With debt and lawsuits piling up, high-end Kansas City restaurant closes ‘temporarily’

Privee Restaurant and Lounge had big dreams when it opened in 2023.

Owners Marcus Easy and Tim Harris took over the sprawling, 9,000-square-foot Spanish colonial-style building at 700 Southwest Blvd. with the goal of combining fine dining and a high-end lounge under one roof. Specialty cocktails, seafood towers, live music — and a private room upstairs with extra perks for members willing to spend $250 per month for the access.

Think of it as going to Monarch Bar and Capital Grille at the same time, Harris said at the time. “You see that in other cities, but Kansas City doesn’t really have this.”

It lasted less than a year. Privee has been closed for three weeks, and it is unclear if it will reopen.

Lawsuits reviewed by The Star suggest Privee is fighting litigation on multiple fronts, including from former employees who have accused the restaurant of racial discrimination and from contractors who say they haven’t been paid.

Neither Harris nor Easy responded to calls, texts, and emails seeking comment.

Privee is listed as “temporarily closed” on Google. Several customers on that site have written reviews saying they showed up for recent reservations and found the restaurant closed without notice. As of Tuesday, its online reservation service OpenTable says Privee is “temporarily offline.”

Racial discrimination lawsuits

Three former employees are suing Privee, claiming racial discrimination under the Missouri Human Rights Act.

Alexandria Alexander, Destinee Goodrich and Lakita Walker have filed separate lawsuits against the restaurant with nearly identical claims. All three are Black women.

They were brought in to Privee by Bryan Arri, who has worked at several local cocktail bars and owns Fern Bar . At Privee, he was working on contract as a consultant for the restaurant’s bar program. He advised on the bar’s equipment and glassware and hired bar staff.

According to the lawsuits, the women did not meet Harris and Easy until a few weeks after being hired. Privee’s stated reason for terminating their employment was that Privee had over-hired bartenders at the outset and had other, more qualified candidates.

But that was “not the real reason for (their) discharge,” the lawsuits allege.

The three women were laid off because of their skin color — “treated differently than other similarly situated non-minority employees because of (their) race,” according to the lawsuits.

Arri told The Star that Harris and Easy told him that the women didn’t match the “aesthetic” Privee was going for.

“These women were somewhat larger, darker-skinned Black women, and the women they kept on were lighter skin,” Arri said. “They said we needed to figure out a creative way to let them go.”

Randy Brown, the attorney representing the three women, did not respond to calls and emails this week.

Alexander told The Star that Brown advised her not to speak to the media. After Privee failed to respond in court, she filed a motion for default judgment in July. A hearing on that matter is scheduled for Aug. 8. Goodrich and Walker have case management conferences scheduled for later this fall.

Contractor lawsuits

Arri filed his own lawsuit against Privee in December related to his consulting contract. He recently was awarded an $8,700 default judgment but has yet to collect.

“They didn’t finish paying me out,” Arri said. “We tried to work out a payment plan, but they didn’t stick to it. Then they posted a video of me on their social media, and I told Marcus that using my likeness was another package add-on to the contract we had, and to please edit me out or take the video down completely.

“And Marcus responded, ‘F— you and your likeness,” Arri said. “So at that point I got my attorneys involved.”

Joe Bartels, the owner of Ambassador Corporate Renovations, is also waiting to be paid by Privee.

His firm filed a lawsuit against Privee and the building’s owner, Daxi Properties, in December seeking $60,000 in unpaid bills related to renovations done prior to Privee’s opening — demolition, tile work, countertops, painting and the construction of a privacy wall, among other work.

As with Arri, Privee’s owners initially paid on Bartels’ invoices but then stopped.

“We reached a settlement agreement, which took a month and a half to get them to sign, and then they didn’t even make the first payment,” Bartels told The Star. “I think they were hoping to find a new investor and pay off the debt with money from whoever that was.”

In a crossclaim filed within Bartels’ lawsuit, Daxi Properties says Privee was responsible for construction costs inside the restaurant. Privee had a five-year lease contract to pay Daxi $8,500 per month for the space, increasing to $9,500 per month in the third year. Privee breached the lease contract, Daxi says, by not paying contractors, failing to properly supervise construction, and failing to ensure lien waivers and releases were obtained for all labor and materials.

Allen Culp, the attorney representing Daxi, did not respond to requests for comment. A hearing in that case is set for Sept. 17.

Rocktops LLC, a subcontractor, filed a lawsuit against Privee, Daxi and Ambassador in July, seeking to collect $6,700 for work done at the restaurant. Its attorney, Fritz Thompson, did not respond to a call for comment. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 1.

And ParkIt, a valet and parking services company, filed suit against Privee in May, saying it is owed $7,000 for its services. A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 28.

Privee has not posted to its Instagram page in nearly a month, but on Sunday the restaurant responded to a question from a commenter by saying it “is in the process of reopening.” Three people interviewed by The Star said they had heard the restaurant was being sold, or had recently been sold, to new owners, but because Harris and Easy did not respond to requests for comment, that could not be confirmed.

“I think they just spent too much money up front, and it caught up to them,” Bartels said.

“Even despite everything, I wanted to see them win and succeed,” Arri said. “I thought Privee was a great addition to the community. I was hoping they could pull it off. But unfortunately, they ran into money issues, stopped paying people, and instead of being open and honest they became closed and defensive. And you can’t do that in this business.”