FOOD FIGHT HEATING UP
Chef swiped all but kitchen sink: ‘Table’ suit
The owner of Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the restaurant’s superstar original chef, Cesar Ramirez, and his wife, Adriana Rodriguez, alleging they looted the place of a half-million dollars’ worth of fancy wine, cooking equipment, and even pots and pans, The Post has learned.
The lawsuit is the latest chapter in a long-running feud between Ramirez — a culinary genius described by some former employees as a tyrannical taskmaster — and Brooklyn Fare owner Moe Issa.
Last July, Issa fired Ramirez — ending a 14-year relationship that saw Chef ’s Table grow from humble beginnings in the back of a Brooklyn gourmet store into a three-star Michelin restaurant.
Ramirez signed a lease last August to open a new restaurant at 333 Hudson St., The Post first reported. It has yet to open.
‘Stole wine, spoons’
Issa’s lawsuit — filed in Brooklyn state Supreme Court — accuses Ramirez of stealing Brooklyn Fare’s “proprietary” customer list and otherwise sabotaging the place to boost his restaurant’s launch.
The suit, which responds to a complaint filed by Ramirez last year, alleges Ramirez and his wife committed “systematic fraud” and “outright theft” of wine, along with swiping items such as “caviar spoons from DeVine Corp.” and “tableware and egg cups from Furstenberg.”
“It is sad that it had to come to this but we have no choice,” Issa told The Post.
Ramirez could not be reached for comment.
Chef ’s Table has been one of the nation’s most exalted eateries since it opened in Downtown Brooklyn in 2009. In 2016, Issa moved the 18seat counter restaurant to 431 W. 37th St. in Manhattan, where it continued to receive accolades from critics and customers who pay $430 for a tasting menu.
However, it lost its Michelin stars last November after the bitter divorce between the two men.
The new suit claims the Ramirezes engaged in “covert wrongful conduct, including corporate sabotage, in order to inflict maximum economic and reputational damage on Manhattan Fare.”
Their aim, the suit says, was “to gain an unfair” advantage establishing their own competing restaurant.
Ramirez fired the first legal salvo shortly after Issa fired him. He accused Issa of unlawful termination, failure to pay him 17 months of salary, “misappropriating” $400,000 in company funds and of maliciously closing the restaurant without warning and leaving customers in a lurch.
Issa responded that he “safeguarded” the money from the possibility of Ramirez embezzling it. A judge threw out most of Ramirez’s claims, including that Issa mishandled the $400,000.
Along the way, Business Insider reported last August, Ramirez accused Issa of threatening his and his wife’s lives. Issa, who denied it, subsequently had police visit Ramirez’s home to check for stolen goods, the site said. The chef was detained for eight hours and released.
Issa reopened Chef’s Table last October with two new chefs, Max Natmessnig and Marco Prins, who both previously worked there.