RI Award-Winning Restaurant Moving to CT, Blames Landlord, He Responds
GoLocalProv News Team
RI Award-Winning Restaurant Moving to CT, Blames Landlord, He Responds
Chef Sherry Pocknett - who won the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef Northeast in 2023 - said she is shuttering “Sly Fox Den Too” in Charlestown.
Now, she is planning on opening a new location - out of state.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Unfortunately, after years of being here at the Charlestown location, we will have to close the doors due to horrible landlord issues ever since we signed the lease there’s always been an issue,” wrote Pocknett in a social media post and she confirmed those comment on Friday night in a phone call with GoLocal.
GoLocal reached out to the landlord, Nikolas Zarokostas, who said this was the first he was learning of the restaurant closing and leaving.
“I really like Jade and her mom, and you know, I've helped them, and if they say I didn't help [that is not true], [if they are moving] because of me. That's an excuse, in my opinion, but besides the point. According to her lease, there's a lot of maintenance stuff that she's supposed to take care of, whether it be, you know, HVAC systems, it's on a septic system, so all those components,” he said.
“But multiple times, I've come out of my personal pocket to help them out, [to] help them keep moving on, and not accruing, you know, additional expenses than it is to run a restaurant," he added.
Two Different Stories
One of the reasons the restaurant said it is leaving is a dispute over the heating system.
"So, you know, like I said, I've been more than...very understanding. I haven't charged them one late fee, and according to the lease, if they're a day late, it's a $100 fee, I haven't charged them one fee,” said Zarokostas, who purchased the property from his brother two years ago.
"So I spent, you know, endless, endless time giving them plenty of opportunity to make good on the rent and everything else. And I just talked to her two days ago. She said she was sending the rent,” he added.
This is a different story than what Pocknett said, "The biggest one is our heat issue, which has never been fixed and for the first time I have withheld rent and they now filed papers for us to get out. We are not even a month behind.”
Zarokostas said, “I haven't made money on that property since I purchased it. But the amount of money I've had to put into repairs and maintenance stuff, where, when I first bought it, for instance, the heating system, there was a hole on the line for the heating system to get gas because the propane ran, and it had a leak.”
For Rhode Island, the story is one of its top restaurants, and most celebrated chefs are now leaving for Connecticut.