Chef John Fraser's temporary restaurant What Happens When was riding a wave of good buzz earlier this year until it lost its liquor license, which was transferred over from the previous tenant, Le Jardin Bistro. The restaurant soldiered on for a bit, but without booze, they were forced to close up shop months earlier than they had anticipated.
Now Reuters reports that chef Fraser and his partners are suing the three lawyers — Bruno Gioffre Jr., Anthony DiFiore, and Guy Parisi — that handled the botched license application, alleging that their malpractice caused the demise of the restaurant, and ultimately cost Fraser and his partners $1 million in damages. Allegedly, Fraser and his crew had planned to eventually settle on one of the restaurant's themes (which changed monthly), and continue to operate under one concept without the guise of doing a pop-up. So, of course they'd want to lock down a liquor license.
When reached for comment, Fraser told Eater, "I can only tell you that I was very proud of what we accomplished and was disappointed that it got cut short." The full court filing is below.
· All Coverage of What Happens When [~ENY~]
· Iron Chef' competitor sues lawyers for liquor-license blunder [Thomson Reuters]