Mother Wolf is one of the hottest restaurants in Los Angeles. In fact, it’s where Beyoncé recently celebrated winning the most Grammys of any entertainer. But Evan Funke’s Roman spot is embroiled in a behind-the-scenes legal battle, and it remains to be seen how that will impact the restaurant, along with many others.
Ten Five Hospitality and Relevant Group, the two entities that helped launch Mother Wolf and a number of other LA-based restaurants, are fighting for control of the establishments, Eater reported on Wednesday. The saga includes allegations of fraud and mismanagement, and restaurant employees are even being dragged into the mess. (Relevant and Ten Five declined to speak on the record with Eater. Ten Five declined to comment to Robb Report, while Relevant has yet to respond to our request for comment.)
The ordeal began back in January, when Relevant sent a letter asking workers to resign their positions at Ten Five and become employees of Relevant. In response, several restaurant managers quit, while workers who decided to transfer over received spot bonuses of up to $200, one former employee told Eater. “It was like Game of Thrones-type stuff,” they said. Relevant “used scare tactics with kitchen staff to get them to sign on. Like, if you want your job, then you’ll sign.”
Ten Five, meanwhile, claimed in an email to employees that “Relevant has wrongfully taken over the operations and barred Ten Five and its employees from the properties.” The hospitality company’s principal, Dan Daley, said that Ten Five was no longer operating the restaurants—including Mother Wolf, Ka’teen, Bar Lis and others—and that workers would need to be laid off if they didn’t transition to Relevant.
Unite Here Local 11, the hospitality workers’ union trying to organize employees of the restaurants involved, told Eater that it was aware of the situation. “Relevant Group’s hospitality empire is imploding because of mismanagement and internal squabbles,” it said in a statement. “The victims of their incompetence are the servers, cooks, dishwashers, and other restaurant workers whose lives have been thrown into utter chaos over the past week.”
Beyond the operational problems, Relevant and Ten Five are also fighting over the trademark for Mother Wolf, which could be major, given Funke’s cachet in the restaurant world. Sources told Eater that Daley had been planning to expand Mother Wolf outside of LA, and a lawyer for Relevant told the outlet that the restaurant’s performance has been “phenomenal.”
Although, if Mother Wolf and all the other restaurants start losing their employees because of the infighting—among other potential fallout—it’s unclear how long that stellar performance can continue.
Source : Robb Report
