Celebrity chef Mike Isabella’s bankrupt restaurant group won court approval yesterday to pay employees while it reorganizes under chapter 11 protection, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Isabella put six of his Washington, D.C.-area restaurants under bankruptcy protection last week after negative publicity stemming from a sexual-harassment lawsuit caused revenue to drop over the course of a few months, according to bankruptcy-court papers. Four other restaurants have been permanently closed. Bankruptcy Judge Lori Simpson gave the company the green light to pay its employees, as well as pay its bills and keep its gift-card program going for the restaurants still in business. The bankruptcy filing includes six operating restaurants and a management company, which together employ 268 people. There are another 81 workers at two other restaurants who aren’t part of the bankruptcy filing, court papers show, so those workers’ wages weren’t subject to court approval yesterday.
