Celebrity chef sues constructing proprietor for £4.4m after shutting restaurant
- The founding father of the Six By Nico chain has filed a declare with London’s High Court
- Mr Simeone, 34, blames constructing freeholders Highneal for his Liverpool closure
Celebrity chef Nico Simeone is suing a constructing proprietor for £4.4million after he was pressured to close his restaurant when flooding left it ‘malodorous and unhygienic’ with rotting flooring.
The Glasgow-born entrepreneur who had his personal BBC collection has informed London’s High Court he had no alternative however to shut his Liverpool venue Six By Nico in 2022.
Lawyers for his firm say water started pouring into the restaurant attributable to badly sealed partitions, filling a storage room, rotting the restaurant flooring and inflicting mould.
It is now suing the freeholder of the constructing, Highneal Ltd, for greater than £4.4million to cowl losses, pay for a refurb and relaunch the restaurant.
But the freeholder of the constructing, which is near Liverpool Waterfront, denies fault – claiming the restaurant’s heavy-duty industrial dishwasher was the supply of the leak.
Celebrity chef Nico Simeone is suing a constructing freeholder for £4.4million, saying he was pressured to close his Liverpool restaurant Six By Nico in 2022 attributable to flooding
The Six By Nico restaurant in Liverpool was left ‘malodorous and unhygienic’, in accordance with a lawsuit Mr Simeone’s agency is pursuing in opposition to Highneal Ltd at London’s High Court
Mr Simeone is suing to cowl losses, pay for a refurb and relaunch the restaurant in Liverpool
Mr Simeone, who beforehand labored at Michelin-starred Number One at Balmoral and Brian Maule’s acclaimed Chardon d’Or in Glasgow, based his idea restaurant chain Six By Nico in 2017.
The retailers provide a six-course tasting menu which modifications each six weeks and relies on a unique place or reminiscence together with Lisbon, Tokyo, road meals and ‘childhood’.
The firm has grown to boast 14 eating places, with branches in London, Belfast, Dublin and Cardiff, and Mr Simeone himself featured in a BBC collection – Nico’s Menu Mission – in 2020.
Mr Simeone additionally hit the headlines in 2020 when he gifted a bistro of his in Glasgow to former tough sleeper Modou Diagne who had overcome difficulties to turn into assistant head chef there.
Footage of the emotional second was captured on by a secret digital camera, when Mr Modou was informed to come back to go workplace for what he thought was a employees assembly – earlier than breaking down with tears when given the information.
His agency had purchased the lease to the Merseyside restaurant the earlier 12 months, in accordance with paperwork filed on the High Court in London as a part of the brand new lawsuit.
It then carried out a significant refurbishment of the premises however claims to have suffered repeated leaks since shifting in.
His firm’s barrister Hugh Jackson stated in courtroom paperwork: ‘Water has penetrated each the bottom flooring of the constructing and the basement.’
Although a criticism was made with the freeholder of the constructing, the issue was not solved and it continued to be hit by ‘water ingress’, the lawsuit claims.
A ‘substantial flood’ then occurred in December 2021, inflicting harm to inventory and gear and leaving the basement unusable, the barrister added.
Nico Simeone based his idea restaurant chain Six by Nico in 2017 and went on to open 14 branches together with in London, Belfast, Cardiff and Dublin
He beforehand labored at Michelin-starred Number One at Balmoral and Brian Maule’s acclaimed Chardon d’Or in Glasgow
Mr Jackson stated: ‘By round January 2022, the basement rooms comprising employees rooms on the premises had turn into so damp, mouldy and unhygienic that the claimant needed to instruct its employees to stop to make use of the identical.’
Water gave the impression to be coming by means of exterior partitions which ought to have been maintained by the freeholder and acquired worse when there was heavy rain, he continued.
The barrister went on: ‘On or about 5 June 2022, the room within the basement of the premises full of water following a heavy rainfall.
‘The defendant didn’t treatment the ingress of water to the premises, with the end result that the identical turned malodorous and unhygienic and the claimant may now not function its restaurant.’
He wrote that, by September 2022, ‘the timber deck within the flooring of the claimant’s restaurant was moist and beginning to rot’.
And it’s claimed that the leaks have been attributable to the constructing not being correctly sealed at floor stage exterior, permitting rain to get into the partitions.
‘The claimant has sustained loss on account of the defendant’s breaches of covenant and/or responsibility and/or negligence and/or nuisance,’ in accordance with the paperwork.
‘The premises turned, and stay, unusable for the needs of the operation of a restauraunt enterprise.
‘The premises will stay unusable by the claimant till they’ve been rendered dry, secure and hygienic.’
Nico Simeone exterior Glasgow bistro 111 he gifted in 2020 to Modou Diagne (pictured proper)
Mr Simeone had employed former tough sleeper Mr Diagne initially as a kitchen porter earlier than his protege went on to turn into assistant head chef after which proprietor
Mr Simeone’s firm is suing for greater than £4.4million in misplaced income and different bills, in addition to for a refurb and relaunch of the restaurant.
However, for the freeholder, barrister Elizabeth Fitzgerald argued it ‘undertook important investigations’ to find out the reason for the flooding and insisted the restaurant was accountable.
She stated: ‘The defendant has beforehand knowledgeable the claimant’s solicitors that the operation of its industrial dishwasher on the premises is more likely to be the trigger, or partial trigger, of the water ingress suffered by the claimant.
‘Further investigations after the occasion have revealed the existence of a pressurised scorching water cylinder which is exhibiting indicators of getting been poorly put in.’
Highneal Ltd ‘denies that the reason for the flooding to the premises was a results of water coming by means of exterior partitions’, she stated.
Ms Fitzgerald added that the freeholder additionally denied flooding was ‘noticeably worse when heavy rainfall happens’ and that Mr Simeone’s restaurant was unable to open.
‘Since the claimant vacated the premises, the basement has slowly dried out and has remained dry,’ she added.
And she accused Six by Nico of failing to pay about £60,000 in hire and thus forfeiting the lease.
The case is presently at an early stage and has not but come earlier than a decide in courtroom.
