The Palace Theatre in downtown St. Paul is suing Wrecktangle Pizza over the short-lived Wrestaurant at the Palace, claiming that the Detroit-style pizza makers still owe the theater upwards of $1.6 million more than a year after their joint restaurant venture shut down.
Wrestaurant opened in early fall 2023 in the spot formerly home to Wild Tymes but quietly closed about a year later amid extensive water damage to its building, which had been purchased in early 2023 by now-troubled Madison Equities while restaurant plans were in the works.
First Avenue, which co-manages the Palace Theatre, opened a new restaurant called the Palace Pub in the location this summer. Unlike Wrestaurant, the Palace Pub is fully operated by First Avenue, operations director Marc Dickhut said at the time.
Wrestaurant earned plaudits when it opened for its creative menu and modern, redesigned interior. The Palace Pub, for its part, looks quite similar to its predecessor in decor and now offers a more casual bar-fare menu and a selection of arcade games.
In a lawsuit filed in Hennepin County Court last week, the operators of the Palace Theatre — which owned 51 percent of the restaurant, to Wrecktangle’s 49 percent — claim that they agreed in 2023 to front money for both their own and Wrecktangle’s portions of startup and operating costs, a total investment the theater estimates at around $3.3 million. That loan for Wrecktangle’s portion was fully guaranteed by Wrecktangle co-owner Alex Rogers, according to court filings.
However, the lawsuit claims, none of that loan has been repaid. With interest and other fees attached, the Palace claims in their lawsuit that Wrecktangle owes “an amount to be proved at trial but reasonably believed to be in excess of $1,650,000.00.”
Neither Rogers nor a representative of First Avenue responded to requests for additional information Friday.
For its part, in a response to the lawsuit filed in court this week, Wrecktangle appears to admit to not having made payments on the loan but countered that it is the Palace, in fact, that has failed to uphold part of the deal.
In its own filing, Wrecktangle says that the Palace never properly dissolved the joint LLC behind the restaurant nor took over Wrecktangle’s 49 percent ownership interest, and has continued to use equipment purchased by the joint LLC to now operate the Palace Pub. The theater, Wrecktangle says in its filing, has not financially credited the pizza company for profits and losses made using equipment in which it still has an ownership stake — which Wrecktangle characterized as a bad-faith move that calls into question the validity of the Palace lawsuit.
In response, the Palace denied these allegations, reiterated its claims of Wrecktangle’s own wrongdoing and noted that the Palace Pub has yet to turn a profit.
From here, unless they reach a settlement in the meantime, both Wrecktangle and the Palace have tentatively agreed to go to trial in November 2026.
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