A group of prominent metro Atlanta restaurants is suddenly shutting its doors.
Here To Serve Restaurants — which contains such names as Noche, Twist, Coast, Prime, Shucks and Smash — told patrons on its website that the restaurants were closing and hoped to reopen after they reorganized. Staff members told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB radio that employees were worried that they wouldn’t get paid as checks had been delayed.
It was unclear Monday night how many restaurants were affected but a staffer at Twist said it was expected to be closed on Tuesday and a staffer at Coast was uncertain what its status would be Tuesday. Several other restaurants did not answer their phones Monday night.
The closing may have its roots in a federal court lawsuit by the owners of Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square in Buckhead, which wanted Twist at Phipps and Prime at Lenox evicted from the malls, claiming prominent chef Tom Catherall had breached the leasing agreement.
The leasing companies claim that, without their knowledge, the restaurants’ ownership was transferred in 2012 to Catherall’s wife, Leigh, as part of a divorce settlement and that the leases were improperly assigned to her as part of the arrangement.
In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in December 2014, Leigh Catherall, Here To Serve's co-founder and chief executive officer, maintained her company did not need the leasing companies' consent for the assignment of the restaurants' leases.
“Here To Serve will continue to operate Twist and Prime, working diligently with Simon Properties to resolve any misunderstanding that may have occurred,” Leigh Catherall said.
Tom Catherall owned 13 restaurants and has more than 1,000 employees on the payroll, according to a 2014 report in The AJC.
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