A Gramercy Park bar owner is allegedly trying to burn down his establishment by allowing live sex shows and profligate drug use in his bar. His partner claims in a lawsuit that the owner literally set the bar on fire.
The “disastrous” conduct that Albert Trumer allegedly engaged in at DOM, the upscale Park Avenue South cocktail lounge he co-owned with Arndt Oesterle, involved staging “intercourse and other sexual acts between ‘professional’ couples,” according to a complaint Oesterle filed against Trumer in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The prank was captured on “hours of shocking video footage,” Oesterle claims in court documents.
Trumer’s son, Jakob, a bartender at the DOM, “was recorded on the DOM’s closed circuit cameras openly using illegal drugs (including what appeared to be cocaine) in the bar during business hours,” Oesterle alleged in the lawsuit.
A series of photos included in court documents show three unidentified men at the bar, one of them holding a cupped hand to his nose.
It is unclear what the substance was or when the incident occurred.
Oesterle alleged that Trumer’s father oversaw Jacob “pouring flammable liquor on the bar counter at the DOM and setting it on fire” in an attempt to “impress customers,” also violating the city’s fire code. Trumer is no stranger to fireworks; he was arrested in 2010 for similar conduct at the Chinatown club Apotheke.
Oesterle has pumped more than $1.6 million into DOM, while Trumer says he hasn’t invested a cent in it, but he has used it as his “personal piggy bank,” spending thousands of dollars on apartments and trips to Europe.
According to the lawsuit, he failed to pay rent, wrote dozens of bad checks and refused to give Oesterle access to the law association’s books.
J. Messerschmitt/NY Post
Trumer denies the allegations and claims Oesterle is not a partner but simply an investor looking to take over the business.
“There are no sex shows. We’re not a box,” he said, referring to the notorious Nolita Burlesque Club. “I don’t think it’s worth it at all.”
