Danny Bowien and other owners of Mission Chinese have yet to reopen their wildly successful restaurant following a "severe mouse infestation" that shuttered the eatery last year. Now the group has placed blame entirely on their landlord, according to a suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last month. The suit demands $500,000 from one Abraham Noy, who owns the building where the restaurant was housed, reports DNAinfo. Among other salient (and disgusting) details that will be outlined hence, the group says Noy leased the restaurant a space that was "not up to code" and then refused to make it so after all the issues came to light.
Among those issues, the aforementioned infestation, painted in much more graphic terms by the lawsuit. An exterminator found "an absolute cesspool: drain water and sludge emptying into a veritable swamp with corpses of mice littering the ground." Appetizing! Further, "[the exterminator] stated that this location was the worst health risk he had seen in years." Besides the obvious stress, horror and financial losses the restaurant suffered, the suit also points to the "immeasurable harm to their reputations and brand" in seeking damages in the case.
Bowien and crew have been so far unsuccessful in trying to extricate themselves from the lease; Noy even went so far as to ask for additional money. In the meantime, they've been operating Mission Chinese as a pop-up, most recently at Mile End's Manhattan outpost. All the sordid details are worth looking over—just put down that bowl of soup first.
