NYC’s Bryant Park Grill boss sues over ouster – Business News
Booted Bryant Park Grill operator Michael Weinstein accused the nonprofit that manages the New York City park of age discrimination for dumping him in favor of famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, based on a new court docket submitting.
Weinstein’s Ark Restaurants has leased the good-looking, glass-enclosed grill for 30 years from the Bryant Park Corporation. With $25 million in annual income, it’s one of the nation’s highest-grossing eateries.
But Daniel Biederman, who heads the Bryant Park Corporation, didn’t renew Weinstein and his Ark Restaurants’ lease, which expired in April.
Booted Bryant Park Grill operator Michael Weinstein accused the nonprofit that manages the New York City park of age discrimination for dumping him in favor of famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Steve Cuozzo
He tapped Seaport Entertainment Group, a hospitality company during which multi-Michelin star holder, Vongerichten is a associate, to interchange Ark.
Weinstein is 81 years previous, whereas Vongerichten is 68.
“By Dan Biederman’s own admission, he used Mr. Weinstein’s age against him from the beginning of this process,” mentioned Ark’s lawyer, Anthony Genovesi, in an amended model of a grievance Ark filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in April. “What BPC did is discrimination plain and simple.”
The expanded grievance within the bitter legal feud additionally states, “From the beginning of the [request for proposals] process, Biederman suggested that Mr. Weinstein’s age, and ‘succession’ issues are reasons not to renew Ark Restaurants’ leases.”
Biederman, 71, countered to The Post: “I by no means mentioned he was too previous to keep the Grill working.
“It’s an 18-year lease,” he added. “We asked all four applicants, how would the restaurant continue if they got hit by a bus?”
Weinstein, 81, has leased the grill for 30 years from the Bryant Park Corporation. enCourageKids Foundation
Daniel Biederman, head of the Bryant Park Corporation, countered to The Post: “I by no means mentioned he was too previous to keep the Grill working. Bryant Park Corporation
In an April letter to Judge Anar Rathod Patel, Biederman’s lawyer, Gil Feder, wrote: “Michael Weinstein is more than 80 years old, and his successor, Mr. Weinstein’s 31-year-old son, lacks sufficient experience to inspire confidence that Ark can sustain its operations in the long term.”
Weinstein sued the Parks Department, the BPC and even the New York Public Library which abuts the restaurant and has an advisory say, over what Weinstein referred to as an “improper” and “defective” bidding course of.
Patel rejected Ark’s request for an injunction to dam its ouster, writing in April, “Mere dissatisfaction with a competitive outcome does not constitute bad faith.”
Biederman tapped Seaport Entertainment Group, a hospitality company during which multi-Michelin star holder Vongerichten (above) is a associate, to interchange Weinstein’s Ark Restaurants. Tamara Beckwith
Meanwhile, in a single of essentially the most curious battles town’s restaurant world has seen, Weinstein continues to run the Grill and an alfresco cafe regardless of the lease expiration.
Biederman may transfer to evict Ark “very soon,” his lawyer, Gil Feder, instructed The Post on Thursday.
He added, although, that it would take a number of more months.
Weinstein continues to run the Grill and an alfresco cafe regardless of the lease expiration. Steve Cuozzo
“We must go through a legal process,” Feder mentioned, which incorporates responding to Weinstein’s newest court docket submitting.
The holdup means the Grill will stay open by means of the busy summer season season. It will probably need to close for up to a yr for renovations when Vongerichten’s company takes the keys, The Post beforehand reported.
