Les Amis Days of Squatting On Our Property Are Over
So it looks as if the City of Fullerton has finally decided to quit playing pat-a-cake with Jinan and young Oliver Montecristo. The owners of the restaurant Les Amis who kept encroaching on public property without approval or permits, and who serially dodged paying tens of thousands of dollars to the City in rent, are having their “improvements” on public property removed by the City.
Here’s the notification to the City Council from acting City Manager, Eddie Manfro:
Mayor Jung and City Council Members,
I was informed this morning that Public Works crews have removed the outdoor dining encroachments at Les Amis restaurant this morning. This follows the 90 day extension that she was granted by City Manager Eric Levitt. Following her payment of $3,900 on July 23, 2025, no further payments have been received.
According to Director Bise, Les Amis was provided with a 48 hour notice prior to removal of the encroachments. Public Works will hold it for 30 days in case they wish to keep it for their future use (but not for installation in the public space).
A copy of Mr. Levitt’s 90 day extension is attached for reference. Thank you.
Eddie
No doubt the suddenly “pro-business” folks at the Fullerton Observer, and “doctors” Zahra and Charles will continue to spin this into a David and Goliath story: little David being the scofflaws who have paid almost nothing to the City in rent for 15 years and who blatantly refused to follow City rules about squatting on public premises.
The last City Manager, Eric Leavitt actually gave the Montecristo mob yet another 90 days to make good on their debts and encroachments. Les Amis got a two day notice and still refused to do anything. So Public Works did. And the City has generously volunteered to keep the Montecristo junk on hand for a month in case they want it for some reason.
I really hope Jinan and Oliver get a bill for cost of removing their junk from the public right-of-way, although I doubt if they’d pay it.
And speaking of ever so earnest Oliver, I look forward to his appearance at the next City Council meeting blaming Mayor Jung for his own mother’s failure to pay her bills and play by the rules.
Yes, Zahra will ty to manipulate this with his tender young acolytes. I hope Jung or Dunlap will explain to the public the facts of this long, pathetic look-the-other-wayism.
As a matter of fact, If Jung were me, he’d start off the next meeting with a detailed report – the whole sad truth. That oughta shut ’em up. But I doubt if he will. In Fullerton confrontation with the truth is just so mean.
You seem drunk
Cry harder.
Drunk with joy for not having to subsidize a place that should have folded years ago. Adios and vaya con Dios.
Meanwhile, it’s one of the best restaurants in Fullerton
Could be. The bar is low. So how come they never pay rent or get permits?
I don’t know.
I’ll tell you why, JRH, cause Ahmad Zahra’s political ambitions completely misled Jinan Monte Cristo, the owner of Les Amis, into a false sense of security. Monte Cristo believed that Zahra would provide cover for her and that she could overlook paying the City of Fullerton any current or back rent. Zahra persuaded her to host MANY fundraisers for the DPOC “in crowd” at Les Amis, encouraging her that these events would help stave off and even forgo the City’s demands for payment. This misguided confidence led Monte Cristo to neglect her financial obligations to the City, ultimately resulting in the loss of her leased patio.
I’m pretty sure Jinan saw Zahra as the second coming of Mohammad. She believed that following Zahra’s instructions would benefit her business, especially in the form of rent relief. Don’t take my word for it; ask Jinan yourself the next time you’re there.
But do you even care that the taxpayers are getting ripped off?
Oh, right. Never mind.
They also seem crank. Are.
You seem like a a sad, lonely, self-righteous boohoo. So there.
Can someone please send in get an “after” picture?
You also seem drunk. Why are you guys so bad at basic sentence structure?
Cry harder, Oliver/Elijah/Zahra!
Yay! Now we have a massive slab of concrete with nothing on it. Man you guys have such great ideas for this city.
Curious, how much does Bushala (your boss) pay for his encroachment agreement?
Too bad Les Amis couldn’t pony up the dimes to pay for the slab of concrete!
The whole situation is a reflection of long time corruption in Fullerton! In Fullerton, some people’s money talks really loudly.. Some people are able to get by with encroachment … wonder why????
Jinan’s money never talked because she didn’t pay her rent like a good girl. Maybe she can pawn that Quirk Woman of the Year trophy.
I think it’s spelled Public Works*. Would it pain you guys that much to write these articles sober? Even the comments seem like the ramblings of one drunk individual
Would it pain you Elijah/Oliver/Zahra to get a job?
What the hell are you babbling about?
It’s about damn time. Downtown Fullerton has been a teat to suck for con men, deadbeats, scofflaws, etc, for 25 years.
Jinan and Oliver could have played it straight but they were enabled by a culture of corruption that helped the Florentines, Jack the Dwarf, Jeremy Popoff, and now Mario Marovic. Shove in the various bar owners and fake restaurants who get US to pay their clean up and who fake booze sales to the ABC.
Yet the Florentine/Marovic sidewalk theft continues to live on….couldn’t those same public works guys go tear down the offending structure as well?
Never gonna happen. Mario owns half of Newport. He’s got deeper pockets and more connections than anyone in this rinky-dink town (including Tony).
Then the piece of crapola should stick to Newport.
Yep. Newport can keep their trash. We have our own to dispose of. Zahra, Shana, Kennedy fruitcakes and their family nonsensical newsletter, and all of the other used prophylactics that plague this city like OC UNITED, Fullerton Collaborative, Solidarity, Fullerton Is Our Home…they all need to be kicked to the curb.
Too late, little guy. Mario’s gonna re-make this town (for the better). Meanwhile tony is doing nothing but crying on his blog and you losers are slopping it up.
Someone probably said the same thing about the Florentine Mob, too way back when. And they got away with a shitload of criminal activity until time ran out.
Time has run out for Marovic. He’s giving up on his empty lawsuit and will agree to dismantle the “bump out.”
There may be a “settlement” happening, but Mario Marovic will give it the same diligent execution as he did two years ago. Nothing. And the stall clock will re-set.
I think you’re right. DTF attracts this type of “small business” people.
Amen, Brother!
Then maybe the City should just demo it like they did Les Amis patio. After all we own the sidewalk AND the bump out.
Let Marovic fill in the holes in his own building.
You need a history lesson – Florentine got away with it… until Mario bought the block and booted his ass out of there. Nothing you, or Tony, or anyone in this shithole town is gonna do about that bump out. It isn’t going anywhere. Mario’s gonna lock the city attorney up in lawsuits until he quits and we get another idiot in there to rubber stamp it just to make him go away. Boo-hoo. cry.
You need a history lesson and I will teach it to you.
Marovic the Con may have “bought the block” but he didn’t buy the bump out which reverted to the City after the Florentines defaulted on their ground lease with the City.
Marovic illegally encroached into this space when he did his fake Irish pub. The he agreed to get rid of the bump-out according to a scheduled he completely ignored.
Thanks for the history lesson, dummy. doesn’t change a thing I said. You can push around small places like Les Amis with your money and “connections,” but you’re small potatoes next to guys like Mario. Boo-hoo, cry harder.
P.S. That “fake” Irish pub is still the only spot in this town with decent food
That’s not what I’ve heard. I’ve heard the food sucks at the fake Irish pub. Mario the Magnificent couldn’t think up a more original name than Mickey’s? That’s funny anyway you look at it: a phony “Irish” bar owned by a Slav.
Marovic may have been hot shit up ’til now, but his time has run out. Time to pay the piper. I just hope the City gets its legal fees covered by Mario El Magnifico.
lol, you’re funny. Mario’s built a bar and real estate empire while you’ve… built a blog. Congrats, Mr. Trust Fund. I’ll keep drinking Irish coffees at Mickey’s while the bumpout stays and you keep crying from behind your keyboard.
Haha. You back wrong horse!
The food at Mickey’s is worse than bad. It is disgusting. It should be in a can labeled “Purina”.
Make it better by squatting on City property? The Les Amis Strategy? Haha.
Good one. Those days are over.
Ahmad Zahra’s political ambitions completely misled Jinan Monte Cristo, the owner of Les Amis, into a false sense of security. Monte Cristo believed that Zahra would provide cover for her and that she could overlook paying the City of Fullerton any current or back rent. Zahra persuaded her to host MANY fundraisers for the DPOC “in crowd” at Les Amis, encouraging her that these events would help stave off and even forgo the City’s demands for payment. This misguided confidence led Monte Cristo to neglect her financial obligations to the City, ultimately resulting in the loss of her leased patio.
They could have if the City had any huevos. But too many people had to keep hiding the embarrassment created by the Florentines, Paul Dudley, Dick Jones, Esq., Shawn Nelson, Leland Wilson, Mike Clesceri, Don Bankhead and old Doc HeeHaw.
Good point.
Now do Kahlo, Back Alley, Ziings, and Revolucion. Lets clean up the dumps on this side of town! FFFF for the win baby!
Aren’t they paying their rent?
Are they? We thought Les Amis was too, but apparently not. Can we get an audit?
A photo of a dog squatting to piss with the subtitle “The pause that refreshes…” is vulgar. The FFFF Vulgarity Police should delete it immediately before it offends someone. It certainly “crosses the line”!
Yes it is vulgar. Sorry to offend your tender sensibilities. Squatting is squatting.
Who said anything about pissing? That stance looks more like an impending #2 than #1 to me… (And I’m an expert!)
No, that’s a girl thing.
The fact that Les Amis was able to get away with this so long suggests some serious negligence on the part of City staff in charge of this.
They should have been kicked off public property over ten years ago.
But then again this is in DTF where the City bends every rule because of the myth that DTF is an asset instead of what it really is: a vast transfer of wealth from the public to the private sector.
Hey, at least now the Boo Hoo crowd has a spot for their next chalk day!
Hahahaha! Or the next Pokemon hotspot. God this town is going down the tubes.
Good point! Civic open space, isn’t that what the Kennedy Coven and the “doctors” are always belching about?
Let’s rename the space Walk on Wilshire II. It’ll be just like Central Park.
I’ll start a petition!
I like it!
“WoW, The Sequel.” Open space, trees, no cars, no disrupted bike lanes, no exploding Edison transformers, no problem!
Hoogerbooger and Skagway Kennedy can R&R to their hearts content. Diane Vena can walk her dog. Little Anjali can ride her bike back and forth. Oliver and Elijah can play Twister with Ahmad. And don’t forget the little ones. Won’t someone please think of the chid’ren?!
What about the Pokémon players? Won’t someone please think of the Pokémon players!??
She said she keeps a strict accounting of her behaviors throughout the day, ends it with a self-assessment and “prays to be a better person each day.” She thanked her husband, siblings, and parents but gave a special “thank-you” to her son for being the “easiest child to raise” and hoped that he would “one day know what it has all been for.”
That pipe rail/fence was put in by the pizza place that was there before Les Amis. Did that ever get approved by anybody? It needs to go, too.
Has rent ever been paid for that permanent patio?
Probably no one knows.
The original bump out was an unecissary encrouchment before but not
So now as it is open air seating unlike the previous owner who tinted all the windows dark. The opennair dining brings life to the center of town.
Well, he can move his open air windows back 6 feet, can’t he.
The dog days are over. Maybe now my mom will let me play outside on the slab.
Okay, but don’t let him play in the street.
Ever since the street stopped being walkable, I live in fear that mom will curb my toys just like the cabinets.
I’m so mad I could sue somebody.
Poor Ron Kobayashi…once a half decent musician and now a shill for bad restauranteurs and even badder paper. Stop being such easy prey Ron.
Ron who?!? When was he a decent musician? 1970?
Jump in the wayback machine
and go back to about summer of 2005 and blame this entire public sidewalk fiasco (Al fresco dining experiment) on one of the OG scofflaws of Fullerton: Patrick Robeson, former Motown executive and owner of Red Cloud Cigars, now called 8Eightyeight.
Do you remember his pizza place was the only one open after all the bars closed, so they literally crammed dozens of hungry drunk people into that little cage there and I don’t think it takes much imagination to realize that was the worst idea ever… I’m certain the al fresco dining experiment was a failure, and ALL public sidewalks should be given back to the people/residents of Fullerton ASAP.
I notice the Kennedy Sisters haven’t said anything about this and it’s been 6 days.
Is it conceivable that they can’t write about it because they might have to tell the truth?
That’s how they ignored the Markowitz Conspiracy.