{"id":11459369,"date":"2025-05-30T12:10:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T16:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11459369"},"modified":"2025-05-30T19:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T23:38:00","slug":"docks-harbor-pranzo-baltimore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/05\/30\/docks-harbor-pranzo-baltimore\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurateur opened, closed splashy eateries in Baltimore and beyond \u2014 without paying his bills, records show"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Dec. 8, Makayla Hughes clocked in for a hostess shift at the\u00a0self-described Inner Harbor\u2019s \u201cmost-Instagrammable\u201d restaurant, Docks on the Harbor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That day, the restaurant ran out of about half the items on the menu; there was no champagne or alcohol, and management refused to take walk-ins or let people sit at the bar. Hughes and her coworkers began speculating that the restaurant would close down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just didn’t know how soon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The next morning, Hughes awoke to a flurry of texts from her coworkers\u2019 group chat. \u201cI heard that Docks is closed down permanently,\u201d someone said. “Is that true?”<\/p>\n

That morning, a Baltimore City Circuit Court lawsuit alleges, the restaurant owner, Gregory Pranzo, had emptied the eatery between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m., stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth in furniture, appliances, signage and decor, and skipping out on millions in unpaid rent to\u00a0Baltimore-based developer David Cordish\u2019s Cordish Cos.<\/p>\n

This wouldn’t be the first time Pranzo, a 38-year old serial restaurateur,\u00a0was accused of leaving\u00a0town without paying his bills, The Baltimore Sun found.<\/p>\n

Pranzo\u2019s restaurants routinely launch to great fanfare. However, many soon begin to run out of money, accrue health code violations, and ultimately shutter unexpectedly, regularly leaving bills and staff unpaid, records\u00a0show. Several of his restaurants had so many health code issues that their city or county agencies shut them down.<\/p>\n

Pranzo did not respond to multiple phone calls or emails to him, his existing business entities or his immediate family members in New York, one of his residences. His lawyer said the “ownership group” lamented the closure of Docks on the Harbor, but insisted that earlier restaurant closures, health code violations and the lawsuits he faced in other states were unrelated. The lawyer did not respond to questions on anything other than Docks on the Harbor and did not clarify who else is in the ownership group. Pranzo alone is named in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

To report this story, The Sun reviewed lawsuits filed against Pranzo in four states \u2014 and accompanying court documents, exhibits, and security camera stills \u2014 along with state business records and complaints, and available county and city health department records. The Sun also interviewed former employees and legal representatives for some of his business associates.<\/p>\n

The Sun found Pranzo launched multiple restaurants \u2014 some with near-identical names and concepts \u2014 across six states and then abruptly closed them, leaving unpaid bills, staff, business partners or landlords behind.<\/p>\n

Pranzo owes $3.3 million in judgments to former vendors and business partners in two states, in addition to the Cordish lawsuit, court records show. In at least three cases, he never acknowledged or responded to lawsuits against him, and he has not paid some years-old judgments.<\/p>\n

‘Begins to sound like fraud’<\/h4>\n

He has not responded to the Cordish lawsuit, filed Jan. 6, despite a writ of summons, served Jan. 22 on a woman who identified herself as Pranzo’s mother, requiring a response within 60 days. Cordish declined to comment. In absence of his response, Cordish’s lawyers filed a motion for summary judgment on April 11; they requested a ruling on the judgment as unopposed April 29.<\/p>\n

In ignoring judgments against him, Pranzo is exploiting the court system, said University of Baltimore law professor Gregory Dolin. Those he has failed to pay may never see financial relief, even if awarded judgments, Dolin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf … he’s taken out these loans without ever intending to repay them, if he’s buying supplies without ever intending to pay for them, if he’s employing people without ever intending to pay for their labor \u2014 that begins to sound like fraud,\u201d Dolin said. \u201cCriminal sanctions could be the ultimate stick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Makayla
Makayla Hughes took a selfie at the Docks on the Harbor host station. A lawsuit against the restaurant's owner alleges he stole signage from the restaurant, along with furniture and appliances. (Kate Cimini, The Baltimore Sun)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lawyer for Pranzo, Atlanta-based Shadi Jaraysi, said the Docks ownership group was \u201cdeeply saddened\u201d by the closure of Baltimore\u2019s Docks on the Harbor. Jaraysi called it unavoidable and declined to answer questions about any previous liens, lawsuits or restaurant closures.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite months of effort and substantial investment by the ownership group, declining sales and rising operating costs made it impossible to continue,\u201d Jaraysi wrote in an email to The Sun. \u201cWe had worked diligently to meet all obligations in a timely manner. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misrepresents the facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we move forward, we hope that the focus will remain on the positive memories created at the restaurant and not on unfounded claims that tarnish the hard work and dedication of so many.”<\/p>\n

A bankruptcy filing and a comeback<\/h4>\n

There is little public record of Pranzo’s business dealings before November 2013, when he declared bankruptcy in the Eastern District of New York. He owed between 50 and 99 consumer creditors but had less than $50,000 to his name, he told a judge.<\/p>\n

Under \u201cpersonal property\u201d he listed a restaurant: Middle Country Beer Garden. He told the court all physical assets had been stolen from the premises and listed the restaurant’s value as $0.00. He was unemployed and relying on family to pay his bills, he said.<\/p>\n

By 2016, however, Pranzo had bounced back. News clips catalogue his restaurants’ openings and closings. That year, he announced the opening of a Wahlburgers in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.<\/a>\u00a0A year later, he announced another Wahlburgers in Nashville, Tennessee.<\/a>\u00a0And in 2018, he promised North Carolina a Wahlburgers in Charlotte, signing a lease for the space.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wahlburgers Pranzo told media would open in Nashville and Charlotte never did,<\/a> but he did launch a Raleigh Wahlburgers in May 2018 \u2014<\/a> the same year that a 13-month-old venture he opened with celebrity chef Guy Fieri<\/a> in The Villages, a retirement community near Orlando, Florida, shut down. Fieri did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Pranzo also announced\u00a0the opening of three bagel shops outside Atlanta, Georgia;<\/a>\u00a0a Cali-Mex taco joint in Orlando, Florida,<\/a>\u00a0with celebrity partners Mario Lopez and *NSYNC\u2019s Chris Kirkpatrick; as well as an \u201dAsian-themed\u201d Myrtle Beach eatery<\/a>. None of these businesses remains open today.<\/p>\n

Neither Lopez nor Kirkpatrick responded to The Sun\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

“Running a restaurant is generally extremely difficult,” University of Baltimore’s Dolin said. “The mere fact that somebody tries and fails and tries and fails in and of itself may not necessarily show much.<\/p>\n

“But, usually, you do things in good faith,” he continued. ‘You’re not going to hide [from the people you owe].”<\/p>\n

Despite widespread belief that the majority of independent restaurants fail in their first year of business, a joint study by a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics economist and a statistician out of UC Berkeley survey published in 2014<\/a>\u00a0indicated just 17% fail within that time frame.<\/p>\n