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PRINCETON: State shuts down Ferry House

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   The Ferry House Restaurant, once regarded as one of the top restaurants in New Jersey, was shut down last week after state authorities seized the property for the second time for failing to pay taxes.
   The tablecloths still remain on the tables at the Zagat-rated eatery where the front entrance has posted an orange flier stating the state had taken action. Agents from the state Division of Taxation seized the Witherspoon Street property on Thursday.
   Restaurateur Robert Trigg Jr., a fixture on the local dining scene since bringing his restaurant to Princeton in the late 1990s, could not be reached for comment.
   ”I don’t think it’s a fair situation,” Mr. Trigg said Monday afternoon. He said he was given no warning about the state closing the restaurant Thursday, just when he had many reservations booked for the coming weekend.
   State Treasury Department spokesman Andrew Pratt said Monday that this was the second time the state had seized the property. Last year, he said the state got a judgment against Ferry House Inc. and Mr. Trigg for not paying sales, gross income and corporation business tax.
   Mr. Pratt did not specify how much money is owed.
   The Ferry House Inc. later “filed a petition” in federal bankruptcy court, a move that caused the state to halt “its efforts to collect on the outstanding judgment for nonpayment of taxes,” Mr. Pratt said in an email.
   After that case was dismissed “without reaching a resolution,” the state again tried to resolve the matter and collect the unpaid taxes, Mr. Pratt said.
   Mr. Trigg said he had reached out to Congressman Rush Holt to try to get his help in resolving the issue. Also, Mr. Trigg said he was worried about his 22 full-time and part-time employees who are out of work while the restaurant is closed.
   ”It hurts,” he said.
   The Ferry House, originally located in Lambertville, has been in Princeton for more than a decade; Mr. Trigg brought the restaurant to Witherspoon Street in 1998. The highly-regarded eatery has been reviewed in the New York Times and other places; a Zagat sticker and favorable newspaper clippings hang on the front windows.
   One patron reviewer, writing on the Zagat website, called the restaurant “pricey” but of New York and Philadelphia quality. Another review complained about slow service and tables put so closely together, “I felt like I was wrestling the bus boy all night.”
   Mr. Trigg, who studied at the Philadelphia Restaurant School, got his start in the local restaurant scene in 1989. He served as the sous chef at LePlumet Royale at the Peacock Inn, according to a biography on the Ferry House web site.