Clark Wolf's Rants, Raves, Diatribes...and a few other Thoughts

The Food Show with Clark Wolf, Episode 7

  

Ex-Partners Fight to Break Up the BLT Empire

“YOU are the front line,” Jimmy Haber said intently. “You are the heart and soul of our restaurant.”

He was pacing before 85 expectant employees only moments before they had begun furnishing eggplant caponata and pollo alla parmigiana to 2,000 invited guests at the opening-night party for Casa Nonna this month.

This was Mr. Haber’s 28th restaurant. But, unlike so many that had come before, its name was unembellished by the initials BLT. That is because Mr. Haber, 56, is mired in a long-simmering mess that has brought him into the dreaded black hole of the restaurant business: the partnership that goes dark.

Both Mr. Haber and the chef with whom he built the $80 million BLT empire, Laurent Tourondel, are now flying solo but claim they are doing just fine. In addition to his two LT restaurants in Sag Harbor, N.Y., and Panama City, Panama, Mr. Tourondel, 44, says he plans another in Manhattan. And he hopes to open the BLT American Brasserie in the Cassa Hotel and Residences in Midtown this fall. Mr. Haber, for his part, now operates all the BLT restaurants, 16 in all.

Meanwhile, the two men do not speak, and their lawyers claw at each other in court, trading charges over breach of contract, trademark infringement, deceptive business practices and breach of financial duty. Not to mention their throw-downs over Mr. Tourondel’s legal right to put Twinkies and caramel syrup into his milkshakes.

Partnerships are both backbone and bane of the restaurant industry, often lashing a kitchen artist to an investor businessman. “Due to many structural reasons, New York City often requires even great chefs to have partners who are street fighters,” said Clark Wolf, a restaurant consultant.

Tension is built into the relationship, said Drew Nieporent, who has opened 35 restaurants, most of which had different sets of backers. “You try to avoid a breakup at all costs,” Mr. Nieporent said. “There is a lot of ugly detail when a restaurant goes down: the staff, the backers, the suppliers. It is not a pretty thing.”

Full article here