By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A legal battle is cooking over naming rights for Chelsea’s shuttered landmark eatery, Empire Diner, the New York Daily News reported.
Owners of the building, which was featured in the opening montage of Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” in addition to several other films, leased the space to The Gotham City Restaurant Group last spring.
But the diner’s former operators, Executive Chef Mitchell Woo and General Manager Renate Gonzalez, reportedly claim that the name of the iconic New York restaurant belongs to them. Woo and Gonzalez filed a trademark suit in Manhattan Federal Court last April, and on Friday a judge declined to dismiss the case, according to the News.
Charles Levinson, owner of the building, located on Tenth Avenue between West 22nd and 23rd Streets, has also filed a countersuit, seeking merchandising and franchise rights for the famed diner, which was frequented by Barbara Streisand and Madonna, the paper said.
Despite the pending legal battle, Levinson and representatives of the Gotham City Restaurant Group, who own Union Square hotspot Coffee Shop, say the new “Empire Diner” will open in the coming weeks, according to the News.
But even if the diner does open with legendary Empire Diner name, it may have to do so without the iconic Empire State Building model that once sat on the diner’s roof. The silver statue is nowhere to be found, the News reported.
