Landlord alleges Cafe Monocle trashed property
Police probe claim; restaurateur says she did nothing wrong
COHOES — A contentious relationship between Cafe Monocle and its landlord turned bitter this week as the restaurant owner, forced out for nonpayment of about $10,000 in rent, allowed and participated in damage to the space during the removal of equipment, furnishings and fixtures, according to the landlord, city officials and police.
The owner, Kelsey Knutsen, who opened Cafe Monocle in summer 2019, now faces potential liability in two criminal cases related to the property, police said, as well as possible civil action over the damage and unpaid sales tax. There are also questions about her use of approximately $170,000 in federal pandemic relief aid for businesses, according to other officials.
Knutsen acknowledged leaving behind a mess but said she otherwise did nothing wrong.
When viewed Wednesday, the first-floor restaurant space of the corner building at 95 Remsen
St. had been gutted of the bar top, sinks and coolers, bathroom sinks, multiple kitchen sinks and cooking equipment. Parts of walls had been torn out to allow for the removal of the 10-foot-long hood for the kitchen exhaust. Wires, pipes and ductwork were left cut and hanging; and, in the basement, food rotted in a garbage bag on the floor and in a nonworking refrigerator.
Further, the owner of a nearby restaurant who bought the kitchen hood said he was deceived by Knutsen into believing it was permissible to tear down
parts of walls for the hood’s removal. After being informed otherwise by police on Wednesday, Robert Newberry, co-owner of Bye-i Brewing, said he regrets contributing to some of the damage. Bye-i is located on Remsen Street about a block from the former Cafe Monocle.
“They definitely went way, way, way overboard. They destroyed the place,” said Don Russell, a member of the Cohoes City Council and owner of three restaurants on Remsen Street. Russell said he bought a kitchen sandwich unit on Sunday, after Cafe Monocle’s final brunch service. When he returned Monday to pick it up, he said, “I was shocked by the extent they went into removing everything.”
Said Russell, “They seemed hellbent on not leaving anything there.”
Deborah Jacques, CEO of the Cohoes Local Development Corp., which gave Knutsen a $10,000 grant and a $30,000 loan for equipment for Cafe Monocle, said, “On a personal, level, I’m very sad to see the building was left in that condition.”
“I only took what was mine, what I paid for,” Knutsen said in an interview Thursday morning. Referring to Monday, the last day of October, she said, “I knew that it was messy, but I was told I needed to be out by the 31st. I didn’t want to get in trouble if I stayed longer, so I didn’t have time to stay and tidy it up.”
According to a court order issued after a mid- October hearing, Knutsen had until Oct. 31 to pay about $9,600 in back rent, but she was allowed another 14 days to fully vacate the property.
Knutsen said she was entitled to take whatever she paid for, including sinks and the exhaust hood. Her lease, however, includes a section saying, “Any and all leasehold improvements made to the Premises which become fixed or attached ... shall remain the property of the (landlord) at the expiration or termination” of the lease.
Referring to the damage to the wall, Knutsen said, “We spoke with the landlord, and we offered to come in and fix it.” The landlord, Gladue Properties, said she had made no such offer. Knutsen later denied saying it, claiming she said that she and Newberry made the offer through police.
Much of the equipment removed was purchased with the money from the Cohoes LDC, with the stipulation that the equipment would be collateral for the loan. Until Monday, Knutsen still owed more than $20,000 to the LDC and had made only one payment in more than a year, according to Steve Napier, a member of the LDC and the director of economic and community development for Cohoes. Aware that Cafe Monocle was closing, Jacques said she renegotiated the terms of the loan on Monday, making Knutsen personally liable for it. It now calls for repayment of more than $23,000 over six years, and a single missed payment will allow the LDC to obtain a judgment against Knutsen, according to Jacques.
“We put the LDC in a better position instead of having to be selling the stoves,” Jacques said. Knutsen confirmed the new repayment terms and her personal liability.
Napier declined to comment on the damage done to the restaurant space, citing ongoing police investigations. Earlier this week, Police Chief Todd Waldin said his department forwarded to city police court the results of its investigation into
an allegation by Gladue Properties that Knutsen broke into a Gladue storage space she had no authority to enter. Knutsen confirmed that she received a summons to appear in court on Nov. 10 for a hearing on the matter.
The city said Wednesday that the police department had opened another criminal investigation at 95 Remsen, this one about the property damage during removal of equipment and fixtures. Officers toured the space and took photos on Tuesday, according to Luke and Terri Gladue, owners of Gladue Properties. The couple owns seven Cohoes buildings they have purchased and renovated since 2008. In addition to the 1,200-square-foot restaurant space at 95 Remsen, the building includes ground-floor dance and theater studios and eight fully rented micro-apartments upstairs, the Gladues said.
If police do not file charges related to the damage, Gladue Properties has grounds for a lawsuit to recoup repair costs, said the company’s attorney, Jonathan Schopf. He said he warned Knutsen against removal of permanent fixtures in a ceaseand-desist letter sent Monday after seeing a list Knutsen posted online on Sunday of items she intended to sell that included three-bay kitchen and bar sinks.
The kitchen hood was not listed, but Newberry said he was told it was available and decided to buy it for a possible future kitchen at Bye-i Brewing, which presently serves its own beer but has delivery arrangements for food.
Speaking of Knutsen, Newberry said Wednesday afternoon, “She said it was OK to tear out part of the wall. I was unaware that was against the law until the police told me just a little while ago. I’m going to be working with the police and the property owner to address this.” The Gladues said police conveyed Newberry’s message but did not mention Knutsen.
The couple, who had not previously had a restaurant tenant in any of their properties, said they were initially excited by the idea of a corner spot with tall windows, daytime cafe service, a bar at night and weekend brunch to take advantage of the burgeoning scene in the Remsen Street corridor including at the Cohoes Music Hall, to which 95 Remsen is the closest spot for drinks and dining.
From the city’s perspective, “We could tell the landlords clearly loved that building, and Kelsey did too when she first got there,” said Jacques of the LDC.
Contention arose almost immediately upon opening, however, with both sides pitting attorneys and lawsuits, real and threatened,
against one another over matters including noise and vibration from the fan powering the kitchen hood, leaks from Cafe Monocle plumbing that damaged the floor of the dance studio, unapproved renovations to the restaurant space, a dividing wall in the basement and more, according to both sides.
In her online farewell note, Knutsen describes the “last three and a half years,” starting with the design and building of the restaurant, as an “uphill battle,” adding, “Between the constant legal arguments, (compounded) with the stress of running a restaurant through a global pandemic along with rising food costs and staffing shortages, I have to take a step back and do what’s best for my physical and mental health.”
During the past couple of years, Cafe Monocle fell far behind on rent.
“She was getting a lot of pandemic money,” Luke Gladue said. Federal databases show Cafe Monocle received more than $170,000 in publicly funded pandemic aid intended for payroll, rent, utilities and other business expenses, and a state database indicates the restaurant is nearly $6,000 delinquent on sales taxes. Said Luke Gladue, “Where did it all go? I never could find out, but she definitely wasn’t using it for rent.”
Knutsen said she used federal relief aid for approved expenses, and that late rent was due to lack of income as a result of the pandemic shutdown and slow business later.
Schopf filed petitions for payment of back rent in March and September of this year, according to court documents, and the parties finally had a hearing on the matter in midoctober, according to Schopf. The court awarded Gladue Properties almost $9,600 plus court costs and legal fees, Schopf said, giving Knutsen until Monday to pay. She notified the company Tuesday that she had relinquished the space, the Gladues said. They said they look forward to welcoming another operator to run a similar concept of lunch cafe, evening bar and weekend brunch.
The Gladues, who have 34 units among their properties, said Knutsen was the only problem tenant, even during the pandemic, and they were further dismayed by what they perceived as a betrayal by neighboring business owners who participated in the equipment removal and property damage, and by two city officials. Russell, the City Council member and fellow restaurateur, and Jacques of the LDC both said they did not notify the Gladues of what was happening at 95 Remsen on Sunday and Monday.
Said Luke Gladue, “This was all going on and they couldn’t call us?”