Charges against top chef dropped
Girlfriend refuses to cooperate in 2016 Austin case
Paul Qui, the high-profile chef and owner of Aqui restaurant in Montrose, has been under a cloud of scandal since his March 2016 arrest in Austin after an apparent altercation with his girlfriend.
The details of his arrest set off a firestorm that still smoulders. The chef ’s restaurants in Austin, Houston and Miami Beach have been shunned by some food press, reviewers and diners unwilling to patronize a restaurant where the chef has been accused of domestic violence.
Legally speaking, Qui’s troubles appear to be over. With trial set to begin next week in Austin, Caldwell County District Attorney Fred Weber said Friday Qui’s then-girlfriend declined to participate as a witness.
“So we are dropping the case,” Weber said.
But for some, the cloud over both Qui’s reputation and restaurants remains. The hot debate in Houston — where Qui opened Aqui last August — is set against a national discourse within an industry rocked by #MeToo sexual misconduct scandals involving numerous famous chefs and restaurateurs, includ-
ing John Besh and Mario Batali. The notion of atonement and redemption in such fraught circumstances has come into question, a development that Qui will inevitably face as he picks up the pieces.
Qui was arrested in 2016 on suspicion of unlawful restraint and assault causing bodily injury to a family member, both class A misdemeanors. The case was initially handled by the Travis County prosecutors but was transferred to Weber due to an undisclosed conflict of interest.
In the fallout from his arrest, Qui has had to close his Austin flagship, Qui, and then its successor, Kuneho. He is no longer affiliated with the high-profile Austin sushi restaurant, Otoko, that he co-founded. His casual East Side King has shrunk from five locations to two, one of them a truck.
Qui’s lawyer, Christopher Gunter, spoke briefly to his client on Friday. “He’s got a great sense of relief that it’s finally behind him. This was just an unfortunate misunderstanding that was regretted by everyone involved,” Gunter said.
He noted that Qui entered a monthlong rehab immediately after the arrest: “It was a very positive thing for him, and he learned a lot about himself.” Qui did not return phone calls Friday.
Charged atmosphere
Social media, which came alive as stories of Qui’s arrest broke, flared again with news of the dismissal.
“This is disheartening,” Dallas writer and editor Bradford Pearson posted on Twitter. “… Throwing a woman against a wall and then still being able to run (and grow!) a restaurant empire is a hell of a privilege,” he wrote, enumerating details from the police report about the night of Qui’s 2016 arrest.
At Eater, the national food media company where editor in chief Amanda Kludt has restricted coverage of Qui’s restaurants in the wake of the charges, the dismissal will not change their policy, she said. “Eater takes the very public and credible allegation that Paul Qui assaulted his girlfriend seriously,” Kludt said. “So we will continue to cover Qui in a news capacity but will refrain from including him in maps, guides and restaurant reviews.”
Amy McCarthy, who oversees Eater’s websites in Houston and Dallas, launched a Twitter thread suggesting that domestic abuse victims frequently refuse to testify or press charges “and that should not make Paul Qui or any other abuser less culpable for beating women.”
Significantly absent after the news broke were voices heralding any measure of redemption for the chef. Indeed, the words “redemption” and “comeback” have been denounced in debates over sexual harassers and abusers in the restaurant industry. When Batali recently floated ideas of a return to public life and the story was covered by food writer Kim Severson in the New York Times, the online backlash was swift.
This is the charged atmosphere that Qui will face as he goes forward with his restaurants.
In Houston — where he has maintained a low-key presence — Qui could be on the scene more often, since he recently parted ways with opening chef de cuisine Gabe Medina. Under Medina, Aqui earned four stars from the Houston Chronicle.
Qui’s image may continue to suffer even though criminal charges were not brought against him, said Shepard Ross, a Houston restaurant consultant and partner in the upcoming Bravery Chef Hall downtown.
Even now that the charges are being dismissed, Ross said, “there is still going to be a stigma hanging over the head of that restaurant.”
Hunger for truth
Qui will have a tough road to regaining public trust but it’s possible to do so, he added. “You have to act 10 times better than the average citizen to win back the faith of the public. Once you’ve been knocked off the pedestal, it’s a hard climb back,” Ross said.
Suzy Ginsburg agreed. The owner of Global Communication Works, a public relations agency that specializes in crisis management, said the public not only can discern the truth — it has a hunger for it.
“It’s very important that the truth be told right away so there’s no deterioration of the brand,” said Ginsburg, whose company has offices in Houston and New York. “People are very forgiving when people are honest.”
Jonathan Horowitz, president of the Greater Houston Restaurant Association, noted that Qui’s task is even more difficult in the current cultural climate.
“The fact that this was wrapped in the same time frame as the #MeToo movement certainly had an impact and brought more attention to it,” Horowitz said.
Qui may have trouble with restaurant investors in the future, Horowitz said.
“People who invest money want those people to have great reputations,” he said. But Horowitz doesn’t see the disposition of Qui’s case to have a lasting negative effect on his brand.
“The vast majority of the dining public either doesn’t know anything about it at all or doesn’t care. They are still going to eat where they want to eat,” he said.
In the industry and the food press, the debate will go on. Qui has already seen his mini-empire shrink drastically in Austin. To grow his brand, the chef has turned to Houston, with Aqui, and to an upcoming Japanese taqueria in Dallas. Aqui’s parking lot remains full most nights, and its sweep of glass-enclosed, high-gabled dining room is well-populated.
In the end, it may well be the dining public in Houston, not Austin, that determines his fate.