You need to investigate the original owner of Pizza Paridise, Angelo Bondi. His first wife named the store and he divorced her when she lost her leg in an auto accident. His store was a gold mine and he put all his money into a building he owns. She was told nothing. He would not tell her his income and all his documents he stole so she had nothing. After the divorce he remarried within months and now lives in million dollar homes. He stole from the government since 1983. He is not accountable. He had lines outside his store which she found for him in the neighborhood and he dumped her. Now via the internet she sees what she didn’t have access too. Unfair that he lied and threatened her to sign papers while dealing with health problems.
He’s a snake disguised as a good person. Just ask her about every lie he told her.
I bought some soup from Mr. Pourkay at the holiday bazaar in USQ about 5 years ago, after I started eating I realized I left my wallet at home. He was so gracious - I paid the next day and bought his delicious food weekly after. He is a kind, happy, generous man! I will donate!!!
7
Jeff Bezos owns them actually.
And really, do we need another pizza place?
5
Why belittle the plight of Mr. Pourkay by headlining the article "Tempest in a Pizzeria"? Sounds like "tempest in a teapot." Look it up if you don't know what it connotes.
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The Magableh family appear to have done what many businessmen do in other parts of the world - steal your way thru intellectual property and muscle your way thru opposition.
Fortunately for Saeed he has many things going for him but most of all he is in NYC, where good food is like religion to many. How many restaurant owners in dispute would have the NY Times fighting for them and a lawyer working pro-bono?!!
By the end of this fight, the Magableh's may never dare cook Persian even at home!
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Gawd, that's the most sickening things I've read in a long time. What a shameful family. Donating, donating, donating! And all the best to you, Saeed!
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Shame on Pizza Paradise! I truly hope Saaed will have a new place to sell his food in soon!!!
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Glad to see this story got attention. The new pizza owners seemingly calculated a deliberate plan to takeover the goodwill and clientele Mr. Pourkay built over the last 8 years. Yes, we all need to make an living, but make an honest one. Looking forward to spending my money dining in Mr. Pourkay’s restaurant when it one day opens....
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It's rare to find someone that cooks with love. There are Persian restaurants everywhere but I travel a couple of time per year to Vancouver, mostly to eat good Persian food. I hope Saeed get a permanent place because his was saving me a lot of plane tickets.
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@Naiem, I am not an expert on Persian food but I do know that whenever I ate at Shiraz Kitchen and Wine Bar in the village of Elmsford there was what sounded to me like a lot of Farsi going on. It was a couple of blocks from the house I owned until recently so I ate there fairly often. They have a side business selling groceries. Elms ford is about 3 miles west of White Plains, 3 miles east of Cuomo/Zee Bridge and a straight run up the Thruway from NYC.
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Shame shame shame. No doubt that Pizza Paradise's slices are poor knock-offs as well.
I've been a fan of Mr. Pourkay's since the days when he had a holiday booth serving warm Ash Reshteh at the Union Square market and was so excited when Taste of Persia opened. I'm sad to see it's now closed and furious at the betrayal of Mr. Pourkay, who was in my experience a very kind and generous man. I hope he is able to replicate his success at a new location.
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This place is just a couple of blocks from me and I have passed by many times. To read what happened makes me so angry for this fellow. So much so that I will make it a point when I pass by to tell everyone what awful people these new owners are and not to est anything there!
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This type of thing happens daily in all five boroughs. I wonder why this one struck such a chord with the Times. I absolutely agree that this is a tragedy and deserves attention. This man was horribly wronged and the people behind it heinous. But I'd actually like to see more of these stories, and more of these horrible people who are taking advantage of victims like Saeed. Much like your "Neediest cases" column, I think it would do the city a great service.
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How does the food of Iran (actually the middle east) become intellectual property.
It is true, in the US you can sue over anything.
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@Dr. Sam Rosenblum curious what you mean by “actually Middle East” ... I would give Persian cuisine the deference it deserves by acknowledging its worthy of being described as such. We don’t call southern bbq, “North American food.” Second, it’s the clientele he built that the new owners are leveraging. Open up a competing Persian restaurant down the street, that’s more aligned with society’s expectations. Plus, more Persian food!
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@Dr. Sam Rosenblum I suppose it is the same thing as what you would claim to be Israeli cuisine is nothing but Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine) cuisine. The Middle-East is very vast and diverse and Persian cuisine is different as much as the Arab Gulf cuisine and the North African cuisine.
3
It's obscene to steal someone's livelihood from them. Shame on the pizzeria owners.
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Alls I'm going to say and it is judging a book by its cover, but I would never go into business with a guy wearing a camo jacket like Pizza Paradise's owner.
12
It's a dog-eat-dog world out there!
1
@Albela Shaitan what shame.
Very sorry to hear about this situation, as I've enjoyed some delicious food from Taste of Persia. When Magableh, after setting up the Tasty Persian knock-off, asks, "You tell me I can't serve Persian food?", he's clearly asking (and acting) in bad faith. It's too bad that I don't eat pizza, because I'd certainly boycott his restaurant! But either way, he isn't getting any business from me.
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What the Magableh's did to Mr. Pourkay is evil. Straight up evil. Must of us in this world have to hustle to get by. We have to find some service, some product, some thing that other people want, and provide it to them to try to make a living. If we're lucky, we become really good at what we do and earn a good reputation or some praise that allows us to make an even better living. That is exactly what Mr. Pourkay was doing. That is the American way. For the Magagleh's to throw Mr. Pourkay out, blatantly rip off the concept, the dishes, the product, then pass it off as their own. That is just evil.
9
It's one thing to want the space back for use in the pizza business. It's quite different to be totally prepared to use that space to sell the same items with a deliberately similar and confusing name. Taste of Persia vs. Tasty Persia? That's quite obviously a shameless rip-off.
I hope Mr. Pourkay finds much success in his own restaurant. I look forward to trying his fesenjan.
31
Oh no!! Not another place. The mid-price/affordable places in manhattan I loved, have been taken away by high rents over the years. Brio, the Italian/Mediterranean restaurant in the mid upper east side, Republic, the place that made asian food chic and become mainstream in Union Sq. to name a few, and now Mr Saeed's place! I first had his delicious Persian stews during December holidays at Union Sq Christmas fair as he'd have a booth there, and had followed to sample more delicious dishes at his pop-up restaurant mentioned. His food is one of the things that makes New York great. It is definitely sad what happened to him, but really refreshing to see New Yorkers come together to help and show our true spirits that is as good as Saeed's creations.
15
delicious soups made by Mr. Pourkay, hope he will find a permanent place in NYC.
27
If I had to list my favorite meals I've ever had, the cup of fesenjan from Taste of Persia I had one cold winter evening at the Union Square holiday market is easily in the top three. I look forward to Saeed Pourkay finding a new home for his soup spot - and to the downfall of Pizza Paradise.
31
Mr. Pourkay's food was distinctively delicious in a neighborhood with no shortage of great cuisine -- nowhere else was Iranian food represented in Flatiron/Union Square. As a dedicated diner of his cuisine for years I hope he's reestablished, and that the grifters at Pizza Paradise see comeuppance.
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“In the Middle East we all eat like this"
I disagree. Maybe Turks could make this claim to some extend, but Persian, Arab, and Israeli dishes don't have much in common. (Persians and Turks share a lot of things.)
I present as evidence the fact that I had my first falafel in Copenhagen, and humus in NYC, not in Tehran where I grew up.
35
Another variation on the theme of pizza rats.
21
I went back and read the original review of his restaurant and wanted to cry. That place sounds wonderful and I would have loved to taste all the dishes cooked by this amazing man. Hope he is successful in al his future ventures.
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This is why I love New York and New Yorkers and feel frustrated whenever I hear the stereotype that we’re not nice.
What the family did was wrong, and I’m glad New Yorkers stuck up for Saeed. No need to be overly punitive to the family — I think they learned their lesson. As for Saeed, I hope to someday eat at his restaurant!
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Nobody is being “overly” punitive to the family running the pizza restaurant. They tried to capitalize on Saaed’s hard work, delicious recipes and well earned reputation. The pizza family, as I will call them, appears to be disrespectful and deceitful. They do not deserve anyone’s patronage. Knowing how they treated another businessman I would not have a slice of pizza there even if it was free.
Hopefully Saaed will open a new Persian restaurant at a different location and he will be even more successful.
Thanks NYT for covering a true street story.
8
Saeed is one of the best parts of NYC. He is kind to everyone and his food is delicious and the new owners should be deeply ashamed of themselves - instead they try to justify their theft. I generally don't jump onto social media efforts to shame someone - but in this case it is deeply deserved.
113
@KD Theft of what? Mr. Pourkay does not "own" Persian cuisine, as the article aptly points out.
It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there
11
“In the Middle East we all eat like this,” the older Mr. Magableh added.
Hahahahaha, oh wait he's serious. No. No, not even close. Persian food has about as much in common with the rest of the Middle East as Tex-Mex food has in common with Spanish.
This Magableh should be ashamed of himself on two counts (first for the heinous Tasty Persia scam and second for this ridiculous conflation of Persian cuisine with the rest of the Middle East).
125
"To be a New Yorker is to live in constant mourning. One by one, the places we love are taken from us, often by rising costs."
This astute sentiment previously indelibly expressed by Pete Hamill re 'NOSTALGIA being the preoccupation of native New Yorkers.' Ligaya Mishan ... welcome to the Pete Hamill/Jimmy Breslin club of serious noticers.
29
@Jeremy Iacone
Very well said.
Pete Hamill's "Downtown" is a delicious vortex of nostalgia. I wonder what he feels about the wholesome Disneyfication of his beloved city.
4
It's so funny you should say that Farid. I was born and raised in NYC but left years ago. My son lives there now. I remember telling him when he first moved there that NYC was now more like Epcot than the NYC I remembered. Also startling is the sheer number of empty stores on every block. Last year during a visit he brought some shoes back with him. What's up with all the shoes?, I asked. You try finding a shoe repair place in NY that will get your shoes back to you in less than a month for less than they cost new, he said.
2
I ate here regularly; it was Saeed’s gift to young Iranians like myself in NYC to have a taste of a homecooked meal. He is a sweet, sweet man - please, please donate to him if you can. This is awful.
139
The food was next level good. You tell me how many pizzerias have delicious Persian restaurants inside of them? Eggsactly. Shame on the new owners. Don’t eat there.
104
@Harris silver i'm sure that pizza isn't good either.
4
“Still, his son, Sam Magableh, insisted that they had done nothing wrong. His mother, who is Persian, cooked the dishes, he said. “You tell me I can’t sell Persian food?” he asked”
Even if this was true. There are 100s of recepis in Persian cuisine. His mom just happened to cook the same dishes that Saeed had on his menu? Why can’t they just admit that they wanted to rip the old owner (Saeed) off and steal his customer base. He worked hard to build his brand and so should they.
160
Thank you for covering this story. I'm floored and devastated that the owners of Pizza Paradise would do something so despicable. They were ready with SIGNS and RECIPES one day after they kicked out Mr. Pourkay. This was pre-meditated and just pure evil. This man worked for eight years to build a brand and they tried to capitalize on that. Just pathetic. I've donated to the gofundme and hope others do as well.
176
I normally hate social media, but in this case I applaud the efforts of Mr. Pourkay's fans in banding together to defend him and his business. The Pizza Paradise owners should be ashamed. This is greed pure and simple.
90
What a terrible thing to do to this man. A Taste of Persia was a wonderful restaurant because of Saeed Pourkay. This is just wrong.
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