WICHITA — It looks like there’s more to the Olive Tree Bistro story than the Toubia sisters are telling.
According to a lawyer who represents the landlords for the Olive Tree Bistro and Chelsea’s Bar and Grill, the restaurants are being evicted.
“We filed an eviction petition . . . a week ago,” says Jeff Kennedy of Martin Pringle. “They’re not paying their rent.”
Kennedy says Latour Management, which owns the restaurants and banquet facility at 29th and Rock, is more than $60,000 behind in rent.
“In January, that’s when we started having problems with them paying their rent on a timely basis,” he says.
Latour president Joumana Toubia says there are problems with the condition of the building.
Kennedy says some of the property condition issues Latour has raised are nonissues, such as moisture problems that occurred during roof repairs. He says those have been corrected.
As for some of the other issues, Kennedy says, “The management company was perfectly willing to resolve them, but they would not pay their rent.”
He says: “Anytime you get into a situation like this, somebody is going to look for excuses why they’re not paying their rent.”
The restaurants are open for now.
“That’s something that we’re talking about,” Kennedy says.
It’s not clear when they will close or where they may reopen.