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Landlord sues to evict Avance

Avance's brand-new landlord, WA Financial Partners L.P., filed suit Tuesday in Common Pleas Court seeking to evict the restaurant.

Bad luck for chef Justin Bogle, who opened Avance in December with several partners at the storied former address of Le Bec-Fin.

His landlord at the time was chef Georges Perrier. But Perrier lost ownership of the building in a sheriff's sale, as Philadelphia Magazine's Victor Fiorillo reported yesterday. (In sum: The building at 1523 Walnut St. was sold to settle a judgment against Perrier, who had failed to repay a loan made to finance the now-closed Table 31.)

But business is business: Avance's brand-new landlord, WA Financial Partners L.P., filed suit Tuesday in Common Pleas Court seeking to evict the restaurant, which is open for business.

The statement claims that JBCS LLC owes two months' rent, at $28,000 per month. (Based on general restaurant accounting, where a profitable restaurant's rent should be 6 percent or less of its gross sales, Avance should be doing $5.6 million a year.)

The suit is signed by Reed J. Slogoff of Pearl Properties, whose real estate holdings include the Granary on Callowhill Street and a retail strip on the 1600 block of Sansom.

Avance marks a return to town for Bogle, who won acclaim in New York. But local critics have not been kind to the sleek, progressive-American restaurant.

I'm awaiting a return call from Bogle.