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Weekend Reading: How Dallas Restaurateur Michael Costa Keeps Screwing Restaurants

By Nancy Nichols |
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Michael Costa has made a lot of enemies. Costa has made a lot of enemies. Illustration by Sean McCabe.

Remember the saga of Las Colinas Prime? It’s a sordid tale of TABC raids, bounced paychecks, and unpaid vendors. At the time, Michael Costa and his Rainmaker Consulting Group were working with LCP owner Bill McCrorey to get the business on track. If you need to catch up on the trail go here, here, here, here, and here.

Costa disappeared from the Dallas scene after Las Colinas Prime closed in fall of 2009. However, he is back in business at The Office Grill in the former Tre Amici space in North Dallas.

Two weeks after The Office Grill opened, my phone started ringing. Employees and vendors were not being paid and checks were bouncing.  It’s sounded all too familiar. I called a lot of people who have been in business with or worked for Michael Costa. I called Michael Costa. He claims that all of his accounts are in order. It still sounded shady to me—where there is billowing smoke there is usually a fire–so I checked (hah!) into his criminal records. What I found was rather interesting.  I have written a story in the June issue of D Magazine. It’s all here. Have a nice weekend.

Jump for the mugshots.

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