Rubbing 盐SALT in their Wounds

If you've lived in Beijing for longer than three years (and God help you if you have), you'll probably be more than aware of the legal troubles that plagued tattooed wunderkind Kro Bauer at the start of the long hot summer in 2010.  In short, without drawing up a contract between them, Kro and his Chinese partner Yuan Jie went into the pizza business.  Five years later, as Yuan and his wife had close to ten million RMB in their joint bank account, Bauer found himself without so much as a pot to piss in.

Since then, Bauer and Yuan have reconciled and have gone their separate ways, Kro kept the Kro's Nest brand, while Yuan Jie set up shop as The Tube Station.  It hasn't stopped Chinese co-owners guiltlessly helping themselves to a business built up by a foreign entrepreneur.  And so we get to SALT.

After six years at it's Lido location, the expat team that have built up the SALT brand in Beijing decided to leave.  The decision was pretty much thrust upon them as the landlord had hiked up the rent to such an extent that they couldn't afford to keep the place as a going concern.  The announcement was made quite suddenly on August 27th.  Another announcement was made this morning that a former employee SALT along with the landlord and the former lawyer had allegedly colluded to steal the brand from the owners that had occupied the site.

盐SALT Contemporary Cuisine has just become aware that ex-employee Lucy Wang (who had been working for SALT for 7 years until she quit in February) and landlord Mr Xin (who forced us to leave our location by doubling the rent and previously demanding extra payments for the past 3 years) will open their own restaurant today at 9 Jiangtai Xi Lu, pretending to be
盐SALT Contemporary Cuisine.

Lucy Wang was apparently the assistant manager, and also claims to be a shareholder in the business, which Ms Wang says owes wages and other costs that they haven't paid.

Speaking to The Beijinger, Ms Wang said "The former management owes money for salary, rent, distributors and we have proof."

The press release goes on to say that their lawyer is now refusing to answer any phone calls, which is probably why they're getting a better one to help them out of the hole that they've suddenly found themselves in.