dated last October."

The owner of the building, Lance Nill, lives just a few houses away and the commotion and flashing lights in front of his building down the way had him alarmed.

A small crowd of people had now assembled. Two kids on bicycles stopped for a while. There was shouting. Lots of papers were being handed around. Various lawyers now arrived, David Gilmartin for Jean Luc and Joe Salvi for Pike. Now there were even more papers. Nill walked over. The police officer showed him Jean Luc's order of protection. "Pike is the tenant," Nill told the police. "He's the one who's been paying the rent for the last five months. That's who I want to deal with."

The lead officer on the scene for all of this was Anthony Gallo, and he scratched his head. But then Jean Luc mentioned there were people living upstairs. Restaurant employees, apparently.

"The tenants make this a different matter," he said. And he explained to Salvi that the plywood could not be used because the tenants upstairs could not be boarded in, nor could they be ordered to leave without proper eviction papers, the serving of which would take months. "In addition to their rights, there's the matter of not boarding up fire exits when people are in a building," he said.

Pike and Salvi retreated toward the cars. Pike mumbled something about not being a loan shark or some mafia kneecap guy, as Jean Luc had portrayed him in the media. Gilmartin assured the police officer that Jean Luc had every intention of paying Pike back, they just had to agree on the amount. And then everybody went on their way.

Restaurants can be fun for all sorts of reasons. I proposed to my wife in one last August. But that's another story. It was in Manhattan at Josephine's and because the tables along the wall are very close together there, everybody heard me do it. But that's another story.

Jean Luc is either the owner or part owner of Prime 103 in East Hampton, Grappa and JLX Bistro in Sag Harbor and Madame Tong's on Elm Street in Southampton. Grappa is open weekends. The others will all be open by Memorial Day, he says.

The food was good last time I ate in those places. If all goes well, all should be open soon. Go for the adventure.