Barbara Lynch Is Shutting Her Restaurants, But Not Before the City Sues for Nearly $1.7M in Unpaid Taxes

Barbara Lynch may be in the process of shutting down all of her restaurants, but this Boston chef saga is not yet finished. In the latest chapter, the city of Boston has sued the chef for over $1.6 million in unpaid taxes, according to the Boston Globe.

The lawsuit alleges that the City of Boston sent Lynch a slew of final notice letters regarding unpaid taxes for all seven of her Boston restaurants on January 11, 2024, right after she had announced that Menton, Sportello, and Drink were shutting down. According to the suit, Lynch hadn’t paid personal property taxes on some of her Boston restaurants for more than a decade, except for one payment to each property in August 2021. That has amounted to some huge overdue bills: $589,430.01 at No. 9 Park; $156,188.07 at B&G Oysters; 148,269.61 at the Butcher Shop; $515,107.23 at Menton; $134,714.57 at Drink; $124,995.21 at Sportello; and $8,003.99 at Stir. In total, the city claims that the chef owes Boston $1,676,708.69 in unpaid taxes.

Furthermore, the city filed a request for a temporary restraining order against Lynch to prevent the hefty tax amounts from going unpaid in the case of a sale of any of the restaurants. Lynch has already announced her intent to sell each of the properties: Chief operating officer Lorraine Tomlinson-Hall told Eater in October that No. 9 Park is in the final stages of a sale, while the liquor license for the Butcher Shop in the South End has been sold to the Mazi Food Group (Kava, Ilona, Gigi).

In response to the lawsuit, Tomlinson-Hall says that Lynch’s restaurant group was not aware of any taxes owed until the news was covered in the press this week. She points out that when the liquor license for the Butcher Shop was sold, the group received a “Certificate of Good Standing” from the city. “This obviously could not have happened if taxes were owed,” Tomlinson-Hall says in an email.

“None of the distinct LLCs have ever owned the properties in which the restaurants have operated from, so this cannot be a real estate tax,” Tomlinson-Hall continues. “This leads us to believe this is an error and we are greatly disappointed that we were not contacted directly or via the company CPA or legal counsel. This has caused unnecessary embarrassment to Barbara Lynch and her family but we look forward to reconciling this matter with the City.”

Aside from this lawsuit, Lynch is still involved in an earlier lawsuit that was brought against the chef by two former employees who claim that Lynch withheld tips during the pandemic. That lawsuit is ongoing. More than a dozen employees also spoke out last year in both the Boston Globe and the New York Times to allege that Lynch fostered toxic workplaces in her restaurants over years, which she has denied.

Update: November 15, 2024, 11:10 a.m.: This article was updated to include comments from Lorraine Tomlinson-Hall.