Owner of Rick's Steaks, Defying Eviction Notice, Gets Taken to Court

Lawyers for the operators of the Reading Terminal Market have gone to court to force the eviction of cheesesteak merchant Rick Olivieri and to collect damages from him for overstaying his lease.

Even though Olivieri has received written notice that he is now operating illegally at the Reading Terminal Market, he remained open for business on Wednesday.

So the slow burn continues as the steaks on the grill sizzle, in this very public lease dispute that has rocked the farmer's market in center city Philadelphia.

Olivieri (above) is defying management's eviction notice. His lawyer, Bill Harvey, says management now has the burden to take Olivieri to Landlord-Tenant Court, a division of Municipal Court, and respond to Olivieri's complaint in Common Pleas Court that a "vengeful management" is unfairly denying a lease to one of the most successful merchants in the market.
 

Olivieri believes management made an oral commitment on a new lease, but now wants to get rid of him because of his past role as head of the Market Merchants Association.

Management spokesman Kevin Feeley contends that Olivieri was on a month-to-month lease and was given proper notice in June to vacate by July 31st.

Rather than the dramatics of bringing in sheriff's deputies to haul him away, or cutting off gas service to the grill, management was expected to pursue its case through litigation.

Management wants to replace Rick’s Steaks with another well known Philly-style sandwich maker, Tony Luke’s.

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Is the flap at the Reading Terminal Market -- a huge tourist destination -- hurting the city’s image? 

KYW's Mike Dunn reports that top officials, including the mayor, doubt it.

 
Mayor Street says he has not followed the battle over Rick’s Steaks closely, but he doubts that Market management would act capriciously:

  
“The Reading Terminal is an integral part of the City of Philadelphia, and it's hard for me to imagine that anybody would be put out of a business space without good reason.”

  
So, Street is not concerned the city will be hurt by the flap, and neither is Meryl Levitz, head of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation. 

She says tourists were aware last year of the controversy surrounding Geno’s in South Philly, over a sign demanding that English be spoken (see related story). But the Rick’s Steaks battle has not prompted national publicity, and so tourists, she believes, are not concerned:

 
“When they go to the Reading Terminal Market, they just want to get a cheesesteak.  Many of them don’t really know Pat’s, Geno’s, Tony Luke, Rick, Jim’s, or any of the other good cheesteaks in the city.”