Staff at B&B Ristrorante, named for Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich has confirmed that they have removed Mario Batali’s name from the restaurants and will be changing their name. The person who picked up the phone at the Restaurant confirmed that the sign came down Friday night, and they will be removing all his products and images from the restaurants moving forward.
According to a spokesperson for Joe Bastianich, Batali does not hold an ownership stake in Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group, which handles operations and human resources for the restaurants under its umbrella.
But the chef does co-own each of the group’s restaurants; depending on the structure of each, it’s likely that he would have to be forced to divest or otherwise be bought out by his partners in order to fully separate from each entity.
Bastianich also visited all of the New York and Vegas restaurants over the last few days, trying to reassure employees. Batali & Bastianich is the company running about 24 restaurants owned by Batali and Bastianich. He was at the 10th Anniversary of Carnevino last week, looking a bit on the sad side also.
Batali’s name was removed from all of the online literature also.
