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FREEHOLD – The battle over who can serve Italian food at a Middletown strip mall came to a head in court Monday, with a judge reaching a split decision in a case pitting Luigi’s Famous Pizza against Tatum’s Table.
Superior Court Judge Mara Zazzali-Hogan ruled that the landlord of Lincroft Plaza must enforce a provision in its lease with Luigi’s giving the pizza restaurant exclusive rights in the strip mall to serve certain specified Italian dishes.
However, Zazzali-Hogan said she did not have authority to place any restrictions on Tatum’s Table. Under the case before her, she said she only had the authority to enforce the terms of Luigi’s lease.
So, now, the attorney for Tatum’s Table said he is in discussions with the landlord’s attorney in hopes of reaching an agreement to allow his client to expand operations at her breakfast-and-lunch spot to dinner service in exchange for leaving certain prohibited items off her dinner menu.
“If we agree to those restrictions, the landlord will consent to us being open at night,” Arthur Carmano, attorney for Tatum’s Table, said after the hearing.
Sung Yoon, attorney for Lincroft Plaza, would not comment. Christopher Brennan, attorney for Luigi’s, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
Tatum Menake, proprietor of Tatum’s Table, entered into a lease agreement with the landlord in January 2024 to take over a former Subway sandwich shop in Lincroft Plaza. The lease did not place any restrictions on what Tatum’s Table could serve, but said its operations are limited to breakfast and lunch.
Luigi’s, meanwhile, has been operating in the same strip mall since the 1990s. Its lease gives the restaurant exclusive rights in the strip mall to serve a lengthy list of Italian dishes, which are specifically marked on a menu accompanying the lease.
The trouble between the two eateries began when Menake posted on social media her intentions to open Tatum’s Table for dinner, with a menu containing dishes that Luigi’s claims exclusive rights to sell, under the terms of its lease.
Tatum’s Table opened for dinner one night, Valentine’s Day, offering a special menu that included items, such as chicken parmesan, which Luigi’s said Tatum’s Table was prohibited from selling.
On Feb. 18, Zazzali-Hogan issued a temporary injunction barring Tatum’s Table from being open after 4 p.m., thereby precluding dinner service.
Zazzali-Hogan said Monday that by enforcing the terms of Luigi’s lease, she was “not disrupting Tatum’s business as it stands now.”
The judge noted Luigi’s lease specifies it cannot open for breakfast or sell breakfast items, but it also gives that eatery exclusive rights to serve certain dishes, such as, “pizza, calzones, specialty rolls, eggplant rollatini, mussels, mozzarella sauce, ziti, meatballs, antipasto, mozzarella salad, pastas, gourmet sandwiches, pasta fagioli, and various veal and chicken dishes, including, for example, parmigiana, piccata, marsala, as well as various types of shrimp.”
Zazzali-Hogan said the proposed dinner menu for Tatum’s Table included items such as crispy artichokes with herbed ricotta, which are not on Luigi’s menu, but others which are, such as rigatoni and spaghetti in tomato, basil and truffle cream sauce.
Arguing that there are no restrictions in her lease on what food Menake can serve at her restaurant, Carmano told the judge that if there were, Menake may have chosen not to rent the premises.
He said the 21-year-old restaurateur used her grandparents’ inheritance and spent $150,000 to renovate the property and is now “being choked, squeezed and strong-armed by some tenant who has some specious damage.”
Zazzali-Hogan, however, said the terms of the landlord’s lease with Luigi’s is reasonable, and that the landlord breached them.
“Business persons, when they enter into a lease, it would make sense that they would be concerned about protecting themselves from competitors or else taking their business elsewhere,” the judge said.
“The court notes that although there’s been no evidence that Luigi’s business would be destroyed, no one could deny that if someone were to buy a chicken parmigiana sandwich from Tatum’s, that is business that takes away from Luigi’s. There would need to be proof or quantification of damages in terms of how much that would hurt Luigi’s, but it’s common sense that they would be harmed.”
Carmano said afterward he is trying to negotiate specifically what food items Tatum’s Table will be prohibited from selling if the landlord allows the eatery to open for dinner.
“Ninety percent of the stuff on that (Luigi’s) menu, we’re not going to be serving,” he said.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.
Dining and Cooking