[Tlc] C-interesting story

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2007 14:59:33 +0800
From: "Michael Montesano" <seamm at nus.edu.sg>
Subject: Cambodian Restaurant in Gotham City
To: <tlc at lists.ucr.edu>
Cc: "Ben Wilkinson" <bhwilkinson at gmail.com>, "Lorraine Marion
Paterson" <lmp20 at cornell.edu>

THE NEW YORK TIMES
September 5, 2007
No, the Restaurant Isn’t Called ‘Coming Soon’
By JOE DRAPE
ON Thursday, Jerry Ley did what he has done on most days for
more than two years: he watched his dream of transplanting his
Cambodian restaurant to East 93rd Street in Manhattan move a
little further out of reach. He then did what he has had to do
a lot lately: he hit up a friend, this time a Wall Street
accountant, for a $5,000 loan.

Mr. Ley, 54, admittedly is a broken man. He is heavy-hearted
as he ticks off his debts in a defeated voice. He owes
$866,000 to various banks, $144,000 to a friend and co-worker
who took out a second mortgage on her home, and more than
$200,000 to friends and relatives who contributed smaller sums
at zero interest.

“My heart is broken and I’m so frustrated,” he said. “Every
corner I move into is a disaster. I’m nearly bankrupt. I do
not know who to trust.”

In March 2005, when Mr. Ley signed his lease in Manhattan, it
all seemed so simple. He intended to turn Cambodian Cuisine,
his highly regarded, 520-square-foot joint in Fort Greene,
Brooklyn, into a mainstream restaurant.

He had taken note of the foodies from Manhattan who had
trekked across the East River to what was by all accounts New
York City’s only Cambodian restaurant. They would wait in line
for samlor mchoo krong (a shrimp, tomato and chunk pineapple
soup) or the Tonle Sap fish, fried and served in a creamy
sauce flavored with lemongrass and basil. Surely, he figured,
he could fill the 150 seats he had planned for the space on
Third Avenue.

Cambodian Cuisine is not the first restaurant to endure costly
delays on the way to opening its doors, and it will not be the
last. Allen & Delancey, Tailor, Grayz, Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar &
Grill and Graffiti Food and Wine Bar, for example, were all
eagerly anticipated and will be months or even a year late
when they arrive in the fall or winter.

Murphy’s Law rules the insane world of New York City
restaurants. Community boards can kill a liquor license. City
codes must be met. Chefs and investors fall out and money just
disappears.

“You take everyone’s word — lawyers’, architects’ and
contractors’ words — about how long it takes and you end up
blowing timelines and budgets,” said Jehangir Mehta, the
pastry chef who is opening the 18-seat Graffiti Food and Wine
Bar. “In my case I lost about $50,000 in rent waiting for my
liquor license, which I just got. It didn’t make any sense for
me to open a wine bar without any wine.”

Mr. Ley conceded that his situation was dire. He said that he
had been overeager to open his restaurant and naïvely listened
to advisers. He said he had a workable set of plans from his
architects in November 2005 and a plan to secure the necessary
permits to open within six months.

By April 2006 he was so confident his grand opening was
imminent that he sold his restaurant in Brooklyn. His
contractor, however, discovered faulty piping that had to be
removed. It added to the cost, created more bureaucracy, and
was the beginning of a pattern of costly delays.

“I thought I had paid for a complete restaurant,” Mr. Ley
said. “But every time a new problem arose someone wanted more
money.”

Mr. Ley continues to pay nearly $13,000 a month in rent for a
space generating zero income. He has to come up with another
$7,000 a month to service his debt.

“I know only how to cook,” Mr. Ley said. “I have no experience
in any of this other stuff.”
Bruce Bromberg has plenty of experience navigating New York’s
byzantine permit processes, marshaling architects and riding
herd on contractors to create restaurants. He and his brother,
Eric, have opened seven places in Manhattan and Brooklyn since
1992 with the eighth, Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill, scheduled
for 6 Columbus Hotel. (This is a shared problem. The hotel is
not open yet, either.)

“When you try to do things fast, more things become a
problem,” Mr. Bromberg said. “It takes a ton of planning to
get everything right in these tight spaces, and you need it to
be thought out and precise on paper. It is as complicated as
building a house. You’re putting in air-conditioning,
bathrooms and a far more complicated kitchen. When not every
inch is thought out, you’re liable to run into problems with
contractors.”

Mr. Ley is on his third contractor. The whole enterprise was
recently put in peril when his landlord tried to evict him
because he did not open on an agreed-upon date, which was 18
months ago. To avoid eviction, Mr. Ley agreed in July to a
rent increase.

“He had to get his lease back,” said Ann Marie Barbagallo, Mr.
Ley’s lawyer, who did not negotiate the original lease. “It
may not have been nice of the landlord, but it was in his
lease that he could evict him. We had to pay extra money to stay.”

Ms. Barbagallo said the new lease has a December deadline for
Mr. Ley to open and to begin trying to fulfill his dream of
popularizing his beloved Cambodian food on the Upper East Side.

The contractors are working on the space, and at times Mr. Ley
can see a fully formed restaurant before his eyes. He can
smell coconut milk, galangal and Kaffir lime wafting from the
best outfitted kitchen he has commanded.

“They tell me two weeks,” Mr. Ley said wryly. “I’ve been
hearing two weeks for two years.”
There are bathroom fixtures and a water main to be put in, and
most important, a hood and exhaust system that can pass
stringent codes and keep Mr. Ley’s customers and employees
safe. There is also encouragement from friends and family who
are invested in Mr. Ley, and from fellow restaurateurs.

“The question should not be, How long does it take to build a
restaurant?” said Mr. Bromberg, who does not know Mr. Ley.
“The question should be, How long will you stay around after
you open? That’s the measure of success.”

Mr. Ley knows about facing ruin. An engineering student, he
grew up in Cambodia and lived through the genocidal regime of
the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. In 1979 he was living in a
refugee camp in Thailand.

He found a sponsor to bring him to the United States, where he
began an apprenticeship in a Japanese restaurant in Manhattan.
He did not speak English or know his way around a kitchen, but
he learned both working his way through a series of Chinese
restaurants. It was not until 1993, when he opened Cambodian
Cuisine, that he began putting dishes he had eaten as boy on
the menu.

Today Mr. Ley tries to remain positive. After two and a half
years and using up his and others’ savings, he has no other
choice.

“I keep my fingers crossed they finish the job,” Mr. Ley said.
“I pray I can find some more money to pay my bills and support
my family. I’m working like a dog and hanging in the air.

“The one thing that keeps me going is that I know if I can
open my doors and get in the kitchen, we will be a success.
After all this I just want an opportunity to do something I’m
good at.”

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu