Taste Of Persia Hopes Fans Can Save Eatery Amid Copycat Squabble

FLATIRON, MANHATTAN — New Yorkers are rallying behind the owner of a longtime Iranian restaurant who says new landlords forced him out of his West 12th Street storefront and even briefly started selling his recipes.

"Eight years I broke my back and built up a business that all Iranians and all Americans admire," Taste of Persia NYC owner Saeed Pourkay says in a video outside his former store. "January 31 was my last day — the next day he copied my name, he copied my recipe [and] he stole everything from me."

Pourkay posted videos to Facebook on Sunday pleading for help after finding out the Pizza Paradise store where his shop had once been set up was still selling Persian food under the slightly-different name "Tasty Persia."

He had closed the store after new owners took over the 12 West 18th St. storefront, where he had been operating under only a verbal agreement with a friend who previously owned the location, according to Pourkay and Pizza Paradise staff.

The pizzeria — which told Eater that Pourkay never told them they couldn't keep selling Persian food — stopped selling the "Tasty Persia" offerings a day later. Pizza Paradise staff told Patch that Pourkay left the store after he and the new owners couldn't agree on terms for a contract to have him stay.

But even with the closure of the copycat store, Pourkay is still struggling to revive his own Taste of Persia business.

Supporters of the eatery have set up a GoFundMe to help Pourkay find a new home for the restaurant.

"Saeed does not have the funds saved to rent and build out a restaurant space in the expensive Flatiron District, especially with the short notice he was given as a father supporting his two boys," the fundraiser reads.

The fundraiser has already brought in more than $21,000 of its $95,000 goal in just four days.

The $95,000 will be used to cover three months of rent, renovations, kitchen equipment and insurance for the new location, organizers said.

Pourkay, who has been freelance catering to stay afloat in the meantime, hopes to reopen close to his old West 18th Street store near Taste of Persia NYC's regular customers.

"We hope to get Saeed’s business back up and running, so that he can pursue his love for Persian cooking and continue to feed New York City!" the GoFundMe reads.

Pourkay was not immediately available for comment.