Lucien Smith inside his new restaurant, Food.
Photo: Colin Clark/The New York Times/Redux
The artist Lucien Smith has said that his new Canal Street restaurant, Food, is a sort of revitalization of the famous artist-run restaurant that opened with the same name in Soho in the ’70s. A couple of weeks after Smith’s version opened, it managed to embody the spirit of that era in New York when a brawl broke out. One night in mid-September, two employees say, a “neighborhood guy” came into the restaurant at close to midnight, visibly intoxicated and displaying alarming signs of mental-health issues. Smith was in the restaurant, along with three young women who were working. When the man asked Smith for a beer, the artist offered him water instead — a gesture that the women working say “invited him to stay” despite their safety concerns.
At some point, the man stepped outside and Smith went to his apartment. Employees say that the man then returned, attempting to steal bottles of Hennessy from the restaurant and antagonizing the workers. They say this man grabbed a chair from a next-door restaurant and threatened to break Food’s windows. Then he punched a customer before the fight spilled out from the sidewalk into the middle of Canal Street. Both men were bloody and on the ground when the fight ended. Alexis Booker, Food’s general manager, says she called Smith, but “Lucien didn’t come down from his fucking apartment,” she remembers. “I’m defenseless down here.” Another employee says she screamed at Smith about the incident. She went in once more, then walked out. “I saw all I needed to see in four shifts, I’ll tell you that much,” the employee says.
Whether the restaurant received the blessing of Carol Goodden, who co-founded the original Food with the late artist Gordon Matta-Clark, remains a matter of some debate. But the brawl, employees say, is just one incident among several that have plagued a hectic first month in business for Smith and his partners, Kenneth Farmer (a co-founder of the events company Nuit Blanche New York) and Laurence Chandler (a former general manager for the Yeezy brand), that extends back to its opening.
Booker says that toward the end of August, she went to the Department of Health for a standard-procedure visit and scheduled what the agency calls a pre-operational inspection, an optional trial before an actual, required inspection. Booker canceled the appointment after Food’s water heater broke; Smith wanted to reschedule it after a replacement was installed but never did. Plus the restaurant was already open. “If the Department of Health did come,” Booker says, “it would have been game over.” Not that anyone was trying to keep it a secret: On September 5, ArtNet covered the opening party (attended by designer Cynthia Rowley, among others), writing that many people “doubted that Smith could actually pull off opening a restaurant … but he did it.”
Booker has a different view. “He’s ChatGPT-ing every single thing,” she alleges. Smith — who wouldn’t talk to me for this story, instead referring me to an attorney — has texted service staff asking where he could buy basic supplies. Zac Bahaj, the owner of the unrelated art-world canteen Lucien, has been helping with operations at Food; it fell to him to explain that someone with a food-safety education permit needed to be on the premises at all times. Finances also seemed to be an issue: By mid-September, Smith shared that the restaurant’s bank-account balance was just $2,700, not enough to pay distributors or cover payroll. (Smith was nevertheless entertaining the idea of expanding Food to Miami Beach at the time.)
On Wednesday, September 17, Booker messaged Smith that the restaurant was “out of money,” and he shared that another $2,000 was being deposited into the restaurant’s account, though he didn’t specify the source of the funds. “Hopefully we start turning a profit now,” he replied. But Booker explained that payroll alone required $10,000 in addition to balances owed to various purveyors and distributors. “10k???” Smith texted back. He added that there wasn’t enough money to pay for Booker to work more than 40 hours per week.
Three days later, on Saturday, Booker says she went directly to the restaurant’s investors: If she and the restaurant’s sous-chef didn’t get paid what they were allegedly owed, she would walk. (In a text to Smith, Booker claimed this was $3,990 for the sous-chef and $5,160 for her.) After Smith learned of this, Booker says he called her and fired her. Then he called her again to hire her back. The conversation continued via text: “If you want to keep this job or be paid, I need you to be here,” Smith wrote. Understandably, Booker was confused. “If you expect to get paid in a timely manner then I would advise you to show up,” he continued.
While all of this was happening, the restaurant’s Instagram page told a different story. “This is going to explode,” one commenter wrote on a post of a New York Times photographer shooting the restaurant for a story. “Omg need looks like if jimmy John’s bread was actually good,” another commenter wrote under an image of a roast-beef po’ boy.
Behind the scenes, Booker was texting Farmer about the money she says she was still owed, breaking down her hours and the last time she’d been paid. “Truly unfortunate this has worked out like this,” Farmer wrote. Initially, Food’s team had sent Booker a separation agreement that included a nondisparagement clause. When she refused, Farmer argued it was “standard.” Soon after, he sent her a new agreement without the clause, saying payment would take up to two days.
Through his attorney, Smith sent along the following statement regarding the situation: “The management of Fooood LLC has terminated its former Interim General Manager. We understand that she has raised concerns among the press, our vendors, our staff, and investors. We do not agree with the tone, content, or professionalism in airing such contentions or grievances, and wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
