The Basso Bounce

Chef Tony Gardizi is one of those wandering kitchen types. He’s piloted spatulas and whips at the Riviera, J. Pier in Terrell and the defunct Bali Bar, among others. Now he is executive chef of Guthrie’s, a restaurant fashioned in the former Rooster space by chef William Guthrie, who founded the defunct Guthrie’s Historical American Food downtown. But what happened to Gardizi’s most recent and short-lived chef post at Vino & Basso? “The owners just never had a handle on how to do the thing called managing,” he says. “From front of the house, to back of the house, to payroll, toothpicks, toilet paper, whatever.” Seems that loose grip extends to briefs, too. Last Monday a Dallas County judge slapped a $10,000 default judgment on Bluewater Restaurant Group, Vino & Basso’s owner, on behalf of Brynn Bagot Public Relations. The PR firm sued the company in February for nonpayment of accrued fees and expenses, and a representative for Bluewater didn’t show up in court. But this may be just the first in a line of judgment dominos. Last April, Monticello West Ltd., the restaurant’s landlord, sued Bluewater for outstanding lease payments totaling $52,125 stretching from November 2003 through April 2004. More interesting, though, is how some of these suits have been served up. A process server for the Bagot suit claims attempts to serve paper failed until Bluewater President Michael Costa was discovered sitting in his car in the Vino & Basso parking lot. Costa refused to accept the citation, so the server left it on the car’s hood. But service hairballs reached their epoch with a suit filed in April by Phil Goldman Food Sales, which claims Bluewater racked up $3,849.92 in unpaid invoices since January. In a sworn affidavit, process server Kirk French cited several unsuccessful attempts to deliver the suit between May 24 and June 16. One of those occurred on May 27 when French attempted to serve Costa at his apartment. “I spoke with the apartment manager and found that Michael Costa was evicted on March 1, 2004, and left no forwarding address.” Costa could not be reached for comment, and according to a letter posted on the restaurant’s door, he was locked out of the business on June 22 for back rent and utilities.

Taco and Dunia Borga of La Duni Restaurant have joined former Triple R Group (Nikita, Tom Tom Noodle House) founder Royce Ring of the architectural firm Mark Knauer Inc. to expand with La Duni Latin Kitchen and Baking Studio to open on Oak Lawn Avenue late next week. The new spot is an “urban-Euro café” serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.