Landlords for Mike Isabella’s Last Two Restaurants Want Him Out

Mike Isabella’s campaign to hold onto his last two restaurants — Requin on the Southwest Waterfront and Kapnos Kouzina in Bethesda, Maryland — suffered a blow this week, with court filings by landlords at both properties seeking to oust the embattled chef who has seen his hold on a once-massive group of businesses slip away in the wake of a sexual harassment settlement with a former manager.

Washingtonian reports that Isabella’s landlord at Requin has filed an eviction suit alleging that Isabella has been behind on his rent from May through December.

Court documents for the case indicate that the landlord at the Wharf development (Wharf Phase 1 Retail REIT Leaseholder, LLC) claims Isabella’s company (Reqwharf, LLC) owes $144,555.15 for everything from monthly base rent to utilities, late fees, and trash collection.

A hearing for that case is scheduled for January 11, 2019. An itemized list of the alleged charges is included in the court documents below:

Meanwhile, Washingtonian reports, Isabella’s landlord in Bethesda has filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to operate Kapnos Kouzina without him.

Santana Row owns 80 percent of the business, per Washingtonian. The company is arguing that Isabella has refused to show Santana Row his financial figures and has deserted Kapnos Kouzina while leaving Nick Pagonis and George Pagonis, his business partners at Mike Isabella Concepts, to keep the restaurant running. Isabella’s Instagram account has included posts of picturesque beaches since mid-November.

The Pagonis brothers, who were also named in the harassment lawsuit brought by former manager Chloe Caras, have no formal business relationship with Santana Row, the filing says. Neither Requin nor Kapnos Kouzina were part of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing for MIC last week. The filing also accuses Isabella’s company of being $80,000 behind on rent dating back to October.

This past Sunday, Eater reported that four restaurants under the MIC umbrellas were shutting down more than a week earlier than planned.

At that time, a spokesperson for Isabella told Eater that Requin and Kapnos Kouzina “are going to stay open as long as possible.”

• Kapnos Kouzina May Operate Without Mike Isabella; Requin Faces Eviction [Washingtonian]
• Arroz, Three More Isabella Restaurants Shut Down Earlier than Expected [EDC]
• Mike Isabella’s Restaurant Group Is Going Out of Business [Washingtonian]
• Mike Isabella Settles Lawsuit Alleging Sexual Harassment at His Restaurant Group [EDC]