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Updated: September 16, 2009, 11:07 am	Share    Print    Email

During the summer, Kleefield maintained that he was working hard and keeping his record clean. Photo by Kelly Carroll

Southampton - For those of you looking to make Labor Day reservations at one of Ed Kleefield's East End restaurants, not so fast. While scuttlebutt around town is that all of Kleefield's East End eateries are in trouble, calls to his four restaurants - Sag Harbor's Grappa Wine Bar and JLX Bistro, East Hampton's Prime 103 and Southampton's Madam Tong's - revealed that all four phone lines have been "temporarily disconnected."

While Kleefield has been embattled with money troubles over the past year, and has had several police-assisted exchanges with a landlord in Southampton at Madame Tong's, his latest run in with the law came mid-August when he was arrested for yet a third time on charges of issuing a bad check. According to police reports, Kleefield, 43, known in restaurants circles as 'Jean Luc,' issued a rent check for approximately $12,500 to a landlord of his JLX Bistro property, located on Sag Harbor's Main Street. The complainant noted that the check was returned for insufficient funds.

Once touted as a rising star on the Manahattan -Hamptons restaurant scene, Kleefield opened his restaurants in rapid succession, enticing investment for new locations while the daily operations of the already opened restaurants began to experience seasonal cash flow troubles.

"It's the sexiness of the story," Kleefield offered in a July interview regarding the ownership dispute at the Madame Tong's property. "Everyone likes to see someone who has acquired a great deal of success come crashing down."

During the summer, Kleefield maintained that he was working hard and keeping his record clean. He said that Madame Tong's was doing the best it ever had, and alluded to deals to open a new restaurant in Manhattan in the Fall. But unable to bank off the profitable Labor Day Weekend, it leaves one to wonder if the infamous restaurateur will be making a comeback in the Hamptons next summer.

"If you fly too close to the sun, the wax on your wings will melt and you'll come crashing to the ground," he mused.