ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Only Action News Jax spoke one-on-one in person with the owner of Chez L’Amour.
Jeanetta Salyer Ceborello has been under fire since Action News Jax first told you about the restaurant’s abrupt closure. Since then, several brides have reached out to us saying they were never notified when it happened.
Action News Jax Madison Foglio pressed her about where the bride’s money went, why they shut down, and more.
FOGLIO: “Some people think you are a fraud, some people think you are stealing their money. What’s your response to that?”
CEBORELLO: “I absolutely would probably feel the same way in some of those instances.”
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Ceborello said the brides didn’t hear from her right away because she was still trying to honor the events she had already scheduled.
“We closed the restaurant on September 2rd, September 3rd we moved out,” said Ceborello. “Over the weekend, we had sent an email we were in negotiation to try to still have our event holders and just operate as an event venue.”
She claimed she had to close the restaurant because of structural issues.
“We had a structural beam that is going to collapse, we had multiple inspections done, and we tried to reach out about possibly fixing the business while we were closed and just honoring our event holders and closing our restaurant, so unfortunately, we were not able to come to any sort of agreement.” said Ceborello.
Earlier this week, the City of St. Augustine told us there had been no recent inspections, but the tenant had some concerns.
Ceborello is also the President and CEO of Ancient City Entertainment, which was in charge of the Palataka Blue Crab Festival and the As If! 90’s Fest in St. Johns County. She agreed with me that both of those events had issues this year.
FOGLIO: “You also have several lawsuits against you right now and your business claiming that you have not fulfilled your payment obligations as part of the contract - again why should people trust you as a business owner?”
CEBORELLO: “When people don’t pay me, I can’t pay people.”
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Foglio also asked where the money the brides paid was currently.
“So unfortunately, that’s part of the cash management game of owning a venue,” said Ceborello. “We used those deposits along the way to do certain repairs… that’s something I think we have to take accountability for."
She told Action News Jax she will be reaching out to those brides again by the end of the week and remains committed to getting them their money.
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