An illegal brothel operating above an Upper East Side Restaurant scared away customers and destroyed the reputation of the swanky eatery, a new lawsuit alleges.
Avena RIstorante, the celeb-hotspot Italian restaurant owned by chef Roberto Deiaco and his wife Giselle, is demanding $750,000 in damages plus attorney fees from the landlord, 22 East 66th Street Corporation, according to the suit filed this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Avena filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April.
The landlord turned a blind eye to the brothel posing as a spa on the third floor of the townhouse at 22 East 66th Street, according to the lawsuit. The shady spa “created a grave danger and posed safety issues for the employees and customers” and effectively ruined the restaurant while the brothel was operating between August 2020 and June 2021, the suit alleges.
The lawyer for the landlord could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Deiacos inked the lease in 2018 for the ground floor and part of the basement, and it appeared to be doomed from the start. The couple had to spend $75,000 to upgrade the entire building’s gas pipes before the restaurant could open, the suit says.
Shortly after, COVID shut down the restaurant for several months and both sides later agreed to a reduced rent. Then, the landlord rented out the third floor to the brothel, which advertised the phone numbers of its prostitutes in the window and charged about $300 per customer, the suit alleges. According to the complaint, male customers of the brothel would enter the restaurant while it was hosting celebrity dinners.
The brothel shut down after police conducted a sting operation. The lawyer for the restaurant, which is still operating at its 66th Street location, did not respond to a request for comment.
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