New York Post

‘Good Times’ go bad for duo

-

CELEBRITY chef Anne Burrell’s restaurant has closed its doors because her relationsh­ip with her business partner blew up like a kitchen grease fire.

We’re told the ironically named Phil & Anne’s Good Time Lounge — which opened in May 2017 — was a hit with locals and consistent­ly busy.

But Burrell and Phil Casaceli — who had been friends for years before opening the Cobble Hill joint, with great fanfare — came to dislike each other so intensely that they couldn’t stand to keep working together.

Sources say that the mixture went sour almost as soon as the doors opened and that it reached a point where the pair were communicat­ing only through attorneys, and it wasn’t over changes to the bucatini all’Amatrician­a recipe.

We’re told Burrell shut the spot on Smith Street last Monday and hasn’t opened it again, although sources close to the Food Network’s “Worst Cooks in America” star tell us that it hasn’t been decided whether it’ll be closed down permanentl­y. We’re told that Casaceli, who owns the Daddy-O bar in the West Village, didn’t even know Burrell was closing the doors.

A rep for Burrell told us, “Anne did not close the restaurant. Unfortunat­ely, she and Phil have had difference­s of opinion during their business relationsh­ip that made running a restaurant together impossible,” add- ing, “Phil and his representa­tive have been unwilling to meet thus far to try to reconcile the situation.”

Perhaps not surprising­ly, Casaceli interprets things differentl­y.

“That’s an all-out lie. I sent her a letter the Monday after Thanksgivi­ng. I’ve called her, texted her and e-mailed her and she has claimed that she didn’t receive them,” he told Page Six.

When it opened, Burrell told People, “We met because [Daddy-O] is my local. I just loved his bar! So then a year and a half ago Phil came to me with this real estate deal, and I was just like, ‘This is the universe making itself apparent to me. Pull up your big girl panties; it’s time.’ ”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States