Restaurateur Pham is sued over unpaid legal bills

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Restaurateur Pham is sued over unpaid legal bills

Updated: June 19, 2012 - 9:34 PM

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Local restaurateur Thom Pham is being sued by his former attorneys, who allege he owes them more than $87,000 in legal bills stemming from a lawsuit he filed against his sisters two years ago.

The suit filed Monday in Hennepin County District Court alleges that Pham and his companies, Thando Inc. and Phamous Group, have not paid bills to the law firm Fruth Jamison & Elsass. The firm represented Pham from April 2010 to May 2011 in the suit he filed against Hannah Johnson, Charis Fishbein and their restaurant, A Wok in the Park, accusing them of embezzlement and stealing his secret dishes for their business.

The sisters countered that they had set up an account with Pham's permission to protect him from mounting debt after he misspent money and failed to pay his restaurant bills.

The case was settled in March 2011. As of last fall, Pham owed the Fruth firm $87,986, according to the suit.

Pham, who owns Thom Pham's Wondrous Azian Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis and Thanh Do in St. Louis Park, said Tuesday that the suit was settled. Attorney Jon Breyer, whose firm sued Pham, said nothing had been finalized but declined to comment further.

Earlier this year Pham announced plans to open Azia Market Bar & Restaurant, a remake of his popular restaurant Azia at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue S., Minneapolis.

ABBY SIMONS