On Dec. 8, Makayla Hughes clocked in for a hostess shift at the self-described Inner Harbor’s “most-Instagrammable” restaurant, Docks on the Harbor.

That day, the restaurant ran out of about half the items on the menu; there was no champagne or alcohol, and management refused to take walk-ins or let people sit at the bar. Hughes and her coworkers began speculating that the restaurant would close down.

“I just didn’t know how soon,” she said.

The next morning, Hughes awoke to a flurry of texts from her coworkers’ group chat. “I heard that Docks is closed down permanently,” someone said. “Is that true?”

That morning, a Baltimore City Circuit Court lawsuit alleges, the restaurant owner, Gregory Pranzo, had emptied the eatery between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m., stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth in furniture, appliances, signage and decor, and skipping out on millions in unpaid rent to Baltimore-based developer David Cordish’s Cordish Cos.

This wouldn’t be the first time Pranzo, a 38-year old serial restaurateur, was accused of leaving town without paying his bills, The Baltimore Sun found.

Pranzo’s restaurants routinely launch to great fanfare. However, many soon begin to run out of money, accrue health code violations, and ultimately shutter unexpectedly, regularly leaving bills and staff unpaid, records show. Several of his restaurants had so many health code issues that their city or county agencies shut them down.

Pranzo did not respond to multiple phone calls or emails to him, his existing business entities or his immediate family members in New York, one of his residences. His lawyer said the “ownership group” lamented the closure of Docks on the Harbor, but insisted that earlier restaurant closures, health code violations and the lawsuits he faced in other states were unrelated. The lawyer did not respond to questions on anything other than Docks on the Harbor and did not clarify who else is in the ownership group. Pranzo alone is named in the lawsuit.

To report this story, The Sun reviewed lawsuits filed against Pranzo in four states — and accompanying court documents, exhibits, and security camera stills — along with state business records and complaints, and available county and city health department records. The Sun also interviewed former employees and legal representatives for some of his business associates.

The Sun found Pranzo launched multiple restaurants — some with near-identical names and concepts — across six states and then abruptly closed them, leaving unpaid bills, staff, business partners or landlords behind.

Pranzo owes $3.3 million in judgments to former vendors and business partners in two states, in addition to the Cordish lawsuit, court records show. In at least three cases, he never acknowledged or responded to lawsuits against him, and he has not paid some years-old judgments.

‘Begins to sound like fraud’

He has not responded to the Cordish lawsuit, filed Jan. 6, despite a writ of summons, served Jan. 22 on a woman who identified herself as Pranzo’s mother, requiring a response within 60 days. Cordish declined to comment. In absence of his response, Cordish’s lawyers filed a motion for summary judgment on April 11; they requested a ruling on the judgment as unopposed April 29.

In ignoring judgments against him, Pranzo is exploiting the court system, said University of Baltimore law professor Gregory Dolin. Those he has failed to pay may never see financial relief, even if awarded judgments, Dolin said.

“If … he’s taken out these loans without ever intending to repay them, if he’s buying supplies without ever intending to pay for them, if he’s employing people without ever intending to pay for their labor — that begins to sound like fraud,” Dolin said. “Criminal sanctions could be the ultimate stick.”

A lawyer for Pranzo, Atlanta-based Shadi Jaraysi, said the Docks ownership group was “deeply saddened” by the closure of Baltimore’s Docks on the Harbor. Jaraysi called it unavoidable and declined to answer questions about any previous liens, lawsuits or restaurant closures.

“Despite months of effort and substantial investment by the ownership group, declining sales and rising operating costs made it impossible to continue,” Jaraysi wrote in an email to The Sun. “We had worked diligently to meet all obligations in a timely manner. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misrepresents the facts.

“As we move forward, we hope that the focus will remain on the positive memories created at the restaurant and not on unfounded claims that tarnish the hard work and dedication of so many.”

A bankruptcy filing and a comeback

There is little public record of Pranzo’s business dealings before November 2013, when he declared bankruptcy in the Eastern District of New York. He owed between 50 and 99 consumer creditors but had less than $50,000 to his name, he told a judge.

Under “personal property” he listed a restaurant: Middle Country Beer Garden. He told the court all physical assets had been stolen from the premises and listed the restaurant’s value as $0.00. He was unemployed and relying on family to pay his bills, he said.

By 2016, however, Pranzo had bounced back. News clips catalogue his restaurants’ openings and closings. That year, he announced the opening of a Wahlburgers in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A year later, he announced another Wahlburgers in Nashville, Tennessee. And in 2018, he promised North Carolina a Wahlburgers in Charlotte, signing a lease for the space.

The Wahlburgers Pranzo told media would open in Nashville and Charlotte never did, but he did launch a Raleigh Wahlburgers in May 2018 — the same year that a 13-month-old venture he opened with celebrity chef Guy Fieri in The Villages, a retirement community near Orlando, Florida, shut down. Fieri did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2018, Pranzo also announced the opening of three bagel shops outside Atlanta, Georgia; a Cali-Mex taco joint in Orlando, Florida, with celebrity partners Mario Lopez and *NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick; as well as an “Asian-themed” Myrtle Beach eatery. None of these businesses remains open today.

Neither Lopez nor Kirkpatrick responded to The Sun’s request for comment.

“Running a restaurant is generally extremely difficult,” University of Baltimore’s Dolin said. “The mere fact that somebody tries and fails and tries and fails in and of itself may not necessarily show much.

“But, usually, you do things in good faith,” he continued. ‘You’re not going to hide (from the people you owe).”

Despite widespread belief that the majority of independent restaurants fail in their first year of business, a joint study by a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics economist and a statistician out of UC Berkeley survey published in 2014 indicated just 17% fail within that time frame.

Operating without hot water

Katy Anders began working as a bartender at the Raleigh Wahlburgers in summer 2018. Her fiance and now-husband, Luke Anders, got a job as a line cook. She said the money was good at first, but by winter, kitchen staff’s paychecks routinely bounced. And, she said, there was no heat or hot water.

In November 2018, officials investigated the restaurant after receiving a complaint saying the eatery had operated without hot water for three months — the second time in four months someone had complained about the Wahlburgers’ lack of hot water, Wake County Health Department records reviewed by The Sun show.

The department ordered the restaurant to fix its hot water immediately or close until it had done so, and, said Wake County Environmental Health Program Manager Ashley Whittington, the restaurant chose to close.

Anders and her coworkers believed the shutdown was temporary. But days before Christmas, they learned they had lost their jobs when they found a sheriff’s eviction notice posted on the door.

Donnie Wahlberg, a co-owner of Wahlburgers, told reporters the company would cover employee pay owed by the restaurant. Yet, Anders told The Sun that never happened.

Neither Donnie Wahlberg nor Wahlburgers’ corporate office responded to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Pranzo’s original Myrtle Beach Wahlburgers franchise was also in financial turmoil. Employee paychecks bounced and, unable to pay vendors, the restaurant began purchasing supplies at grocery stores, according to news accounts. In January 2019, a month after Pranzo’s Raleigh Wahlburgers franchise shut down, the Wahlburgers corporate office tentatively agreed to buy Pranzo’s failing Myrtle Beach location.

Pranzo went on to launch Doc’s Baja Surf Shack in New Haven, Connecticut, during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic; it closed in or around March 2021, a vendor lawsuit indicated. In November 2022, he signed an agreement with Cordish to open Docks on the Harbor in Baltimore.

The Cordish Cos. lease says that Pranzo would pattern Docks on the Harbor after “first-class restaurant” Doc’s Baja Surf Shack.

‘Rats running through the dining room’

It launched in June 2023. Designed to be Instagrammed, the Pratt Street location boasted velvet banquettes; chandeliers floated above the space while neon signage and floral garlands bedecked the walls.

By year two, though, the restaurant had begun racking up health code violations and running out of supplies, former staff and nearby restaurant workers recalled.

Staff at nearby restaurants said Docks staff were routinely sent over to borrow ice, alcohol, cocktail garnishes, utensils and change for patrons.

“It’s supposed to be once in a while,” Phillips Seafood host Mark Navarro said of the borrowing. “But Docks was here every day.”

At Hard Rock Cafe, Docks employees showed up daily asking for bins of ice because, server Dante Bunch said, Docks had mold in the ice maker.

Baltimore City Health Department inspection records reviewed by The Sun also noted “high severity,” recurring rodent and pest control issues. Inspectors repeatedly found rodent droppings and clouds of gnats in food storage areas, and unsealed cracks and holes where bugs and rodents found their way in.

One complaint to the city said a customer saw “rats running through the dining room.”

The inspector also noted food held at unsafe temperatures, turned-off leaky pipes and faucets, and a resulting lack of water, preventing staff from washing their hands.

The six-page report from an August 2024 inspection found 31 health code violations. The restaurant was ordered to close until it had corrected all violations; two days later, it had satisfied most of the city’s requirements and reopened.

But by the end of the year, Docks on the Harbor had closed for good.

A new venture

In the months leading up to the closure, workers saw hints of trouble. Weekly paychecks bounced; managers repaid workers in cash. At one point, cooks and food runners who worked back of house went on strike until they were paid, Hughes, the hostess, said.

Customer reviews online complained about service and food quality. Other customers took a more official route. The Sun reviewed complaints several diners lodged with the Maryland

Attorney General’s Office, requesting a refund on their meals.

Hughes, now a student at Community College of Baltimore County, recalled that after the closure, she and her colleagues worried they wouldn’t be paid. Finally, one assistant manager called them in, she said. Hughes and others — cooks, food runners and servers — went to the closed restaurant, stood at the back door and signed their names in exchange for cash from an envelope, she said. The Sun could not reach the assistant manager.

Pranzo, social media posts indicated, had moved on to a new restaurant venture: Docks Off 5th in New York City.

Affable and charismatic

When one business went south, records show Pranzo usually had another iron in the fire.

The Sun found 18 businesses registered under Pranzo’s name or that Pranzo was affiliated with in five states: Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee. While he was involved with businesses in other states as well, the records were not readily available.

The businesses’ timelines overlapped; he frequently opened one LLC while he was already operating another.

Pranzo, who is from New York state, came across to those who met him as affable and charismatic, deeply knowledgeable about the restaurant business and plugged in to celebrities and industry movers and shakers, said longtime Atlanta attorney Jim Johnston Jr., who represented two clients in suits against Pranzo.

“My clients fell victim to his untruths,” said Johnston, who represented Finer Food Services, owner of subsidiaries such as Everything Bagel, Sweet & Sour, You Taco To Me and Pranzarellis in its suit against Pranzo. He also represented investor Mountain Express Oil Co. in a second case against Pranzo.

In a case filed in Georgia’s Cobb County Superior Court in October 2019, Finer Food Services accused Pranzo of reneging on a settlement agreement in which the restaurateur agreed to repay a more than $2 million debt in $1,000 weekly installments.

The agreement, signed by Pranzo, says he admits “that he withdrew this sum over time from (Finer Food Services) and/or the (Finer Food Services subsidiaries) without the knowledge and/or consent of … majority member and manager, Barry Bierenbaum.”

The court ordered Pranzo to pay Johnston’s clients more than $3 million in 2019 and 2020. However, Johnston said he has been unable to enforce the judgments.

“He’s a very good salesman,” Johnston said. “I have absolutely no expectation that my clients will ever see a nickel.”

Spamming fax machines

In Connecticut, Pranzo closed down Doc’s Baja Surf Shack, leaving behind at least one unpaid bill for roughly $34,000 to restaurant food vendor Sysco Connecticut LLC.

Sysco Connecticut sued Pranzo in Nassau County Supreme Court for the cost of its unpaid bill, records show. Pranzo never responded to the suit, and a default judgment was entered against him by the county clerk for more than $44,000, according to the court. The judgment remains unpaid, according to records.

Attorney Warren Gottleib, who filed the case on behalf of Sysco Connecticut, declined to comment on the case. The business declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

Pranzo also stands accused of more than nonpayment of bills. One suit filed against Pranzo and Wahlburgers alleges he violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a federal law that bans businesses from using phones or fax machines for unsolicited advertisements.

In a March 2019 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Florida, Pranzo was accused of spamming fax machines, sending more than 125,000 unsolicited faxes to advertise the opening of an Atlanta Wahlburgers.

Robert Kahn, a Georgia attorney who received a fax, filed a class action against Pranzo and Wahlburgers. The case is ongoing.

Potential criminal prosecution

Pranzo may also owe hundreds of thousands in tax liens. In the months before he shut down Docks on the Harbor and left town, Maryland filed a state tax lien against Docks. A Circuit Court judge ordered payment of $226,250. It is not clear if Pranzo paid it; that is not public record, according to Maryland state law.

Neither Pranzo nor his lawyer responded to questions from The Sun asking if he had paid or intended to pay said lien.

The University of Baltimore’s Dolin, who teaches contracts, noted that Pranzo’s failure to pay his bills or judgments against him should ultimately make it harder for him to secure loans from financial institutions or even individuals.

“You can just Google him,” Dolin said. “You don’t even need to pull anything from his credit report.

“But if I was going to lend somebody millions of dollars, I would want to have some collateral, and I would want to have done some rudimentary investigation, including pulling up his credit report.”

While Dolin said it’s not illegal to fail to pay a judgment, ultimately, these failures, taken together, he believes, could lead to a compelling fraud case against Pranzo and possible jail time, should a state’s or federal attorney take an interest in the restaurateur’s business practices.

“Now, of course, that will not necessarily make anybody whole either,” said Dolin, adding that sending Pranzo to prison wouldn’t necessarily make those who lost money to him feel better. “But sometimes, as part of the criminal prosecution, there may be an order of restitution.”

‘Plundering’ Cordish’s building

In the days following the Baltimore Docks’ closure, word spread among staff that the owners had moved out overnight.

Caught on camera in the early hours of Dec. 9, Cordish’s lawsuit alleges, Pranzo was recorded making off with the following: two refrigerators, a prep table, two stoves, flower garlands, signage, tables and chairs and more.

According to the lease Pranzo signed, a copy of which The Sun reviewed, all this belonged to Cordish.

Cordish’s legal team provided the court with time-stamped stills of the security camera recording. They appear to show Pranzo and Docks’ director of operations, Carey Martin, emptying the restaurant into the back of two Penske trucks between 1 and 7 a.m.

Martin could not be reached for comment.

Pranzo also skipped out on a lease valued at about $3.2 million through 2032, a court document filed by Cordish’s legal team alleges. Past-due charges between October and early December totaled more than $130,000 for rent and trash, water/sewer and HVAC service, per an account statement.

Cordish is suing Pranzo for a total of $8.1 million, including $4.8 million in damages, citing more than a million in unpaid back rent, the missing fixtures and furniture, and a lease that allows Cordish to charge interest on unpaid rent.

Cordish’s lawsuit against Pranzo argues that he emptied out the restaurant with the “intent to defraud.

“Pranzo’s bad intent is readily evidenced by the midnight timing,” the suit reads. “Why hide under the cover of night, unless he was following the playbook of Bob Irsay stealing the Colts in a Mayflower truck?”

The lawsuit also claims Pranzo planned his midnight escape at least a week in advance, alerting Cordish’s Power Plant director of facilities, Sal DiGiorgio.

During a conversation the week of Dec. 2, Pranzo said he planned to close Docks in Baltimore, take the furniture and fixtures and open a business in the Beale Street district of Memphis, Tennessee, an affidavit signed by DiGiorgio shows.

“I advised him not to do so,” DiGiorgio said. However, the next week, Pranzo did just that, the suit says.

The morning after Pranzo emptied out the Pratt Street space, Docks on the Harbor’s Instagram featured a different Docks: Docks Off 5th, in New York City. Its website lists a second location in Memphis.

The site calls Docks “the most Instagrammable restaurant in New York City.”

Have a news tip? Contact Kate Cimini, an investigative editor at The Baltimore Sun, at 443-842-2621 or kcimini@baltsun.com or Lorraine Mirabella at lmirabella@baltsun.com, 410-332-6672 and @lmirabella on X.