Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Two Upper West Side restaurants are seeing their fair share of drama these days… first, high-end French restaurant Picholine (64th between Broadway and Central Park West) may be seeing some trouble soon after staff did not get paid last Friday, according to Eater.  While Picholine’s reps claim that the lack of payment was an error on the payroll company’s side, and the staff did get paid on Monday, workers at the restaurant say that if they don’t get paid this Friday, they won’t come in on Saturday.  The payroll incident is the latest in a string of happenings at the restaurants that seem to be bad signs.  The restaurant has gone through two pastry chefs in the last six months, rumors are around that the maitre d’ and comptroller getting laid off soon, and the restaurant has recently been contacting media outlets for advertising rates.  Hopefully Picholine can overcome its troubles and continue serving what is arguably the best cheese plates in the city.

Speaking of troubles, drama is high at Wine and Roses (Columbus between 73rd and 74th).  The New York Post reports that a battle for control of the wine bar reached a boiling point this week when its main investors called the police and had owners Jennifer and Todd Klein forcibly removed from the establishment.  Allegations are being thrown from both sides of the fight, from the investors’ claim that the Kleins have been pocketing profits from the bar that were owed to them to the Kleins’ claim that one investor has sexually harassed Jennifer Klein in emails and another has friends come to the bar and attempt to buy drugs.  The drama at Wine and Roses is even more saucy when factoring in that Jennifer Klein was a longtime Jordache Jeans model and one investor, Cindy Guyer, also models, mostly for romance novel covers.  The future of the bar, which consistently attracts celebs such as Matthew Broderick, Brooke Shields, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, and Steven Tyler, is uncertain as the battle moves to court.

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Tags: 286 Columbus, Jennifer Klein, New York City, NYC, Upper West Side, UWS, Wine & Roses, Wine Bar