A Shocking Restaurant Saga Of Fraud & Embezzlement At Embeya

By Anthony Todd in Food on Jun 19, 2017 1:50PM



(Photo by Anthony Todd for his review of Embeya in 2013)

We covered the weird, tragic saga of the closing of West Loop hotspot Embeya pretty closely as it was happening. First, the restaurant's opening chef Thai Dang left under some pretty hostile circumstances. Then, Dang sued the restaurant for unpaid wages and won. Eventually, the restaurant closed, but the space still sits empty. What the heck happened?

Thanks to some masterful, in-depth reporting by Peter Frost at Crain's, we now know the entire, complex saga. It contains some TV-movie level drama, complete with luxury goods, international flight from the law, complex personal relationships and lots and lots of cash.

The mess primarily involves two of the co-owners of Embeya, Attila Gyulai and his wife Komal Patel. They, along with Dang and his brother Kenny, put up the initial financing for Embeya, and it became a fairly huge hit.

Then things started to get weird. First, strange things happened inside the restaurant. Checks didn't make it onto the books. Guest bills were inflated and the extra money disappeared. Once Dang left, the couple eventually drained the restaurant's accounts, abandoned their car and condo and fled the country, traveling all over the world to Mexico, Italy and Germany.

Dang and his now-wife Danielle have eventually clawed their way to a happy ending, and their new restaurant, HaiSous, opens this Wednesday. There's still no sign of Gyulai, though they're tracking his movements through subpoenas of his bank records. Despite winning their legal battles against him, they can't easily collect anything as long as he's running, and may never get paid.

If you're going to read one piece of long-form food writing this week, this should be it.