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There are more signs management behind the opulent waterfront restaurant Quartet isn’t satisfying agreements with its creditors. Namely, one of its creditors is saying so.

In two separate small claims suits filed last month, local publisher SagaCity Media Inc. says Taylor Hospitality Group—the management company behind Quartet and downtown steakhouse Portland Prime—owes almost $15,000 for advertisements dating back to last year. The ads appeared in a variety of SagaCity’s local publications and affiliated websites, the suits say, including Portland Monthly and Portland Bride & Groom.

I didn’t catch these when I wrote last week about allegations Quartet is bleeding tens of thousands of dollars a month. Sagacity’s claims were filed August 15, five days before Portland businessman and Quartet investor Roy Jay filed suit, alleging incompetence.

But they’re of a piece with other assertions. Jay’s complaint says Quartet, mere months after opening in February, had already reached a point where suppliers would only accept cash for merchandise. Former and current employees of Quartet and Portland Prime told the Mercury tales of bounced checks, and tips held for weeks to help pay the company’s bills.

Frank Taylor, who runs the restaurants, has yet to reply to my repeated calls for comment. Meanwhile, an employee at SagaCity reached today wouldn’t say which restaurant(s) the contested ads were touting, or how far back they date. Invoice numbers included in the filings suggest at least one advertisement ran in 2012. In total, SagaCity says Taylor’s company owes $14,296.

I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters...

4 replies on “Quartet Owner Hasn’t Paid for Almost $15,000 in Magazine Ads, Suits Say”

  2. So 14,296 is almost 15,000? That’s some pretty big rounding there! How much more attention do you think this article receives than if it simply said something like “over 14K”?

  3. I expect a special Thursday afternoon print edition of the Merc to delve more into this fascinating story. That a overly lavish business in a highly volatile industry located in an condo glutted section of the city decimated by the mortgage crisis in a spot where another overly lavish business once stood and failed, is failing, is simply shocking.

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