The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
http://nypost.com/2014/10/13/chef-denies-countersuit-that-claims-he-attracted-rats/
Hip Mission Chinese restaurant attracted mice: suit
By Julia Marsh
October 13, 2014 | 4:23am
Chef Danny Bowien works in the kitchen at Mission Chinese Food in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Photo: Gabi Porter
The owner of Mission Chinese attracted more than long lines to his wildly popular Lower East Side eatery — he also drew hordes of mice, a new lawsuit claims.
Danny Bowien, chef/owner of the once-trendy restaurant, had sued the building owner in August over the rodent infestation that got him shuttered and eventually forced him to close down. But the landlord says in a countersuit that it was the restaurant that brought in the rodents.
“Prior to [Mission Chinese’s] tenancy in the premises, there were no issues of rodent infestations . . . despite the history of restaurant tenants at the premises,” landlord Abraham Noy says in the Manhattan Supreme Court filing.
Noy notes that the city Department of Health shut down Bowien not just for having rodents but for conditions that attracted the vermin in the first place — unclean surfaces, open garbage cans, dented cans of food and improperly refrigerated supplies.
And when Bowien left the shuttered eatery for good in July 2013, he left the joint “littered with trash and debris . . . in a state of filth and mess,” Noy’s suit claims.
That same year, the Korean-born, Oklahoma-raised Bowien, 33, won Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef title.
He first became famous for starting a taco truck in San Francisco that dished out Ma Po Tofu and Kung Pao Pastrami.
In his lawsuit, the chef told a stomach-churning story of how his critically acclaimed eatery was spoiled by an absentee landlord whose property hid a foul graveyard of mice.
Bowien said in the filing that after the Health Department cited him for rodent droppings, he discovered a locked storage space with “drain water and sludge emptying into a veritable swamp with the corpses of mice littering the ground.”
Noy, in his countersuit, says Bowien not only was the one responsible for the vermin but also for a $164,000 tab in unpaid rent, taxes, water bills and other various fees.
Bowien’s lawyer, Neil Postrygacz, told The Post, “We categorically deny all allegations and look forward to our day in court.
“Our clients wish to let this play out in the courtroom rather than public opinion,” he said.
The parties are due back in Manhattan Supreme Court next month.
Hip Mission Chinese restaurant attracted mice: suit
By Julia Marsh
October 13, 2014 | 4:23am
Chef Danny Bowien works in the kitchen at Mission Chinese Food in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Photo: Gabi Porter
The owner of Mission Chinese attracted more than long lines to his wildly popular Lower East Side eatery — he also drew hordes of mice, a new lawsuit claims.
Danny Bowien, chef/owner of the once-trendy restaurant, had sued the building owner in August over the rodent infestation that got him shuttered and eventually forced him to close down. But the landlord says in a countersuit that it was the restaurant that brought in the rodents.
“Prior to [Mission Chinese’s] tenancy in the premises, there were no issues of rodent infestations . . . despite the history of restaurant tenants at the premises,” landlord Abraham Noy says in the Manhattan Supreme Court filing.
Noy notes that the city Department of Health shut down Bowien not just for having rodents but for conditions that attracted the vermin in the first place — unclean surfaces, open garbage cans, dented cans of food and improperly refrigerated supplies.
And when Bowien left the shuttered eatery for good in July 2013, he left the joint “littered with trash and debris . . . in a state of filth and mess,” Noy’s suit claims.
That same year, the Korean-born, Oklahoma-raised Bowien, 33, won Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef title.
He first became famous for starting a taco truck in San Francisco that dished out Ma Po Tofu and Kung Pao Pastrami.
In his lawsuit, the chef told a stomach-churning story of how his critically acclaimed eatery was spoiled by an absentee landlord whose property hid a foul graveyard of mice.
Bowien said in the filing that after the Health Department cited him for rodent droppings, he discovered a locked storage space with “drain water and sludge emptying into a veritable swamp with the corpses of mice littering the ground.”
Noy, in his countersuit, says Bowien not only was the one responsible for the vermin but also for a $164,000 tab in unpaid rent, taxes, water bills and other various fees.
Bowien’s lawyer, Neil Postrygacz, told The Post, “We categorically deny all allegations and look forward to our day in court.
“Our clients wish to let this play out in the courtroom rather than public opinion,” he said.
The parties are due back in Manhattan Supreme Court next month.