Page Six hears that p.r. guru Ron Berkowitz is suing a group of three restaurants — which counts kitchen stars Masaharu Morimoto and Robbie Felice among its chefs — for close to a quarter of a million dollars in allegedly unpaid fees.
Neither Felice nor Morimoto is a defendant in the suit.
In July of last year, Montclair Hospitality Group hired Berkowitz’s Berk Communications to do its promotions and public relations work.
Shortly after, MHG — which already had two other Asian-inspired spots, Ani Ramen and Pasta Ramen, in Montclair, NJ — opened Nobu alum Morimoto’s MM restaurant in the tony Garden State bedroom community.
According to court papers filed in New York County Supreme Court, the group agreed to pay Berkowitz — who reps New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Fanatics owner Michael Rubin and Yankee great Alex Rodriguez, among others — $20,000 per month for six months, plus expenses, plus a $5,000-per-month fund for “food, beverage, catering, or other hospitality services.”
The deal said that the contract would re-up for another six months unless someone canceled it.
According to the papers, the group stopped paying in January of this year, and stopped responding to emails about the missing cash by March.
Now attorneys for Berkowitz say the company owes him the unpaid fees, $20,000 for every month still left on the contract, $60,000 for the food and drink fund, plus interest and now legal fees — coming out to $180,166.
Ani Ramen has been open in the Essex County town — which is home to a lot of New York athletes and is frequented by celebs from “Real Housewives” to Justin Bieber — since 2014, and Pasta Ramen has been around since 2021.
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