Anselmo's Pizzeria Crashes and Burns
What a disaster. Nine months after opening, Anselmo’s Pizzeria at 354 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook has closed, a victim, apparently, of a nasty business relationship between the restaurant’s owner and the landlords. We don’t want to repeat the specific allegations here (you can read it for yourself on Anselmo’s home page), but the…
What a disaster. Nine months after opening, Anselmo’s Pizzeria at 354 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook has closed, a victim, apparently, of a nasty business relationship between the restaurant’s owner and the landlords. We don’t want to repeat the specific allegations here (you can read it for yourself on Anselmo’s home page), but the owner claims that he spent $260,000 building out the restaurant without ever getting a lease. “I have made mistakes in life and i have paid for it,” he writes, “but my biggest mistake was trusting this landlady.” Whoa.
Photo by Eating In Translation GMAP
Wow, DH! That is some story. Especially the fact that their mother is on the co-op board of the building.
JonB- I pretty much agree that in most cases it works against you to air your private battle on the internet but it sounds like Anselmo’s has been trying for quite some time to work this out with the landlord to no avail. He’s lost big time- that shouldn’t happen to either a tenant or a landlord.
LOL DH. Liked the Demo job in Isabella.
commercial lease would’ve protected landlord too – ie there could be a clause in there that said if tenant leaves, lease expires, etc. all fixed/built-in renov improvemts remain, etc.
At a tangent, how does the $3200 monthly rent for that place sound? At that level it seems that you might actually stand to make a profit if you had a decent product, no?
JonB;
Well said!! Quote of the week.
Another thing,NEVER contract a commercial lease personally, get yourself an LLC.
First off, the place extremely inconsistent and mediocre at best. I actually thought it was a front. Secondly, a lot of new Red Hook entrepreneurs think they’re the shit. They believe they deserve a big break on the rent because they’re especially special when in fact they have no business acumen. For example,if you have a dispute with your landlord, try to resolve privately rather than rant on blogs in the local newspapers. Toward the end of her tenure, Lenell came across like such a nut job.
“if you cant get paid for the renov, f*ck it up before you leave – ie you do own the renovated stuff you put in”
Exactly – check out what this guy did to his pizza joint in Manhattan when he lost his lease.
Gangsta!
http://bk.ly/bhm
very sad. the pizza was good, the people that worked there were super nice too. and the minnestrone was to die for. mmmmmmmm. and the italian hot dog was pretty awesome. prices were cheap, the place was pretty mellow. met the owner once, nice guy. bummer of a story.