A former Cipriani manager was hit with a $2 million lawsuit by a bartender after the nightlife impresario allegedly fractured the barman’s nose in an early-morning brawl at a Noho hot spot.
Acme restaurant employee Benedict Hehir claims Max Burgio, “without warning or provocation, took a vicious cheap shot at [him], head-butting him in the face,” according to Hehir’s Manhattan Supreme Court suit.
Burgio, who now runs B & Co. on East 58th Street, lashed out after Hehir asked a female patron to get down from a banquette where she was showing off her night moves at around 1:45 a.m, the suit says.
The “unprovoked, violent and sadistic attack” was “particularly shocking and egregious” because the hospitality-industry giant should have realized that Hehir was just doing his job, according to court papers.
Neither Burgio nor his attorney returned calls seeking comment.