Georges Perrier agrees to help beleaguered restaurant Crow & the Pitcher

Georges Perrier - shaking off notions of a post-Le Bec-Fin dotage - is coming to the aid of one of his former employees, a restaurateur who is recovering from a nightmarish situation: the jailing of a business partner accused of the sexual abuse of a child.

Perrier is now chef-adviser at Crow & the Pitcher, on 19th Street just south of Rittenhouse Square.

Michael Franco, who worked for Perrier as a sommelier and general manager for six years, opened the bar-restaurant last year with chef Alex Capasso and an investor.

When word began spreading Friday afternoon that Capasso (who also worked for Perrier, cooking at Brasserie Perrier) was in federal custody, Perrier reached out to offer encouragement.

So did customers, who brushed off any guilt by association. (Franco learned about the allegations as everyone else did, from an Inquirer article.)

"We had the busiest weekend we had all summer," Franco said. "Neighbors would come in and say the nicest things. I cried more than once."

The restaurant's attorney, George Lavin, said steps were being taken to dissociate Capasso from the restaurant under a provision of the partnership agreement also signed by Franco and the third partner, Prajakta Harshe-Patharkar. Shortly before the restaurant opened, Capasso filed for personal bankruptcy protection, according to court records. This also may have a bearing on Capasso's stake, Lavin said.

Lavin said Capasso would not benefit from any portion of the profits.

Meanwhile, Perrier, Franco, and the restaurant's sous chef, Gregory Headen, are rewriting Crow & the Pitcher's menu, which still reflected last winter's hearty fare, and Perrier has decided to hang around. He is encamped in the kitchen.

"This is a bistro," he said Tuesday, "and the menu should be simple."

Perrier also is changing the way the restaurant buys food. On Tuesday morning, Perrier escorted Franco and Headen on a shopping trip to the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market. "They got my prices," Perrier said.

Restaurants have weathered scandal. Rouge, the groundbreaking Rittenhouse Square bistro just two blocks from Crow & the Pitcher, never missed a beat after founder Neil Stein was sent to prison for tax evasion. His daughter and son-in-law bought out Stein and his former partner and took it over.

Then again, the General Wayne Inn in Lower Merion closed shortly after the December 1996 slaying of chef-owner James Webb. His business partner, Guy Sileo, was convicted of murder and, now 47 years old, is serving life at the State Correctional Institution at Somerset.