Facing a string of lawsuits, Hartford-based restaurant entrepreneur Gjinovefa “Gina” Luari said the legal challenges are understandable considering the rapid growth of her restaurant group.
“By the end of the year we will be the size of groups in our industry that took 30 years to reach, and we did it in three,” Luari said. “What they would have experienced in 30 years, I experienced in three because we are growing at 10 times the pace.”
Luari – founder of the hip and “Instagram-able” The Place 2 Be restaurants – voiced confidence she will reach settlements or prevail in ongoing legal cases, and forge ahead with planned expansions into new markets.
Since 2016, Luari has opened five Place 2 Be restaurants in Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well as RAW – a raw seafood bar – in Hartford.
She hopes to open a bakery in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square and another Place 2 Be restaurant in Dallas by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, Luari is trying to resolve ongoing court challenges.
NYBDC Local Development, doing business as Pursuit Community Finance, filed a complaint in Hartford Superior Court on Sept. 4 claiming Luari and her P2B WEHA LLC business defaulted on a $500,000 loan. The complaint from the Albany-based lender claims Luari has not made payments on the loan issued on Feb. 17, 2023.
Luari said her bank has placed pre-judgement funds in escrow and her lender has been receiving payments.
American Express National Bank filed suit against Luari and her P2B Downtown LLC in July, claiming the defendants defaulted on $123,562 in debt.
Luari said this was a company card and the charges on it had not been approved.
Hartford-based economic development lender Hedco Inc., in February, filed a suit claiming P2B New Haven LLC defaulted on a loan and owes $115,816 in principal, interest and late fees. Luari claims she had been making repayment.
Bridgeport-based GL Contractors LLC, in March, filed suit against Luari, P2B New Haven LLC, RAW Hartford LLC and Zacharias Morton. The suit contends Morton is part-owner of the New Haven and Hartford restaurants. Luari said he is just a project manager.
GL Contractors’ suit claims it was partially paid for fit-out work at The Place 2 Be’s New Haven location and the RAW restaurant in Hartford and is owed $122,123.67.
Luari said all contractors have been paid and supplied her with lien waivers.
Luari acknowledged it has been a rocky year. She claims an employee of her Springfield location embezzled “well over $100,000,” including a check that was supposed to pay for her liquor license renewal. Luari said that cost her six months of liquor sales, as well as reduced dining sales, a cost she puts at $2 million.
“The basis of our brand is eggs and alcohol,” Luari said. “Nobody wanted to BYOB.”
There have been other challenges, including a fire that closed her downtown Hartford location for about six months in 2022, which was then hit with flooding the following year. The July 2023 flood cost about $300,000 in damages and lost sales, Luari said. Construction work outside her front door brought sales crashing down 70% for another five months, she said.
Luari’s “RAW” restaurant in Hartford temporarily closed its doors in August for a new menu and renovations. Luari said vandalism delayed the reopening until October.
Luari did manage to clear some legal hurdles this year.
Earlier this month, the landlord of her downtown Hartford location in Constitution Plaza ended an eviction suit. Luari would not disclose terms but said both parties had reached a “mutually beneficial” agreement.
In January, Luari also reached a stipulated court agreement to end an eviction complaint for her New Haven location. Those terms were extended again in July.
“From our standpoint, we have resolved everything without closing a single door,” Luari said. “We have taken financial hits time and time again, and we have taken it to the chin. We don’t have investors to cover this. We are independently owned, and we take these hits right out of pocket. We recover each and every time.”
