Embeya's Former Chef Thai Dang Wins $100,000 Lawsuit
By Anthony Todd in Food on Jun 1, 2016 4:19PM
In 2015, we learned that Chef Thai Dang, who was the opening chef at Embeya, had been fired. Normally, chef firings aren't enough to create giant news stories, but this one involved a bit more drama than most. Dang claimed he had been forced out by his business partner, and that he was afraid that the business would financially destroy him because his home was still collateral for their small business loan. A year after the drama died down, Dang won a lawsuit against his former partners.
Crains reported on the victory, which happened after a jury trial in Cook County Circuit Court. This is one of two lawsuits, and specifically dealt with promised salary payments.
A jury in Cook County Circuit Court on May 25 found in favor of Dang against holding company Our Sangha and Attila Gyulai, the restaurant's majority owner, ruling that Our Sangha and Gyulai breached a verbal contract with Dang, according to his attorney, Mike Leonard, a partner at Chicago-based law firm Leonard Meyer. Dang was awarded $102,500.
This isn't the end of the saga for Dang and Gyulai/Embeya, however, as he still has a pending lawsuit for breach of contract. In the meantime, Dang is busy getting his own restaurant, Haisous, off the ground.