It appears that Flapjacks American Diner may have flopped.
The restaurant at 230 N. 12th St. has been closed all week, and its landlord has filed a lawsuit claiming rent has not been paid.
A sign on the door of the restaurant this week said it changed its hours to Tuesday-Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. However, several people reported it has not been open at all, and its phone number has been disconnected.
A call Friday morning to a personal number listed for owner Mike Gelastopoulos went to voicemail.
According to a lawsuit filed March 16 by Glenbrook LLC, Gelastopoulos has not paid rent, common area maintenance charges or the electric bill for the space, and owes Glenbrook $14,221.
The lawsuit says that Glenbrook sent Gelastopoulos a default notice March 6 and a notice to vacate the space March 12.
Monte Froehlich, a real estate developer who owns Glenbrook as well as a number of other businesses, said he has been unsuccessful in attempts to contact Gelastopoulos, and "It appears that Flapjacks has abandoned the premises.
"We really don’t understand why because the feedback we have received to date is that people liked it," Froehlich said in an email.
He said he's preparing the space for a new tenant and already has talked to a couple of interested parties.
Gelastopoulos, who opened Flapjacks a week before Christmas, moved to Lincoln from Clearwater, Florida, last fall. He told the Journal Star in January that he came to the city because of a "booming" economy and targeted downtown because of its many businesses and its proximity to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and state offices.
Gelastopoulos had been interested in opening a Lincoln location for Mad Mike’s Burgers & Fries, a gourmet burger franchise he founded in 2011 in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky, but said when he discovered downtown lacked a nonchain diner, he changed course.
“To not have a diner in a downtown of this caliber … it just blew my mind,†he said in the January interview.
The space at 230 N. 12th St. was home to Spaghetti Works for more than 30 years until it closed in the summer of 2012.
Flapjacks is the second restaurant to occupy the space since then. Dempsey's Burger Pub, a Kansas-based restaurant, closed in the fall of 2016 after being open a little more than three years.
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