Crabbers Restaurant and Sports Lounge is fighting for its survival

The filing gives owners more protection in a lease dispute.

David Squires, Daily Press

247-4639
March 6, 2008

HAMPTON -- Even as it enjoys life under a new name, the former Crabbers Restaurant and Sports Lounge is fighting for its survival in court.

The business and nightspot, operating since November as the Ritz Gold Steakhouse, Sports Bar and VIP ballroom, recently sought Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court in Norfolk.

The bankruptcy filing gives the owners more latitude after they appeared headed toward defeat in state court in a battle with creditors over the lease for the property on West Mercury Boulevard.

The bankruptcy filing effectively freezes the state court action, owner Andrew K. Abbitt said. Abbitt entered into a partnership in November with Karen Harris that transformed the club into a meeting spot for the 30- to 50-year-old crowd. In its rowdier days the establishment catered to 21- to 27-year-olds at night, and had a catering and banquet business, which continues.

The business opened in 2001 as a complex that included a 140-room motel, but because of financial issues the Best Western franchise was dropped a couple of years ago.

The Hampton Bay Plaza and Suites is now run by a separate company that was put in place as part of a court order stemming from the lease dispute. The court has allowed the Abbitts and their partners to continue to run the restaurant, bar and lounge as they sort out the lease issue.

Abbitt says the sticking point is that the business should be operating under a lease agreement that gives owners credit toward rent for making thousands of dollars in renovations to the restaurant and sports lounge. But a local court has sided with creditors in honoring an earlier lease that does not provide rent credit for renovations.

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