If landlord Michael Eden had his way, the popular Caribe Soul restaurant would have already been dead. But friends and fans came through at the last minute to help fend off the eviction police. And Eden's lawyer, Susan Cardenas, committed a bizarre legal gaffe by attaching another restaurant's lease to a lawsuit charging that Caribe Soul had violated provisions of the "attached lease."
In June of last year, partners Michael Weston and Kevin Robinson transplanted Caribe Soul from its tiny Bahama Village location to the refurbished old service station adjacent to Eden House at Grinnell and Fleming Streets.
But in a lawsuit filed last month, Eden alleges that Weston and Robinson defaulted on their $5,250-per-month rent agreement and he wants them evicted. But Weston and Robinson say he really wants them out because he's already in negotiations with the owners of Camille's.
The Caribe Soul partners admit that they got behind on rent payments when concurrent sewer and water main construction on both Fleming and Grinnell almost completely blocked access to the restaurant for three weeks in April. No matter. On June 26, Weston and Robinson were served with an eviction notice.
At a brief hearing on July 17, Judge Vernon gave them until 4 o'clock that very same day to come up with $9,542!
"The late rent in question had grown to include the July rent, which wasn't even due yet, a year's worth of sewer fees that the landlord had been previously paying and three months of late fees and court fees," Kevin said.
But with the help of a group of friends and fans, Michael and Kevin came up with the money! All of it! Three hours before the deadline! And it was placed in escrow with the Court Clerk.
While Eden and Attorney Cardenas may have been chagrined by this unexpected development, they didn't back off in their efforts to kick Caribe Soul out into the street. Although Eden is out of town on an extended vacation, Cardenas again filed a motion to evict Caribe Soul. But a hearing originally scheduled for this afternoon has reportedly been cancelled.
"To meet their demands, we now have more than $14,000 in escrow in the Clerk's Office," Kevin said. "We now think we've overpaid because Attorney Cardenas based her demands on somebody else's lease," Kevin said.
"Our relationship with Michael and Colleen Eden began in 1998 when they used to come to our little two-table restaurant on Petronia Street in Bahama Village," said Weston. "In November of that year, they offered us the opportunity to take over the Grinnell and Fleming location next to the Eden House. They said they would refurbish the building and even help us get some start-up financing.
"At that time, Eden was in the process of forcing out Martin's Restaurant, which had occupied the courtyard in the rear of the Eden House for six years. To do that, Martin's was presented with an impossible lease. There were so many unreasonable conditions that Martin's had no choice but to move.
"They offered us basically the same lease— but without the unreasonable conditions," Weston said.
"But we started having problems here almost immediately," Kevin said. "Construction delays pushed our planned opening date back from March to mid-June. And the promised financing help was slow coming.
"Two weeks after we finally got open, Eden and his family left on their annual six-week vacation," Kevin said. "But the renovations were still unfinished and, suddenly, the construction crews disappeared from the site. When we complained to the Eden House general manager, we were served with an eviction notice."
"Caribe Soul had been open 45 days," Weston said.
In researching this story, we went over to the Clerk of the Court's office and looked at the case file. We couldn't believe what we saw. In an attempt to convince Judge Vernon that Michael and Kevin are in violation of one or more of their lease provisions, Attorney Cardenas attached a draft of the old lease that had been rejected by Martin's! The lease attached to the lawsuit has Martin's name on it, not Caribe Soul! We're not making this up.
Cardenas did, however, attachthe signature page from the current Caribe Soul lease to the Martin's lease— on purpose or accidentally— which makes it appear that Michael and Kevin signed the lease attached to the lawsuit.
At presstime, Cardenas had not responded to requests for comment.
"There's also something else funny about that lawsuit," Kevin said. "Colleen Eden is listed as a plaintiff. But before she left on vacation, she came over to see us, all happy and friendly. She was excited about her trip and she wanted to tell us all about it. And she said she would see us when she got back.
"We had received our eviction notice with her name on it just a few days earlier," Kevin said. "At first, we thought she was being insensitive about our plight, maybe even cruel. But then we realized that she probably didn't know anything about the lawsuit! Is it legal to put someone's name on a lawsuit without their knowledge?"
In the meantime, while the lawyers conspire to sort it all out, Caribe Soul is open for dinner every day except Thursday. Go by and see why the restaurant's regulars were so quick and willing to come forward to ensure that this place stays alive. This isn't your everyday garden variety Key West restaurant.
Michael Weston's famous Voodoo Sauce was named one of the top two new products this year nationwide by Chili Pepper magazine.
And recently, when the elite National Association of Specialty Foods picked four new members from more than 100 applicants, Caribe Soul was one of them— and they were invited to show their line of gourmet sauces at the Fancy Food Show in New York City last month.
But we have to tell you about our favorites at Caribe Soul:
• The iceberg salad wedge marinated in Italian seasonings and covered with blue cheese and blue cheese dressing.
• Spicy conch stew or crab corn chowder.
• Mango chicken or stuffed yellow tail snapper with side dishes like baked eggplant and stir fried cabbage.
• Sweet potato pie or cherry peach cobbler.
This is the first time, and probably the last time you'll see a restaurant review as part of one of our editorials. But Caribe Soul is worth saving, Do your part.