The demise of respected eatery Bussaco in the heart of Park Slope appears to have been greatly exaggerated after a dishy feud with a chef who didn’t even last at the joint for two months!
Our online edition reported on Monday that the food world was abuzz with talk that the well-reviewed Scott-Carney-owned eatery on Union Street was bouncing checks after 1990s kitchen wondergirl Katy Sparks left the restaurant after an eye-blink tenure earlier this year.
Nothing is further from the truth, Carney told us today.
“My business is being endangered with gossip and lies,” Carney said. “Our short-lived relationship with Katy Sparks went sour, and someone is exploiting your medium in a malicious and libelous manner to destroy my family’s business.”
For her part, Sparks said she had no idea why Carney thinks that she’s the source of the anti-Bussaco item planted on the Web.
“Our business relationship didn’t work out, but I really have not spoken to the press until now,” she said.
Carney disagreed, saying that talk of declining sales was “all coming from Katy Sparks’s camp.”
“The restaurant is not closing,” he said. “Yes, we did bounce two checks, but they were both repaid.”
On the larger issue of why a seven-week tenure behind the stove led to such apparent bitterness from Sparks, Carney was uncertain.
“We wish her well!” he said, adding in a plug for his new kitchen team: Andrew Smith, formerly of Lupa and del Posto, and Pamela Woods, from PizzaMoto.
