QUEENS — The owners of neighborhood burger joint Twist and Smash’d, which was evicted from its Forest Hills location several weeks ago, are planning to fight to regain access to the space, in which they said they invested more than $200,000.
The eatery, which replaced clothing store Diva, opened at 72-06 Austin St. in November 2013, shut its doors nearly two months ago and has remained closed ever since. By the end of June, a "for rent" sign was posted in the entrance.
Samuel Mizrahi, the Century 21 real estate broker who represents the landlord, said in an email that “the owners have had a problem [with Twist and Smash’d] since they moved in three years ago, it has been a long process to evict them, with many excuses along the way.”
The landlord — 72-06 Austin Realty Corp. — initially filed a lawsuit against the restaurant for nonpayment of rent in the Queens County Civil Court about two years ago, records show.
In April this year, the landlord said Twist and Smash'd owed nearly $130,000 in unpaid rent and taxes, according to court documents, and an eviction order was issued on May 20.
But Robert Cano, the owner of Twist and Smash’d, said that he stopped paying his more than $7,000-a-month rent because the landlord misled him. He told DNAinfo New York he was not informed that the certificate of occupancy for the building only allows six people to be on the ground floor at a time while the restaurant was arranged to seat up to 20 people, according to the owner and court records.
Cano also said that the lease was signed for the entire building, which includes two apartments on the second floor. He later found out that the certificate of occupancy allows that floor to be used for office space only, not the residential apartments currently in use.
"I didn’t think it was a big deal," Cano said about leasing the whole building. "Then we found out the apartments are not supposed to be there."
According to court papers, Cano, who invested more than $200,000 in the restaurant, said he was informed about the restrictions in the certificate by his architect and during a city building inspection.
At that time he was also informed then that if he wanted to bring the building up to code for zoning purposes it would cost an additional $300,000, according to court documents.
Cano then tried to renegotiate the terms of the contract, court records read, but the landlord would not budge and instead filed a lawsuit after Cano stopped paying rent.
In March 2015, Cano was ordered to pay more than $55,000 to the landlord. Twist and Smash'd tried unsuccessfully to use a variety of legal tactics in an effort to appeal the decision.
Eventually, Cano issued the check in June, but the eviction — for which an order was issued May 20 — had already been conducted.
Cano said Monday that he is now hoping to reverse the eviction as he is trying to get another court hearing sometime this week. It was not clear whether the court will grant it and on what grounds.
"We want to regain access to the space," Cano said, adding that he also wants the landlord to bring the building up to code.
"We’ve been fighting with them in court to make the building proper like it’s supposed to be for our lease," Cano said.
Mizrahi did not immediately return a request for comment on the situation and details related to the building's certificate of occupancy.
A representative for the landlord said in court documents that 72-06 Austin Realty Corp. is not interested in "re-instating the Landlord-tenant relationship" with Twist and Smash'd.
Century 21 advertises the space as "available."
