February 28, 2020
An Iranian who had a business selling cooked Persian food from a stall in Manhattan is in a nasty legal spat now with a Jordanian who bought the store where the stall was located.
The site is 12 West 18th Street in the Flatiron District. It’s a pizzeria. The angry Iranian is now out on the sidewalk, handing out fliers shouting: “DON’T EAT HERE.”
For seven years, The New York Times reports, “That corner belonged to one of Manhattan’s most charming and serendipitous pop-up restaurants: Taste of Persia NYC.”
There, Saeed Pourkay, 66, a print-shop manager turned chef, stocked chafing dishes and pots with the likes of fesenjan and ash reshteh.
Although the New York area is home to the second-largest population of Iranian descent (more than 32,000 people) in the United States, there are only a few Persian restaurants in the city. Pourkay, who left Tehran in 1978, sited his place in a corner of the pizzaria and drew a loyal clientele.
Then, in November, new owners took over the pizzeria. They quarreled over his share of the rent — he paid $900 a week for his corner, contributing about a quarter of the owners’ total monthly payment — and they asked him to leave.
He accepted his fate, he said, and cleared out his space as promised. He thought he had parted with the owners on good terms, trading hugs and kisses. But when he returned two days later to pick up equipment and food he’d left behind, he found a new sign posted in what was once his window. It said, “Tasty Persia NYC.”
He confronted Thogan Magableh, one of the pizzeria owners and an immigrant from Jordan. What happened next is in dispute. But things got physical. Both parties called the police, and Pourkay was barred from the premises.
Shortly after, he posted a video online that showed him weeping in front of the pizzeria, saying, “He stole everything.” Former customers started flooding Facebook and Yelp with negative reviews of Pizza Paradise. A GoFundMe campaign, set up by fans on Pourkay’s behalf, has raised more than $22,000 to help him open his own place.
Pourkay is now working with a pro-bono lawyer to prepare a suit alleging intellectual property theft. He says he will continue to protest.