Danny Bowien, owner and chef of New York’s now-shuttered Mission Chinese Food filed a lawsuit against his former landlord Abraham Noy, owner of 154 Orchard St, reports DNAinfo.
The $500,000 suit filed, July 31 in the Manhattan Supreme Court, claims “immeasurable harm to their reputations and brand” according to court records, DNAinfo reported.
The Department of Health shut down the restaurant twice after evidence of vermin in 2013, before New York’s Mission Chinese closed for good last November.
Mission Chinese claims that Noy rented them a property not up to code and that he refused to make necessary structural repairs that contributed to the restaurant’s severe rodent problem.
Once the restaurant decided not to re-open, Noy would not let Mission Chinese out of their lease and still holds the $36,000 security deposit, according to the report. The suit aims to reclaim lost revenue as well as break the lease that they have been fighting since April.
Despite the reputation the kitchen mice may have given Bowien’s Lower East Side restaurant (he still has the thriving Mission Cantina at 172 Orchard St.), the craving for the Mission Chinese menu has not subsided. Pop-ups at Brooklyn’s Frankie’s 457 and Manhattan’s Mile End occur weekly, with take-out and prixe-fix menu options.
Bowien declined to comment.
