2 Brothers Battle over Famed French Restaurant in Manhattan

Since 1962, La Grenoille has been serving celebrities and the elite of Manhattan’s upper crust fine French dining. When the patriarch of the family passed away of cancer in 1975, Charles Masson, Jr took over the running of the business until 1993, and then again from 2000 to 2014 while his younger brother, Philippe, took care of their sick mother in France. During his time as manager, he instituted several changes that are believed to highly attribute to the restaurant’s success, such as printing the menu in English and creating an upstairs area for less formal dining.

When their mother passed away in 2014, majority ownership of the restaurant went to Philippe. According to the older brother, Philippe micromanaged every aspect of the business and how Charles was running it. Charles decided to leave when the discord between the two brothers became too much. After all the years of running the restaurant, Charles was not given any stake in it, and he was regularly called “just an employee” by his brother.

Now, Charles is suing to become executor of his mother’s estate and in essence take control of La Grenoille. He claims that Philippe increased his personal salary to over $400,000 and uses the income of the restaurant to finance his lavish lifestyle. He claims that the famed restaurant has suffered under his brother’s management, generating only $100,000-$250,000 profit from its $8.4 million annual revenue. He also alleges that he has “grossly mismanaged” his mother’s estate and regularly racks up high shopping bills at upscale stores. 

See Anneta Konstantinides, Long-Running Feud Between Two Brother New York’s La Grenoille, Daily Mail, December 30, 2018.

Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.