Desert Passage caviar bar is in bankruptcy

Grace Leong

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2001 | 11:17 a.m.

The Beluga Bar at the Caspian Sea, one of the high-profile retailers at the Desert Passage mall at the Aladdin resort on the Las Vegas Strip, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

As of Feb. 2, the caviar bar listed assets of $252,500 and liabilities of $1.673 million. Its first meeting of creditors is scheduled for Feb. 21.

Nevada Building & Development Corp., a Las Vegas contractor and Beluga Bar's largest creditor, is owed $624,090. It had sued Beluga Bar's parent company, Caviar Royal LLC, and manager Barry Katcher, to foreclose on the Beluga Bar, alleging it defaulted on more than $600,000 for work done.

Beluga Bar received in October a three-day notice from Desert Passage Mall management to pay rent or vacate its space. But it said in court documents it doesn't owe mall managers $135,000 sought in back rents because the mall hadn't been completed and traffic was below expectations.

Beluga Bar's other creditors include Transworld Group Inc. of Sherman Oaks, Calif., which is owed $325,000, and Paul Steelman Design of Las Vegas, which is owed $60,000.

Nevada Building won an order on Jan. 25 requiring Katcher to provide all financial records and books that show the operations of Caviar Royale, the capitalization of the company and individual and company tax returns for the past five years.

Katcher won an order Thursday to be paid a weekly salary of $1,200 for 90 days.

Katcher, who said he has been managing the bar without compensation, sought court approval to be paid $2,000 a week for work done 90 days after the January bankruptcy filing. He said he also intends to submit claims for compensation he hasn't collected due to "the financial distress of the company."

Katcher, who said he "coordinates daily operations including ordering food, liquor and scheduling staff," demanded compensation in return for continuing to manage the caviar sampling establishment.