The Anchor Bar at 4300 Maple Road, near Sweet Home Road, has a new owner.
Maple Road Wings LLC bought the franchised location and its assets for $375,000 after the previous owner fell into bankruptcy and filed to liquidate its holdings, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents. It's the same franchise location being sued by former employees for sexual harassment.
The company was in financial trouble before the sexual harassment claims were made, according to one of the creditors who attended a bankruptcy court hearing Monday and declined to give his name. The manager accused in the claims and the former restaurant owner deny the claims.
The restaurant's debts were listed in court papers at about $1.1 million, with assets of about $800,000.
The purchase agreement was signed by Andy Klie, the president of Franchise Development group, a Buffalo company with offices on Main Street that helps business owners develop their companies into franchises.
The Anchor Bar franchise had experienced cash flow problems over the years, forcing previous owner Minh Tran to pump new cash into the business to keep it running. Tran claims he is owed more than $700,000 for money he put into the business to pay its obligations, documents filed with the Bankruptcy Court said.
Tran was essentially an absentee owner until about a year ago, when he began trying to sell the restaurant – a process that included negotiations with former managers of the restaurant. He had a deal to sell the restaurant for $350,000, but that fell through when the business filed for bankruptcy, the court documents said.
The sexual harassment lawsuit is ongoing.
Kevin Stocker, who represents the women in the harassment case, said he has agreed not to pursue damages from the new restaurant owner, and will go through Tran and his company's insurance company instead.
But there are questions about whether the insurance policy would cover such damages, because the restaurant had fallen behind on bills and might have defaulted on its insurance bill, according to the creditor.
After the lawsuit was made public, "numerous" male and female employees came forward to substantiate the claims made by the women, saying they had witnessed the harassment, Stocker said.
In May, two women said they went to Tran, claiming sexual harassment by manager Jason Heinrich. The women said Heinrich groped them, made unwanted comments about their appearance, sent inappropriate text messages and called late at night.
The women claim the restaurant owner told them to quit because he didn't have anyone else to cover Heinrich's role as manager, the accusers told The Buffalo News. Tran confirmed the accusers' story that he said he would hire the women back if they were "nice" and stopped talking about the sexual harassment claims on social media.
"I told her if you do this, you destroy my manager’s life," Tran told The Buffalo News in May. "Because if I fire my manager, if he goes to another job nobody will hire him because of her doing a stupid thing."
Kyle Rzeszutek, former general manager at the Maple Road Anchor Bar, said Heinrich had worked at the restaurant in the past, and that Rzeszutek let Heinrich go when other claims of sexual harassment came to light. Rzeszutek said he informed Tran about the allegations, but that Tran rehired Heinrich after Rzeszutek left the company on May 1, 2018.
Tran and Heinrich told The Buffalo News in May that Heinrich had left to take care of his ailing father.
In addition to suing the Anchor Bar restaurant's insurance company, Stocker said the suit will seek damages from Heinrich, along with Anchor Bar corporate franchisor.
Accusations of harassment at Anchor Bar franchise turn into public dispute
![[BN] The Buffalo News](https://s3.amazonaws.com/email-campaign/tbn/%5BBN%5D-white.png)
Share this article