| | | Locanda turned out to be recipe for disaster | | June 23, 2009 |  | | | Voice Correspondent | | When chef Brian Barszcz was hired at Locanda in 2007, after a decade of cooking at formal A-list establishments, he was delighted to be turning out simple, elegant Italian dishes at a neighborhood restaurant on Capitol Hill. Food critics and D.C. residents alike soon recognized that Locanda, at 633 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, was a destination restaurant.
But by January 2008, Barszcz saw signs of trouble at Locanda, which closed abruptly after Memorial Day following a year and a half of ups and downs and a legal battle in D.C. Superior Court. On June 24, a judge will mediate what has become an ugly dispute between two businessmen, both of Turkish descent, who once gave the Hill a contemporary Italian restaurant to cheer about.
In a pair of lawsuits filed in 2008, former business partners Turan Tombul and Aykan Demiroglu accuse one another of unlawful conduct. As far as Barszcz is concerned, the original source of the dysfunction is clear.
“Our immediate closure was due to lack of funds, but the problems started with [Demiroglu],” Barszcz says. “I’m just a chef. I order and cook the food. But I don’t do the books. And our bills were not being paid on time. It became a bad situation.”
Barszcz cut his teeth at Colvin Run, an acclaimed restaurant in Virginia, and at power spot Bistro Bis, a stone’s throw from the Capitol. At Obelisk, in Dupont Circle, he discovered the joys of Italian food.
“Obelisk opened my eyes to how simple and fresh Italian cooking can be,” says Barszcz, whose wife, Tammy, helped run Locanda. Offering a seasonal menu of homemade pastas, organic chicken and whole branzino, and desserts by Liliana Dumas, of Trattoria Liliana in Van Ness, Locanda had a neighborhood vibe, even during tough economic times.
“We knew it wouldn’t last forever,” Barszcz says, “but our staff stayed with us and it felt like a family. I like the small restaurant concept. I don’t like doing 300 dinners a night. I like to touch the food.”
But court documents tell a story of business turmoil and murky agreements that derailed Locanda’s culinary success.
In 2006, Tombul, owner of the property at 633 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, met Demiroglu through a mutual acquaintance. Both men are Turkish, though Demiroglu is part Italian. Both men are familiar with the restaurant business: Demiroglu was a manager at Le Paradou in Penn Quarter, and Tombul is part owner of Café 8, on 8th Street SE. In 2007, Demiroglu formed a limited liability company, AT LLC, and obtained a liquor license for Locanda.
Tombul secured $625,000 in loans to finance the opening of the restaurant. Demiroglu, who in court papers described his contribution as “sweat equity,” was named general manager.
In court papers, Tombul contends he is a 51 percent owner of the restaurant; Demiroglu contends he had exclusive decision-making power with respect to executive decisions.
Locanda opened in July 2007 to glowing reviews. “I can barely contain myself,” wrote Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema in September 2007, heralding not just Barszcz’ cooking and Dumas’ desserts but the Capitol Hill location — not normally known as a destination for food-conscious Washingtonians. Meantime, staff members were advising Tombul that Demiroglu was stealing from the restaurant, drinking on the job, and failing to pay vendors and employee overtime salaries, according to a lawsuit Tombul filed last August. That lawsuit further alleges that Demiroglu owes the company $84,000 in addition to inappropriate credit card charges used to pay his immigration attorney and other personal expenses.
Yet Demiroglu, who denies the allegations, sued Tombul first in July 2008. Barszcz says he could see the lawsuit coming after he reached a breaking point with Demiroglu earlier last year.
“I approached Turan in January 2008 and told him ‘I’ve had it with [Demiroglu],’” Barszcz says. “We were busy with lines out the door on the weekends and making money but our bills were not being paid. [Demiroglu] was drinking every day. Purveyors were calling me asking where their money was. I told Turan, it’s either Aykan or me [that has to go]. I’ve worked in good places and bad. This is not how things are done.”
Barszcz says that Demiroglu fired him in late May 2008, and that the staff left with him. Last summer, Tombul seized control of the restaurant, ousted Demiroglu and brought back Barszcz and his staff. “We started all over again,” Barszcz says. “But the economy had declined and business got slower. Plus, customers didn’t know what was going on with Locanda. We never got busy again.”
In his lawsuit, Demiroglu contends that Locanda, which had been profitable through 2007 and early 2008, went downhill fast after he was ousted, with everything from poor cooking to poor service. Last October, after he claimed he had been improperly ousted, a D.C. Superior Court judge appointed a receiver to operate the business. By November, it was operating at a loss, and failing to pay its D.C. taxes.
Barszcz and his wife pressed on through the spring, reporting to a court-appointed receiver, Vucurevich-Simons Advisory Group. But on the Tuesday after Memorial Day, Barszcz showed up for work in his chef’s uniform and was informed that Locanda was no more.
All that’s left is a mess of litigation in D.C. Superior Court, including credit card debts, $127,000 in missing revenue, several disputed agreements and roughly $150,000 in unpaid rent to Tombul, who owns the property.
Both Tombul and Demiroglu declined to comment.
Barszcz and his wife remain upset. “There were a lot of headaches but it was our life,” Barszcz says. “I would do it all over again.”
Says his wife Tammy, “It’s our dream to have our own place. We don’t like stress and confrontations and conflict.” | | | | | Log in to comment on this article | | | | Alp | Sun, Apr 04, 2010 06:32 PM EDT |
| | Demiroglu didn't comment...but I will for him. Half of this article is lies. Barszcz is telling all lies. Demiroglu is right in every way. This article only got information from the opposing side(Tombul and Barszcz) of the argument but didn't get any information from the "correct" side(Demiroglu and Dumas). This is written by Demiroglu's son. And don't just think that I wrote all of this because Demiroglu is my dad. |
| |
| |
|
