Lawyer For Upper Crust Workers Loses Bid to Buy South End Location

Weeks after an auction of assets belonging to the now-bankrupt The Upper Crust, an attorney representing former workers at the pizzeria chain reportedly failed in an effort to buy four of the chain's locations, including the now-closed location on Tremont Street in the South End.

Lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan had offered to pay $200,000 more than the offer sale price that had been accepted at auction last month for the Watertown, Wellesley, Lexington locations, and made a deal with the second-highest bidder for the South End location to increase his bid to $295k bid for the South End location.

"We were the second highest bidder at the live auction, therefore we would get the location if the winner was disqualified," said Patrick Benzie in an email Monday. "We agreed to increase our bid too, as part of Riordan's later proposal."

But according to the Boston Globe, bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff said it was too late for the lawyer's offer since all of Upper Crust’s assets were auctioned on Dec. 19. A bid for those assets came from a firm with ties to the former owners of The Upper Crust. 

"Although Liss-Riordan's bid was rejected, there was still a possibility that the judge would throw out the winning bids because of the relationship between winning bidder and the former owner of the chain," said Benzie.

However, as of a Monday morning hearing, a judge ruled against the appeal to disqualify winning bidder, according to Benzie, effectively squashing any hope from other investors and former employees to gain control of the chain locations. 

The Upper Crust in the South End is currently closed.