Ashwin Deshmukh knew how to make friends and shake people up

Sometimes you meet someone in New York who gives you both a good and bad feeling. Maybe you're introduced at a bar, through a friend of a friend. This person is charming and full of ideas, ideas that speak to you. He seems to know everyone you know and some other people you only follow on social media. You like him, even though you wonder if he's real. He has a story about the city and his place in it, a story in which he can invite you to play a role. It's tempting. We get the impression that he has a different impulse than the others, towards a destination that could be glamorous – or perhaps catastrophic.

One ​​of these people is Ashwin Deshmukh, 38 years old. managing partner of Superiority Burger, one of New York's most renowned restaurants, year-old.

Since reopening last April, the top vegetarian restaurant The East Village restaurant has received a three-star review from the New York Times, a James Beard Award nomination and the title of "America's Liveliest Restaurant" from GQ magazine. The fact that he took over the space once occupied by the venerable Odessa Restaurant, saving the neighborhood from another Duane Reade or Capital One, made him even more beloved.

But Jun Kwan, the owner of East Village Sichuan restaurant Spicy Moon, doesn't like Superiority Burger — or at least, the people behind the restaurant. In February, she sued them twice. The first suit claims that since 2021, when Ms. Kwan invested a quarter of a million dollars in Superiority Burger through Mr. Deshmukh, the company has gone bankrupt, refusing to send her proof of its equity and l ultimately completely unaware. The second lawsuit alleges that in 2022, Ms. Kwan loaned Mr. Deshmukh $200,000 and he has not repaid a cent.

Text messages Joining the prosecution's capture is the breakdown of Mr. Deshmukh's relationship with Ms. Kwan, a Taiwanese immigrant who started her business in middle age. Before Ms. Kwan's initial investment, Mr. Deshmukh wrote to her: "I am so confident in this and in our friendship that I am happy to personally guarantee your investment on a five-year basis." »

In October 2022, after a month of asking Mr. Deshmukh to repay the loan in increasingly desperate terms, Ms. Kwan wrote: “I supported you with all my heart, but now you don't pay. I refund the money and do not update what happened to sb when I am a shareholder. I don't sleep well because of this. »

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