A chef from Windsor, Ont., has turned down a Toronto restaurant he won in a raffle contest in December.
“It was a lottery and I didn’t really gather all the information before I bought the ticket,” said Sean McKerness.
The restaurant in question is Das Gasthaus, located on the Danforth near Broadview Avenue.
The owner, Ruthie Cummings, told CTV News in Septmeber that she wanted to sell the operation so that she could spend more time with her parents.
She had hoped to sell 4,000 tickets at $150 each. Cummings said the $600,000 would be used to pay down debt on the restaurant and cover legal fees.
“I feel so positive that someone is going to come in here and just make it into something that they love so much in the way that I love it so much,” Cummings said.
But two months after the draw, the Ontario Ministry of Labour says two outstanding complaints filed by employees remain against the restaurant.
The complaints are about who is responsible for wages now that Das Gasthaus is closed, information McKerness only found out after he had won the restaurant.
McKerness, who is the head chef and part-owner of the City Grill in downtown Windsor, went to Toronto to look into the issue for himself and created a potential business plan for the restaurant.
But Das Gasthaus only seats 35 and costs $6,000 a month on a 12-year lease, forcing him to walk away from the opportunity.
“Our business plan didn’t spit out a profit that was favourable,” McKerness said. “It would have been nice to come away with something, but I walked away with nothing but a few legal bills.”
With a report from CTV Windsor
