While the doors of the Blind Pig restaurant are now closed, the owners of the once acclaimed restaurant are fighting former landlords over inappropriately taking money. Joseph Frase, owner of the Blind Pig, accuses SP Holdings of taking money while managing the bar Meat, above Frase’s eatery.
The lawsuit filed in Jefferson Circuit Court Monday names SP Holdings, the company which owns the building the Blind Pig once lived in, and Charles Peyton Ray III of SP Holdings. According the the lawsuit, Ray entered into a partnership in 2011 with the Blind Pig in opening the bar Meat on the top floor of the building.
As manager of Meat, Ray wrote checks to himself, used the bar’s business debit card and pocketed cash from drawers of the bar, according the lawsuit.
After Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Control officials made inquiries of the bar’s use of the Blind pig’s liquor license, Frase close Meat in the spring of 2013, according to the restaurant in the eviction case. According to attorney Steve Porter, the restaurant paid a fine to settle the ABC case.
Before the legal woes of the Blind Pig, Louisvillians knew it only as the favorite Butchertown gastropub. Now the owners name breach of contract and interfering with business relationships, among other things, in their lawsuit against Ray and SP Holdings. For now, the saga of the Bling Pig, asking for unspecified damages will be determine at a jury trial.