Nello Balan Bails Out Bankrupt Restaurateur So He Can Open a New Midtown Moneypit

Nello Balan, the restaurateur behind the Upper West Side's most outrageously-priced mediocre Italian restaurant, Nello, is now using some of the money he earned charging $12 for a cappuccino to bail out fellow restaurateur Max Burgio from bankruptcy. Burgio's clubby B & Co. lasted less than a year on Fifth Avenue before closing last July. At the time, the Daily News heard that Balan was in talks to take over the space, and as it turns out, they weren't wrong. He's putting up $750,000 to pay off Burgio's debt, and taking control of the Midtown restaurant.

As it turns out, Burgio actually approached Balan when he first went bankrupt, hoping the restaurateur would bail him out and partner with him to open a new restaurant in the space, but things unfortunately didn't work out quite that way. Balan would only bail him out on the condition that he would not remain a partner, so now he's just involved as a "consultant." In any case, the long and the short of it is that the former B & Co. will soon become home to another place where celebrities can drop wads of cash on Dom, truffles, and bottles of Aqua Panna.