Meet the Grilled Cheese Shop That Is Currently Suing Trump's Son-in-Law

Meltkraft is an artisanal grilled cheese chain known for its high-quality dairy and unique sandwiches, which include creations like a brisket-and-mac-stuffed grilled cheese, or the option to have your sandwich cooked in duck fat. The chain is the brainchild of Eran Wajswol and Debra Van Sickle, the husband and wife team who also helm Valley Shepherd Creamery in New Jersey—an old-fashioned creamery that uses "age-old European sheep farming practices" and makes around 20 varieties of cheese.

You might not expect an artisanal cheesemaker to take on the inner sanctums of political power, but that's exactly what's happening. Wajswol's company is now suing a company owned by Jared Kushner—better known as Ivanka Trump's husband, and the son-in-law of the president-elect of the United States. And if what Wajswol alleges is in fact true, Kushner is one hell of a shitty landlord, indeed.

According to allegations made in the lawsuit, Kushner's company owns a building located at 101 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village—and it is a disaster waiting to happen. In fact, Meltkraft's claim requests $550,000 in damages from Kushner's company.

Problem number one, according to the lawsuit: the building's 96-year-old sewage system is seriously faulty, causing the pipes to repeatedly back up and sewage to seep out from under the first-floor restaurant's floorboards. "Faeces were everywhere, forcing now-disgruntled employees to clean the space," the plaintiff claims. But that's not all. Waste-feeding insects have infested the floorboards and "no amount of extermination would rid the space of them," court papers state.

Wait, there's more: Meltkraft claims the building was either stealing electricity from another building or from the mainline, causing panini heaters to short-circuit on the regular. In fact, Wajswol says he had to close the sandwich shop last July because he was concerned that the electricity issues would cause an explosion—similar to what actually did happen on Second Avenue in the East Village back in 2015. Five people were arrested in connection with that blast.

The lawsuit says that after Kushner's company purchased the building, "reaching the new landlord proved very difficult." The landlord allegedly ignored requests for repairs; Wajswol says he had to clean up the sewage filth at his own expense and close the store. What's more, 101 MacDougal St. LLC—Kushner's company—sued Wajswol's business for breaking the lease once they finally had enough and left the building. That lawsuit claimed $48,000 in damages, was filed in September, but has not yet been resolved.

Leo L. Esses, who is acting as outside counsel for Kushner Companies on the case, provided MUNCHIES with the following statement: "This lawsuit is nothing more than a retaliatory action by the plaintiff to avoid liability under its lease, and in response to a lawsuit filed by the landlord in September. We are confident we will prevail."

New seasonal special "Rampage" with our sheep milk #ricotta, our hunterdon asiago style, sauteed ramps, and fra'mani mortadella #happysandwich #valleyshepherdcreamery #loveRTM #sheep #grilledcheese

A photo posted by @meltkraft on Apr 10, 2016 at 10:19am PDT

Neil L. Postrygacz, the lawyer representing Meltkraft, provided MUNCHIES with the following comment: "This is not a political matter. Although we understand why this case has caught fire, we aren't interested in making a political statement. It's a simple matter—we had a restaurant location that was literally full of shit. The floors even eventually started to buckle and the whole space became unusable. At some point, our client had to make the choice to preserve his brand's reputation. We believe this to be a case of an absentee landlord who was simply unwilling to step in."

Postrygacz seems to know a thing or two about the restaurant industry. The lawyer previously represented Danny Bowien and Mission Chinese Food when they sued the landlord of their old location due to a rodent infestation, which caused them to close and reopen at a new location on East Broadway.

Meanwhile, insiders in the nascent Trump administration are learning not to cross Jared Kushner. He may very well be the reason why Chris Christie was recently removed as chairman of Trump's transition team. Kushner is rumoured to "have it out" for Christie because as a US Attorney, Christie prosecuted Kushner's father on charges of tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign contributions. Charles Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison, and served one.

Bottom line: Meltkraft is taking on some pretty powerful players. Hell, some might even be so bold as to call them Big Cheeses, but that runs the risk of sullying cheese's good name.