As Maple & Ash co-founders continue their court battle over control of the parent company of the Gold Coast steakhouse, workers at the group’s newly launched cafe remain in limbo.
Cafe Sophie remains closed three months after its April opening at 847 N. State Street. The all-day restaurant, which What If Syndicate planned to scale with locations in Texas and other parts of the country, closed in late May with an Instagram post on June 5 providing the only update: “we’re putting our operations on pause for some ongoing maintenance issues.” Google has listed the cafe as “temporarily closed” for the last two months.
That PR speak particularly revealed nothing as cofounders David Pisor and James Lasky were in court in March. Pisor alleges Lasky locked him out of control of the company and barred him from the restaurants and financial records.
A court appearance on Thursday added to the intrigue. Court documents reportedly declare the all-day cafe closed, according to Block Club Chicago. However, Lasky’s legal team reasons that the shutter is due to a design flaw. Given how various restaurants reconfigured to stay open during the height of the pandemic, any claims of a design flaw are particularly dubious.
What If Syndicate executive chef Danny Grant had big plans for the European-influenced cafe, saying that it was the type of neighborhood spot every neighborhood would want. But the company’s legal problems have snarled that ambition.
On Friday, a What If…
