The Must Wine Bar Close to Finding Its Way Back to Historic Core
Ed Fuentes
The owners of The Must posted this notice on the door of their former 5th street space on July 3, hours after they were unexpectedly put out of business.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — One month after their wine bar vanished in the early morning hours, The Must co-owner Rachel Thomas tells blogdowntown they are getting close to securing a new space in the Historic Core. They do not expect to return to the 5th street space the bar had occupied since December of 2008.
Even after a lease gets signed, a reopening would take time. Buildout and permitting could take another six months to a year.
A moving truck pulled up to bar and emptied it shortly after it had closed for the night in the early morning hours of July 3. In the morning, Thomas and co-owner Coly Den Haan received reports that the space had been ransacked, and arrived to find most of the furniture and supplies gone.
The wine bar space, which shared a lease with neighboring hot dog shop Weeneez, had been sold out from under the pair by Weeneez owners Julie Rico and Sid Carter.
What became less clear was what legal recourse the pair had under a complicated operating contract that made them minority owners of Weeneez, LLC, instead of subtenants in the space.
While The Must and Weeneez navigate the arbitration process to determine what, if any, contract terms were violated, The Must last month filed suit against the unknown purchaser of the space, named at the time of filing simply as John Doe. The complaint alleges that the purchaser remains in possession of equipment owned by the bar, is guilty of conspiracy in the changeover and intentionally harmed The Must's business.
On July 28, the bar amended its complaint to name "David A. McGrath" as Doe #1, but further information is hard to find.
A trio of stories published on blogdowntown after the wine bar's generated several hundred comments in support of The Must and decrying its eviction.
Rico recently sent a letter to the board of the neighborhood council asking that they encourage Downtown residents to give the new business that goes into the space a chance.
“I would like to ask you to help usher in the new owner of both spaces," she wrote. "As it is hard enough to open any kind of business downtown let alone with this terribly mean attitude that some people are espousing towards this change over. A welcome instead of a protest would be nice."
Michael Sweeney on August 05, 2010, at 08:47PM – #1
Julie "Lousy Hotdogs & Grand Larceny" Rico:
You can send as many letters as you want, but if any new business has anything to do with you or your purported buyer, a big chunk of us will never set foot in there. We might, though, highly recommend it to our friends. Especially the friends of ours who are continually asking for change, a light, a smoke, or free tap water.
Sara Jones on August 05, 2010, at 10:17PM – #2
The Must Won't Bust! Good luck with everything Coly and Rachel.
And Julie, Mike is right. You're finished. Move along now.
Jamie DeFrisco on August 05, 2010, at 10:18PM – #3
Good to hear that The Must is finding a new home. I look forward to them opening.
I have absolutely no interest in going to the place that is going to take over the former space that The Must and Weeneez were located. I don't understand why Julie Rico is so intent on giving this business a good name unless she has some part in it. The whole thing is shady. If a proper notice was given to The Must, then I would feel differently. I'm sorry if this new business has nothing to do with Julie Rico, but like I have said before they still should have been aware of the situation.
Guest on August 05, 2010, at 10:49PM – #4
it's hysterical that Julie Rico, who has rampaged throughout many neighborhood council meetings, would crawl back begging for support. julie rico, your reap what you sow.....
ps. didn't she sell her business?? why would she care about the success of the new business?? could it be that she planned all along to be part owner in the new endeavor. proof again that she orchestrated the whole thing.
David McBane on August 05, 2010, at 11:06PM – #5
#4 - Her sales agreement probably has some reps and warranties that she was selling a space that was free from problems - in other words, that the buyer wasn't buying into a mess - and I bet she didn't put in the contract that the Must owners were not on board with the change and would fight the change. Even if the sales contract didn't have anything like it, if the new place is boycotted and fails (which is good chance at this point), the new owner would probably sue Rico for breach of contract. So Rico may be trying to head this off by hoping to help out the new owner since if the new owner does well, he is not going to care about the mess between the Must and Rico. You can't sue unless you've been harmed.
Dixon on August 05, 2010, at 11:14PM – #6
"A trio of stories published on blogdowntown after the wine bar's generated several hundred comments in support of The Must and decrying its eviction."
Correction---several hundred comments in support of The Must and a couple dozen or so posts from "Howie" (Don Noyes-More of Downtown LA Life) who felt that the Must owners were to blame for not being careful enough with their business arrangements with his pal Julie Rico.
Let's set the record straight.
Guest on August 05, 2010, at 11:22PM – #7
"this terribly mean attitude" -- seriously Julie, it's called Karma, you reap what you sow.
Anthony Costantino on August 05, 2010, at 11:53PM – #8
I can't imagine that it would be a surprise to find a boycott or a bunch of bad-mouthing going on. DT is a very tight community, I look forward to seeing people plaster flyers and stickers all over the frontage of this new place, letting the customers know to stay away.
Guest on August 06, 2010, at 12:00AM – #9
It's a bummer it will take that long to reopen, but we'll be waiting! Good luck, ladies, with the permitting and build-out. I'm sure it will be amazing. Here's to a quick and easy transition.
-Brian Huff
Don Garza on August 06, 2010, at 12:12AM – #10
Just tonight I was whining to a friend of mine that I really do miss the MUST and now understand the reason others were feeling violated by the mess! I wanted to go to the Must and I can;t because it is not there !
Community is not based on lies... If you are for community either show it in actions or don't speak it at all.. Mean spiritedness is when you are trying to convince others you are all for the community and then turn around and do something that hurts it. If you are machiavellian be machiavellian, villian , but don't portray yourself as buddha and do a karmic fopa that will end badly in the future.. my two cents is that someone who can not honor their agreements is not a person worthy of respect or trust... be weary of them in the future... god knows what they are serving if they can't be trusted..
Guest on August 06, 2010, at 01:37AM – #11
David McGrath is not the name this man told the LAPD when it was reported that there were trespassers on the premises. He stated his name was David Holtzman.
The new owner was part of the team that arrived with security guards at 2:45 in the morning and stole all the equipment, wine and food. His signature is on the documents for the storage company.
Not sure how one is innocent if you pre-meditate a break in and theft of a new business and then say you were not aware that there would be a problem. What other aliases or thefts was he involved in before this shakedown?
Seems Ms. dishonest Julie can't help but surrounding herself with trouble.
If this truly was a selling of the business, there will need to be a 30 day posting of transfer of liquor license with public hearing.
Also seems to me that all work has stopped inside the cafe for the last 3 weeks.
Bert Green (@bgfa) on August 06, 2010, at 02:27AM – #12
Nobody will patronize the new business that opens in the Must's old space. The new "owner" will sadly discover that he will be out of business in a short time as a casualty of Julie Rico's vicious destruction. I don't know this "David" whatever his last name is, and don't really care. But Julie Rico has totally destroyed any possibility of success. I agree with #5; David will be suing Julie at some point. That is, if he really is the new owner.
Jamie DeFrisco on August 06, 2010, at 07:55AM – #13
I think I've said this before (unless I just thought it), that there is no way for this new business owner to be completely innocent. Even if the person had no clue about the situation at hand they still should have known that The Must was a successful business. If you did your research on downtown you would have seen that. To want to close down a successful business is just straight up malicious. I wouldn't want to patron a place that willingly, suddenly shut down a successful business.
On another note it makes me wonder if any of this drama was involved in Lime's demise.
film rob on August 06, 2010, at 09:13AM – #14
If you have or ever wanted to own a business you would support a full boycott of this space and the new owners. I can't wait to buy the equipment at a discounted price once they fail next year. Maybe I'll do some window shopping when they open.
Karma, it's what's for dinner.
skidrowdude on August 06, 2010, at 10:06AM – #15
It's great to hear the The Must will stay in Historic Core- how I miss them! It's too bad the build-out and permitting will take so long...
I feel very bad for the employees to wake up one day and not have a place to work through no fault of their own, and zero warning. The employees made the Must such a nice place to hang out. I'm sure they'll all be busy by the time the bar opens again, but maybe some will come back. The new Spring St. bars just don't have the same vibe as The Must...
Julie Jamerson on August 06, 2010, at 10:19AM – #16
THE MUST WON'T BUST!
P.S. Dear Must, I miss your beer! My heart will forever remain yours! :)
Scott M on August 06, 2010, at 11:35AM – #17
It's hard to imagine that Julie Rico's behavior in all of this wasn't motivated by anything other than copious amounts of greed. Pure and simple.
I've never met any of the principal players in this drama--nor have I patronized either establisment--but it's very easy to want to root against Julie Rico.
Karma, indeed.
Ankur on August 06, 2010, at 11:36AM – #18
Q;
Is barry shy and Rico friends?
just sayin'
Nancy Richardson (@nanorich) on August 06, 2010, at 01:50PM – #19
It will be interesting to see what happens when Eric finds out all of the last guest postings come from the same ISP.
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on August 06, 2010, at 02:36PM – #20
I've deleted a dozen comments posted by two IP adresses over the last hour because they were inappropriate and unrelated to any substance.
I'm going to require that future comments on this story come from logged in users.
Rich Alossi on August 06, 2010, at 03:31PM – #21
After another obscenities-laden interaction with anti-gay crazy on 5th and Spring just now, let's hope they find a location that's in a little better location.
Christophe Serafino on August 07, 2010, at 02:46PM – #22
Can't wait for their return. I'll be there the day it opens, no matter where it is. :-)
Bert Green (@bgfa) on August 07, 2010, at 05:27PM – #23
Wow, Eric, maybe you should consider banning guest comments all the time.
Steve Marks on August 08, 2010, at 12:45AM – #24
Sorry, Julie. No request for "playing nice" can undo the awful things you did in the dark of night and the shady business shenanigans under the cloak of aliases. The whole thing stinks. The next business in that spot MUST fail. It simply sends the right message: The bad guys don't win.
Anthony Costantino on August 08, 2010, at 08:14PM – #25
Peeked in behind the paper covering at Weenez tonight and it looked like Ms. Rico was training some staff on the cash register. Is the Must renovation on hold while they re-open as a new space temporarily?
ashley on August 08, 2010, at 10:11PM – #26
Maybe we should send Julie Rico fan mail? Let her know how much we love her? HA! Yeah Right!
julie@weeneez.com
Alonso on August 11, 2010, at 02:06PM – #27
Word is out:
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/articles/2010/08/11/news/doc4c6305543bb92697778816.txt
Anthony Costantino on August 12, 2010, at 05:50PM – #28
There's a "The Must" sign up in the ground floor of the Rosslyn Lofts, are they up and running already?
John on October 02, 2010, at 06:00PM – #29
If villain David McGrath came in the middle of the night with a truck and stole $50,000 worth of vine and equipment form the business he don’t own, we should spread the word to avoid any business he is affiliated with. What David A. McGrath did at 2:30am in Down Town’s darling “The Must” is criminal!
We wondered if this is the same person described on this Homeowner's Association Blog - Does anyone know him: http://ccvalliance.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post.html#comments
Comments on other sites suggest that he is the known CROOK from Philadelphia who acts as chef and as such he got recruited by Taro Ito at Inglewood Casino to flip hamburgers and Pink Hot Dogs and take care of hungry guests by bringing food to them on carts so they can gamble more of their money out.