WICHITA — There’s more dueling going on at Ernie Biggs than just pianos.
The new business in the former Gaslamp Grille & Lounge space also appears to have dueling owners.
The partners in EB Wichita LLC, which has 51 percent operating control of the business, and former Gaslamp owner Whitney VinZant’s Flamboyant LLC, which has 49 percent control, had a financial disagreement.
“To get to the point, you have two choices, tell me today that you are going to put in your share of the money which is approximately $15,000 by tomorrow noon or I am going to operate the business through the weekend, take the money generated to pay our vendors and start shopping for a new location,” EB Wichita partner Daniel Bryant wrote in an e-mail to VinZant on Thursday.
“I don’t care how you take this, but my worst fears are being realized the very first week and I would rather close what looks like will be a very profitable venture than to put up with … like this for the next several years. Every single person in that town has warned us about you since the day we got there and it is becoming more and more evident we should have listened.”
Bryant couldn’t be reached for comment, but his partner, Jay Hickman, says everything is all right now.
“We needed them to put their money in, and they did on Friday,” Hickman says. “Everything got worked out, and everybody’s happy.”
In an e-mail to the partners, VinZant called the request for capital ”unexpected and unfortunate.”
“It is disconcerting that we are being asked to make a Capital Call, when I understand deposits from last week have not been properly processed into our accounts and we’ve been running a negative balance.”
