A bankruptcy trustee is asking for another $120,000 from Chips N
Salsa, the latest restaurant in old city hall, to clear up a tab
for creditors of a prior business that failed at the site,
according to bankruptcy records.
Gilroy – A bankruptcy trustee is asking for another $120,000 from Chips N Salsa, the latest restaurant in old city hall, to clear up a tab for creditors of a prior business that failed at the site, according to bankruptcy records.
An amended complaint filed on behalf of creditors of Old City Hall Restaurant, which shut its doors in Dec. 2004 after just one year in business, claims that new owner Jim Angelopoulos must pay for $60,000 in equipment and $60,000 worth of inventory that belonged to the former business. The latest complaint brings the total bill demanded by the trustee to $470,000.
“The amended complaint was to make sure everything was laid out more completely,” said Dennis Davis, a San Francisco attorney representing the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee. Asked why the amount was not included in the initial complain, he cited “basic human error.”
“They’re grasping for straws,” Angelopoulos said. “They had one aspect in (the complaint) that asked for another $60,000 for inventory. There was no inventory. There was wine but (Gurries) took all that.”
The restaurateur, who also owns Scrambl’z Diner in Morgan Hill, originally intended to open his newest venture in June, but had to repeatedly bump back the deadline as he wrestled with former owner Glen Gurries to get the liquor license out of escrow. He ultimately had to file for a new license.
Angelopoulos, who has accused Gurries of breaching their contract, obtained the lease and other business components as part of a no-money down transaction.
He said most of the equipment in the building belongs to the city, and that Gurries has failed to respond to multiple requests to pick up any equipment or fixtures he claims to own.
Gurries shuttered the doors on his restaurant in December 2004, a little more than a year after opening. Bankruptcy papers filed on Oct. 14 show he owes $586,172 to various creditors.
In addition to headaches with Gurries, Angelopoulos has had problems with city officials who thought his tropical theme got out of hand. In October, the city ordered him to return Old City Hall to its tan color, after Angelopoulos began painting the building bright pink to parlay with the restaurant’s theme.
The bankruptcy trustee has not sought to block the operation of the restaurant, which Angelopoulos said has done well in its first month of operation.
“I was surprised. Friday and Saturday we had an hour-plus wait, though I’m a little concerned with road closures,” he said, referring to the start of a year-long overhaul of Monterey Street. “We’ve got to take the good with the bad. We’ll get through it.”
