Last Saturday, Sweetiepie posted a note on its door saying it was closed owing to a kitchen fire, but a former employee of the restaurant tells us that’s not the case. According to our source, employees were told on October 11 that the restaurant wouldn’t be opening the next day, because of debts owed to vendors. “The last week and a half, we were flooded with collections calls from vendors,” says our source. “They were being shut off by a number of people.” Employees were owed a week’s pay when they were laid off, and we’re told that some of them filed a complaint with the labor board this Monday. Yesterday, it’s said, employees finally received an apologetic e-mail from co-owner Luke Janklow informing them that he was trying to reopen (Janklow did not return our phone call), and the future of the restaurant that Ryan Skeen was recently brought on to revamp — not to mention its infamous birdcage — remains uncertain.
