Brick Lane Curry House is home to one of the best all-you-can-eat deals in the city: for $11.99 on weekdays and $14.99 on weekends, you can gorge yourself on an unlimited lunch buffet. But like so many such deals, it seems it may have been too good to be true. Eater is reporting that the state seized two of the restaurant's Manhattan locations this week, because its owner owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes.
The owner, Sati Sharma, was reportedly charging customers a sales tax and pocketing it, rather than passing it on to the state. According to Department of Tax and Finance spokesman Geoff Gloak, Sharma currently owes $125,515 to the state for his Upper East Side location. That number is closer to $350,000 when you include Brick Lane's other two Manhattan locations and Radicchio Pasta and Risotto, an Italian restaurant also owned by Sharma that has been closed since January.
Gloak told Eater that seizing the restaurants was "an action of last resort," and that the state tries to work with restaurants on payment plans before shutting them down entirely. But tax evasion is no trifling matter: "They're getting an extra profit and basically keeping taxpayer dollars for their own benefit."
If Brick Lane can't pay off its debt, the state will auction off the assets of its Upper East Side and Midtown locations.
Both locations were closed today, but the East Village and New Jersey locations are still open according to employees, so load up on unlimited naan while you can—but watch out for that killer phaal curry.
