Chinese eatery stab ‘threat’

AN owner of Red Stixs — the Hamptons and Midtown Chinese eatery that’s attracted Nicki Minaj, Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid — has been accused of threatening to stick a fork in a staffer’s neck, like a dumpling, and strangling the waiter when he tried to defect to a rival.

The development’s just the latest in overheated competition between a number of upscale New York Chinese joints whose owners and chefs have variously worked together, then accused the others of being knockoffs, including Red Stixs, Philippe Chow and Mr. Chow.

Page Six has exclusively learned a Red Stixs waiter filed a police report alleging “criminal obstruction of breathing” against Michael Reda, a Red Stixs owner who was a founder of Philippe Chow.

Sources said the alleged Dec. 12 blowup began when server Alex Dobrin, 35, of Queens, told Reda he wanted to “pick up some shifts” at Jue Lan Club, a new Chinese restaurant being opened in the old Limelight space by Reda’s expartner turned rival, Stratis Morfogen.

That’s when, Dobrin alleges, Reda lost it. Police sources told The Post’s Shawn Cohen that the waiter was “in fear for his safety” after Reda allegedly “began to strangle him and threatened to kill him.” Dobrin also claimed, according to police sources, that Reda threatened: “‘I will stab you in the neck’ while reaching for a fork,” and “I’ll send someone to break your legs.”

Dobrin filed the report at the 17th Precinct the day after the alleged incident but no arrests have been made. Reda and Dobrin did not get back to us for comment.

Morfogen’s opening 275seat Jue Lan with Robert Collins and Vikram Chatwal after a nasty falling out with his former Philippe partners. In 2014, Philippe sued Red Stixs’ Hamptons location, accusing it of being a copycat, and Philippe was sued in 2009 by Mr. Chow’s Michael Chow for ripping off his cuisine and name. Page Six reported this week that a convoluted sixyear legal battle between Philippe Chow and Mr. Chow finally seems to have come to an end.