CURRENTLY SERVING:

All last week, we’d been hearing tell of an email circulating from a disgruntled local union employee to friends and certain members of local press, containing a fairly stunning charge: That the ownership behind Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse at 15th and Chestnut had stiffed union contractors to the tune of millions after the steakhouse had opened in late November. Today, Michael Klein confirms that strange things were (and are) afoot at Del Frisco’s, although it’s much more messy than a simple dine-and-dash for Del Frisco’s. In total, there are currently eight lawsuits surrounding the construction of the steakhouse, and they run every which way: Contractors suing Del Frisco’s, Del Frisco suing its general contractor, and smaller contractors suing the general contractor. On the line are millions upon millions of dollars. This is a whopper, to be sure — a climax in a string of bad luck for Del Frisco’s that includes a lowly one bell review last week from Craig LaBan, as well as a growing rep for being the very douchiest of the new generation of Philly steakhouses (among them Butcher & Singer and Union Trust), all vying for the same dollars within a ten-block Center City radius. And that’s not even counting the court of public opinion, where the notion of stiffing a bunch of Joe Plumbers in these trying times is akin to such crimes as, oh, I dunno, AIG bonuses or denying the Holocaust. Del Frisco’s, good luck to you. You’re gonna need it.